Cadence vs Bearable (2026): Which Do You Actually Need?

Cadence and Bearable get compared a lot, but they are built for different jobs. Bearable is a symptom and mood tracker that happens to log medications. Cadence is a medication reminder and adherence app that happens to track mood and symptoms. Picking the right one comes down to which of those is your main goal.

We built Cadence, so weigh this accordingly. Bearable is an excellent app, and for a lot of people it is the better choice. Here is how to tell which group you are in.

The short answer

Choose Bearable if your main goal is understanding your symptoms, mood and energy, and what affects them. Medication is one factor among many you want to correlate.

Choose Cadence if your main goal is taking your medication reliably: reminders, adherence, dose windows, supply tracking and a record of whether your regimen is working.

Some people happily use both.

They are built around different things

This is the heart of it. Bearable's center of gravity is the symptom and factor diary. You log mood, symptoms, sleep, energy, activities, diet and treatments, and Bearable finds correlations between them. Medication is one of those factors. It is broad by design.

Cadence's center of gravity is the dose. It is built to get you to take the right medication at the right time, to tell you how consistent you have been, and to connect that consistency to your health. It is focused by design.

Neither approach is better in the abstract. They are answers to different questions: "what is affecting how I feel" versus "am I taking my medication, and is it working."

Pricing

Bearable is free for a lot of its tracking, with a Premium subscription at $6.99 per month or $34.99 per year (often discounted). Premium unlocks deeper correlation reports, custom experiments, unlimited goals, and access to your full history beyond the most recent 30 days. That last point matters: on the free tier, your older data is not fully available.

Cadence is free for unlimited medications with no account and no ads. Cadence Pro is a one-time $9.99 purchase, not a subscription, and your full history is always available.

If long-term history matters to you, note the difference in models: Cadence keeps all of it on the free tier, while Bearable gates history older than 30 days behind Premium.

Where Bearable is the better choice

• Deep symptom and factor tracking. If you live with a chronic or complex condition and want to understand what drives flare-ups, Bearable's custom symptoms, factors and correlation engine are purpose-built for it. This is its real strength.
• Cross-platform. Bearable runs on iPhone and Android. Cadence is iPhone and Apple Watch only.
• Mood and energy focus. Bearable's daily check-ins for mood, energy and symptoms are richer than Cadence's reflections.

Where Cadence is the better choice

• Medication reminders that hold up. Cadence is built around reliable, time-sensitive reminders, with follow-ups and lock screen actions so a dose does not slip through.
• Adherence, not just logging. Cadence shows your adherence rate, your most-missed weekday and time, a dose-share breakdown, and a browsable month history. See how to read those insights.
• Dose windows. A slightly late dose still counts as on time, within a window you set. Here is why that matters.
• Supply and refill tracking, and label scanning. Track how many pills are left and scan a prescription label to add a medication in seconds.
• Health correlations and a doctor-ready report. Cadence Pro connects to Apple Health and produces a PDF you can take to an appointment.

Both pull from Apple Health

Worth noting: both apps can read Apple Health metrics like resting heart rate, HRV, blood pressure and sleep. The difference is what they do with them. Bearable folds them into its broad correlation engine across all your factors. Cadence focuses them on one question: how your medication adherence lines up with those metrics over time.

Feature comparison

The bottom line

If you want to understand your symptoms and what moves them, Bearable is the better tool, and its free tier goes a long way. If you want to take your medication reliably and know whether it is working, that is what Cadence is built for, at a one-time $9.99 rather than a yearly subscription.

They are not really rivals so much as different lenses, and using both, Bearable for the symptom picture and Cadence for the medication side, is a perfectly reasonable setup. For the wider category, see our best medication tracker apps for iPhone guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bearable a medication reminder app?

Bearable is primarily a symptom and mood tracker that includes medication logging and reminders. It can remind you to take medication, but it is built around understanding symptoms and their causes rather than medication adherence specifically.

Is Cadence or Bearable better for tracking symptoms?

Bearable is better for symptom tracking. Its custom symptoms, factors and correlation reports are purpose-built for understanding what affects how you feel. Cadence offers simpler mood and symptom reflections alongside its medication focus.

How much does Bearable cost compared to Cadence?

Bearable Premium is $6.99 per month or $34.99 per year, often discounted. Cadence is free for unlimited medications, with an optional one-time Cadence Pro upgrade at $9.99 and no subscription.

Does Bearable keep all my history for free?

No. On the free tier, Bearable limits full access to the last 30 days, with older history available on Premium. Cadence keeps your full history available on the free tier.

Can I use Cadence and Bearable together?

Yes. Many people use Cadence for reliable medication reminders and adherence, and Bearable for deeper symptom and mood tracking. Both can read metrics from Apple Health.

Cadence is a free medication reminder app for iPhone with unlimited medications and no account required. Cadence Pro is $9.99 as a one-time purchase.