Comparison

Pattern vs Alison

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

Head to head
About

Pattern

Features
Read full description

Bring your clinician a clear report of the last 30, 90, or 180 days—not a rushed attempt to remember months of symptoms. Pattern turns quick daily check-ins into a clean, shareable PDF, and your intimate health data stays on your iPhone. Log hot flashes, night sweats, sleep, mood, cognition, body changes, irregular bleeding, and possible influences in under 30 seconds. There are no cycle predictions and no fertility assumptions—just a record of what happened. SEE PATTERNS, HONESTLY Follow symptom trends across 30, 90, or 365 days. Pattern only surfaces associations after enough paired observations and always labels them as patterns worth discussing, not causes or diagnoses. ARRIVE PREPARED Create a monochrome-friendly doctor report with symptom averages and trends, hot-flash and sleep summaries, cycle gaps, notable patterns, and your questions. AirDrop, print, save, or email it using the iPhone share sheet. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no server, no advertising, and no analytics SDK. Your entries stay on-device unless you choose to export or share them. Export everything as JSON or delete everything at any time. Optional Face ID/passcode protection is available. Pattern includes optional read-only access to sleep duration and heart rate from Apple Health. It works completely without Health access and never writes Health data. A subscription is required after your first check-in. Annual and monthly plans include a 14-day free trial for eligible subscribers. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account after confirmation and renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in Apple ID subscription settings. Pattern is not a medical device and does not provide medical advice. Share this information with your clinician. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Alison

Track headaches, meals, water, and sleep with this personal journal. It offers observational insights into potential patterns without diagnosing or forecasting. Data remains on your device for privacy.

Highlights
  • Start and stop headache logging
  • Log meals with ingredients
  • Track water and sleep intake
  • Optional Apple Watch integration
  • Read-only Apple Health integration
  • Optional weather data
  • Generate clinic letters
Features
Read full description

Alison is a personal headache journal. Headache on? Tap Start. Headache over? Tap Stop. Log meals, water, and sleep as they happen. The journal is what you wrote. Nothing more. Alison is not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent migraine or any condition. It does not forecast. Talk to a clinician about symptoms. No account. No ads. No tracking. Your journal stays on your device. Pairs are observational. When the same thing has shown up with three of your migraine days, Alison shows a note. That is what has shown up together. It is not a cause. It is not a forecast. It is not a trigger test. Free download. Keep is a monthly subscription through Apple: 1-month free trial for new subscribers, then $0.99/month (local price varies). For the first 24 hours after you first open Alison, nothing waits on Keep. The journal stays readable without Keep. After the first 24 hours, new Start, Food, and Health pull need Keep. When the trial or Keep ends, those services end. Restore on the Keep screen. Cancel in Apple Subscriptions. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Start and Stop a headache • Log meals with ingredients. Search, scan a barcode, or type. Open Food Facts supplies the ingredients. Not a trigger test. • Log water and sleep. Water in ml or oz: you choose under Units. • Optional Apple Watch: Start and intensity • Optional Apple Health: read-only. Alison reads food, water, sleep, menstrual flow, caffeine, and alcohol, only what you allow on Apple's sheet. Deny and the journal still works. • Optional weather: tap Resample for a pressure and humidity forecast from MET Norway (the Norwegian Meteorological Institute). It is a forecast estimate, not a measurement, and it does not diagnose anything. If the weather feed is unavailable, the journal still works. Deny location and the journal still works. Based on data from MET Norway. Values are grouped and simplified by Alison. • Clinic letter: after 5 episodes, 8 meals, and 7 days, share, copy, or save a PDF of what you logged to hand to your clinician. It restates your log. It is not a diagnosis. WHAT ALISON DOES NOT DO • Diagnose • Forecast a migraine • Give medical advice • Replace a clinician • Show ads • Upload your journal to Night Orders ON YOUR PHONE • Alison has no account and no Alison server. Your journal, food log, symptom entries and photos stay on your device, and we do not collect them. Alison does not sync through iCloud. • We do not sell your data, use it for ads, or track you across apps or sites. • Weather is optional and only runs when you tap Resample, never in the background. Your phone rounds your location to about 11 km (7 miles) and sends it directly to MET Norway in Oslo, Norway. MET Norway receives your IP address with the request, as any web server does. Night Orders Studio LLC does not receive or store your location. • Food lookups send your search text or barcode to Open Food Facts, which sees your network address when called. No journal rows are sent. Details: nightorders.app/privacy-alison.html • Deleting the app deletes the journal on the phone. Support: support@nightorders.app Site: https://nightorders.app Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://nightorders.app/privacy-alison.html

Screenshots

Pattern4 screens
Alison4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Alison at 4 against Pattern's 1. Alison also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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. Pattern sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Alison sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Pattern versus Alison: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPatternAlison
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequency—Weekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB16 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperGreyscale holding LLCPaturious Grey

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Pattern

Subscriptions2
  • Pattern Pro Monthly14 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Pattern Pro Annual14 Days trial$59.991 Year
1 purchases

Alison

Subscriptions1
  • Keep Monthly1 Month trial$0.991 Month

Questions

Is Pattern free?
Pattern is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Alison free?
Alison is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Pattern or Alison have ads?
Neither Pattern nor Alison shows ads.

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