Comparison

Water Buddy vs Hydration Bear

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

Head to head
About

Water Buddy

This app helps you build a consistent drinking habit with personalized goals and timely reminders. Track your progress easily with widgets and quick logging options. Your data stays private on your devices.

Highlights
  • Set daily hydration goals
  • Log water intake with a tap
  • Track progress visually
  • Receive timely local reminders
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
  • Live Activities and Apple Watch integration
Features
Read full description

Water Buddy is a lightweight, playful hydration tracker for everyday water rhythm. Quickly log a cup or a sip, or backfill a drink for today or a previous day. Starting with 0.2.0, every cup leaves its own record. You can review the time, amount, cup, and source, then edit or delete a specific record if something was entered incorrectly. Water Buddy is not built around complex health dashboards or streak pressure. It acts more like a quiet companion: reminding you to drink, showing your daily rhythm, and saving small moments of self-care. Key features: - Per-cup hydration records: review, backfill, edit, and delete individual drinks. - Custom cups: common default sizes plus 24 playful cartoon cup styles. - Week, month, and year history: trends aggregated from real records. - 7, 30, or 90-day insights: average and median intake, recorded days, goal days, and time-of-day patterns, with clear explanations when records are limited. - Private-by-default sharing: create an insight image on your device without exact times, cup names, or individual drink details; optionally include the median. - Reminder suggestions: review a suggestion based on your rhythm before applying it to existing settings. Reminders are never turned on automatically. - Date-filtered export: export JSON/CSV records for a chosen range. JSON can include an insight summary, with range and time zone information. - Flexible reminders: choose interval or fixed-time schedules, active weekdays, and quiet hours. Use gentle notifications, or choose system alarm-style strong reminders on supported systems. - Lightweight rewards: water-mark, half-cup, and full-cup stamps celebrate progress without pressure. - Lasting milestones and sharing: collect total-cup and goal-day milestones, then create a keepsake card locally when you choose to share. - Widgets and Live Activity: keep today’s progress on the Home Screen, Lock Screen, and Live Activities. Choose a separate 7, 30, or 90-day insight range for the large records widget. - Shortcuts and system controls: log or check hydration through Siri, Shortcuts, Home Screen quick actions, and on iOS 18, Control Center, Lock Screen controls, and the Action Button on supported devices. - Apple Watch: check progress and log water from your wrist. - Languages and themes: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, and multiple cartoon themes. - Optional iCloud sync: sync per-cup records, cups, daily stamps, and milestones through your private CloudKit database while local logging remains available offline. - Privacy-first: no developer account required; hydration facts are not sent to developer servers or Firebase. Water Buddy is for people who want an easy way to remember water, enjoy cute widgets, and prefer calm progress over complicated metrics. Premium offers monthly and annual auto-renewing subscriptions and a one-time lifetime purchase, all with the same features: iCloud sync, all hydration insights, extra themes, custom cups, advanced reminders, Apple Watch, widgets and Live Activity, Shortcuts and system controls. Local records and editing, basic goals, default cups and theme, basic interval reminders, and data export remain free. Saved data and settings are retained when Premium ends; paid features pause. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://waterbuddy.microspotlight.team/privacy-policy

About

Hydration Bear

Features
Read full description

Hydration Bear is a hydration reminder that is harder to ignore. At the times you choose, Hydration Bear reminds you to drink and can temporarily lock selected apps. Take a sip using the front camera to confirm that you are done, then continue using your apps. Manual confirmation is available when the camera cannot be used. Key features: - Set reminder intervals or multiple custom reminder times - Choose the apps, categories, or websites to lock during a reminder - Confirm a drink using on-device recognition - Log each drink by beverage and actual volume - View daily progress, streaks, history, and seven-day statistics - Estimate a daily hydration goal from the body information you provide Camera frames are analyzed only in device memory. They are never recorded, saved, uploaded, or shared. Body information, reminder settings, and hydration records stay on the current device by default. Daily hydration goals are health estimates, not medical advice. If you have a kidney, heart, or other condition that requires limits on fluid intake, follow guidance from a qualified healthcare professional. Apple Watch app and watch-face complications, plus Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets. Hydration Bear Pro (optional): lock other apps when a reminder is due and set unlimited custom reminder times. The yearly plan includes a 7-day free trial; monthly and lifetime options are also available. Subscriptions renew automatically and can be cancelled anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://wateralarm.deepfish.tech/wateralarm/en/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://wateralarm.deepfish.tech/wateralarm/en/privacy/

Screenshots

Water Buddy4 screens
Hydration Bear4 screens

Verdict

The call

Water Buddy and Hydration Bear are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Water Buddy sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Hydration Bear sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Water Buddy ships an update every 5 days, Hydration Bear every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Water Buddy versus Hydration Bear: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWater BuddyHydration Bear
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 6 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer浩 王Hangzhou Deep Sea Fish Information Technology Co., Ltd.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Water Buddy

Subscriptions2
  • WaterBuddy Premium Monthly$0.991 Month
  • WaterBuddy Premium Annual$9.991 Year
One-time3
  • Offer a Milk Tea$0.99
  • Offer a Coffee$2.99
  • WaterBuddy Premium Lifetime$29.99
3 purchases

Hydration Bear

Subscriptions2
  • WaterAlarm Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • WaterAlarm Pro Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • WaterAlarm Pro Lifetime$34.99

Questions

Is Water Buddy free?
Water Buddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hydration Bear free?
Hydration Bear is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Water Buddy or Hydration Bear have ads?
Neither Water Buddy nor Hydration Bear shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Water Buddy or Hydration Bear?
Water Buddy ships an update every 5 days, and Hydration Bear every 6 days. Most recently, Water Buddy was updated on October 31, 2026 and Hydration Bear on October 31, 2026.

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