Written 25 September 2026 by Lullog. About pricing models, not any one app.
Search for a baby tracker and almost every result says “free”. A week later, when you want to look back at last Tuesday, you hit a paywall. This page explains the four ways baby trackers are sold, what each model locks, and what happens to your log if you stop paying. We name no other app and quote no other app’s price: those change constantly and a stale number would mislead you.
In the App Store, “free” describes the download, not the app. Everything after installing, ads, a subscription, a one-off unlock, is a separate matter, and the store only hints at it with a small “In-App Purchases” label under the title.
For a newborn log this matters more than for most software, because the value builds up over time. On day one you need a timer. By week six the point is the history: how long the gaps were, whether the night stretch is lengthening, what you can show the paediatrician. That history is the part most commonly put behind a payment, so free is real on the day you try the app and runs out on the day you start depending on it.
Two things are worth keeping apart. Price is what leaves your bank account; exit cost is what happens to your data when you stop paying. Two apps can cost the same and behave very differently on the second.
Nothing to pay; a banner or a full-screen ad pays instead. The obvious cost is the interruption, worst at 3 AM when you are one-handed and the screen is bright. The less obvious cost is that ad networks are third-party code inside an app that knows your baby’s date of birth and your daily rhythm. Check whether a paid option removes them, and the ad SDK with them.
Logging is free and unlimited, but looking back is not. The typical limit is a rolling window, the last 24 hours or three days, with summaries, charts and export reserved for the paid tier. It is a fair way to sell software and the model most likely to surprise you, because the limit only bites after weeks of typing. Find the sentence that states how far back the free tier looks.
You pay on a cycle for as long as you use the app. Subscriptions fund ongoing work, which is defensible for anything with a live server behind it. The question for baby tracking is how long you will use it: a newborn log has a natural end, and many parents stop when solids arrive. Multiply the monthly price by the months you expect to log, then compare that total to any one-time option.
You pay once and the features stay unlocked. The trade is that the developer has no recurring income from you, so ask what that means for the server side, if the app has one, and whether “lifetime” means the app’s or one version’s. On iOS the purchase is tied to your Apple Account, so a new iPhone restores it, but it rarely crosses to another platform.
| Model | What you pay | What usually gets locked | Your data if you stop paying | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free with ads | Nothing in money; attention, plus an ad SDK in the app. | Usually nothing is locked. Ads interrupt instead. | Nothing to stop. Data stays as long as the app does. | Short or occasional logging, if interruptions are tolerable. |
| Freemium, paywalled history | Nothing to start, then a one-off or recurring unlock. | History past a short window, summaries, charts, export, extra caregivers. | Entries usually stay stored but unreadable past the free window. | Trying an app properly, if the free window is stated plainly. |
| Subscription | Monthly or annual, for as long as you use it. | Most of the analysis, sync and multi-caregiver features. | Usually reverts to the free tier. Export before the period ends. | Long or repeated use, or families relying on accounts and sync. |
| One-time purchase | A single payment, tied to your store account. | Nothing after purchase; before it, much the same as freemium. | Nothing to stop. The risk is abandonment, not a lapsed payment. | A defined stretch like the newborn months, with a knowable total. |
This section is about our own app. Read it as such.
Lullog is the fourth model. Logging feeds, sleep and diapers is free, with no ads and no limit on how far back you can scroll, as are the lock screen Live Activity and the home screen widgets. So is sharing: you send one private link to your partner, a grandparent or a sitter, who opens it in any browser, including Android, with no app, no account and no per-person fee.
One optional purchase, Lullog Lifetime, is a single payment, not a subscription. It unlocks the 7-day summary, the daily charts and CSV export. We do not print a price here; the store listing is the only place that number should live.
The app is offline-first: until you tap Connect to sync it makes no network requests at all. Turning sharing on sends the log to our relay so caregivers can read it; you can revoke any link, stop sharing, and delete the server copy from inside the app. Lullog is a logbook, not medical advice, and makes no predictions or health claims.
Lullog is not on the App Store yet. It is in TestFlight while version 1.0 is in review; the App Store link will appear on the home page when it is live.
It depends on the model. With a subscription the app usually reverts to its free tier: the entries are still stored, but charts, export and sometimes the older history become unreadable. With a one-time purchase there is nothing to stop. Either way, export a CSV while you still have access, before the period ends.
No. It is cheaper if you use the app past the break-even point and more expensive if you stop after a few weeks. Work the break-even out yourself: divide the one-time price by the monthly price to get the number of months at which they meet, then ask how many months of logging you expect.
Some do, some do not. “Free” in the App Store means only that the download costs nothing, so an app can be free and ad-supported, free and freemium, or free with an optional one-time unlock and no ads at all. The In-App Purchases label and the privacy details tell you more than the price does.
Yes, though it is rarer than it should be. Accounts exist mainly to support sync across devices. An app that keeps the log on the device and shares it through a private link can skip accounts entirely, which also means no password to lose and no profile to delete later.