Comparison

Tide vs MacroSense

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Tide

Features
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Tide is a quiet habits and reflection app where a missed day costs you nothing. You pick a few intentions — anything from "swim" to "breathe" to "no phone before bed" — and Tide draws them as a single tide. Days you hold raise the water. Days that pass pull it back, gently. Not a streak to defend — just today, honoured. And no red marks. It reads sleep, bedtime and steps from Apple Health, all of it staying on your device. It runs on Apple Watch, in widgets, and in Control Center. It syncs privately through your own iCloud, and it speaks English and Czech. WHAT THE DAY LOOKS LIKE Today is one rising water that fills as you hold your intentions. The light shifts with the hour. Turn on the sky, and rain traces the surface when it is raining where you are. At midnight the tide goes out, and the next day begins empty. Intentions come in eight kinds — done or not done, a count, a duration, a mood check-in, hours of rest, a bedtime, a step goal, and stillness, where holding nothing is the whole of it. Rest and steps hold themselves, quietly, from Health. REFLECT, TWICE In the evening, a page for the day: what carried you, a mood, a prompt that changes. In the morning, a separate page for the night — what surfaced while you slept. Nothing is interpreted. Your dreams are recorded in your own words and left alone. You can seal a few lines for your later self — a week out, a month, a season, a year. They return with the tide, carrying the water you stood at the day you wrote them. PRACTICES Twelve short practices, for the minute you need one. A 4-7-8 breath. The ebb, which is muscle relaxation told as the tide going out. Grounding, five senses at a time. Savouring. Eye rest. Urge surfing. A body scan built to be left unfinished, because a clock keeps you awake. A wordless minute with a hand on the water. THE ALMANAC Tide keeps a quiet record of your practice and writes it in prose. First days. Anniversaries. The turn of a season. The first time the tide came full. It uses no AI and no network — the words are written the day they happen and never rewritten. WHEN IT GETS HARD Rest a day, or one weekday every week. Pause an intention until tomorrow. Turn on a heavy season, and every number in the app stops counting until you are ready. Come back after a month away and Tide offers to start you with one intention instead of nine. A released intention washes back once, a year later, in case you want it again. INSIGHTS A heatmap that is never red. A chart of your rest. And the seabed — your practice as layers of sediment, oldest at the bottom, which can only ever grow. MADE QUIETLY Tide is free. No subscription, no paywall, no ads, no account. There is a tip jar if you'd like one. If it carries you, you can carry it back — and nothing is withheld if you don't. Your health data never leaves your device. Your reflections sync through your own iCloud and nowhere else. There is no tracking, no advertising identifier, and no server of ours holding anything you wrote. Made in Czechia, in English and Czech, by one person.

About

MacroSense

This app offers a straightforward way to log meals, monitor calorie and macronutrient intake, and manage pantry items. It allows users to create custom recipes and track weight progress with clear nutritional targets.

Highlights
  • Daily food diary
  • Macro and calorie targets
  • Pantry list
  • Barcode scanning
  • Recipe creation
  • Weight tracking
Features
Read full description

MacroSense is a simple macro tracker for people who want practical food logging without the fuss. Log meals, track calories and macros, save pantry foods, and build reusable recipes for the foods you actually eat. MacroSense helps you keep daily nutrition visible with clear targets for calories, protein, carbs, and fat. Features: • Daily food diary • Macro and calorie targets • Pantry list for foods you keep in stock • Barcode scanning and food search • Manual nutrition label entry • Recipe creation and logging • Recipe and pantry QR sharing • Weight tracking and progress trends • Optional cloud backup with MacroSense Pro MacroSense uses manual-first targets: you can accept a suggested starting point, choose a preset, or set your own calorie and macro goals. MacroSense Pro unlocks storage, so your diary, pantry, recipes, weigh-ins, and targets can move with you to a new phone. No account is required to use the core tracker. Privacy Policy: https://frevanto.com/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Tide4 screens
MacroSense4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MacroSense at none against Tide's 4. MacroSense also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Tide sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. MacroSense asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tide ships an update every 6 days, MacroSense every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Tide versus MacroSense: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTideMacroSense
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB51 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperDavid PetrinaPeter Williams

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Tide

One-time4
  • A small wave$0.99
  • A larger tide$2.99
  • A higher tide$4.99
Show 1 more
  • A full tide$9.99
None

MacroSense

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tide free?
Tide is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MacroSense free?
MacroSense is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Tide or MacroSense have ads?
Neither Tide nor MacroSense shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tide or MacroSense?
Tide ships an update every 6 days, and MacroSense every 4 days. Most recently, Tide was updated on October 21, 2026 and MacroSense on October 12, 2026.

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