---
title: The best poop tracker apps for iPhone in 2026: an honest comparison
description: A founder's honest comparison of the best poop and bowel movement tracker apps for iPhone in 2026, with features, prices, and ratings verified on the App Store.
source: https://poopaya.com/articles/best-poop-tracker-app-iphone
---
The short answer: there's no single best poop tracker, because the right one depends on what your gut is doing. For constipation, I'd point you to [Poopaya](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/poopaya/id6755532969) (disclosure: I built it, and I'll be upfront about that throughout). For an IBS food-and-symptom diary, Bowelle. For deep, everything-correlated data on IBS or IBD, plop. For a genuinely free app, Happy Poop. And if you just want to drop a pin every time you go, Poop Map awaits.
_Written by Mike, Poopaya's founder. I've lived with constipation for 13 years and built an app to finally get on top of it ([here's that story](/founder-story)). This article is educational, not medical advice._
## How I compared these (and why you should trust a competitor's list)
Awkward truth about this corner of the internet: the current top Google result for "best poop tracker app" is written by one of the apps on this list, and (surprise) it ranks itself first. I make a tracking app too, so I'm not pretending to be neutral. What I can do is show my work.
Every fact below was checked against the US App Store on July 21, 2026: ratings, prices, subscription tiers, and when the app was last updated. That last one matters more than people think. A health app that hasn't shipped an update in years is a red flag, because your data lives inside it. One app on this list has exactly that problem.
What I looked for: how fast logging is (a tracker you dread opening collects no data), whether it captures what matters for _your_ condition, what the free tier actually includes, price, and signs the developer is still alive.
## Poopaya: best for constipation
I built [Poopaya](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/poopaya/id6755532969) because nothing else was built for the way constipation actually works. Most trackers assume you have something to log. When you're constipated, the days _nothing_ happens are the data. So Poopaya lets you log those too, along with [Bristol type](/articles/understanding-bristol-stool-scale), urgency, strain, and how complete it felt, in under ten seconds.
It also tracks medications next to your movements, which matters if a prescription kicked things off ([GLP-1 constipation](/articles/glp-1-constipation) being the big one lately). And the free tier includes full CSV export of your history, so you can walk into a doctor's appointment with data instead of vague recollections.
To be fully honest with you, Poopaya is also the newest app here. It has a 4.8-star rating from a small handful of reviews, not the thousands some competitors have. The free tier covers all the core tracking, and Poopaya Gold ($3.99/month, $29.99/year, or $59.99 lifetime) adds personalized insights, trend charts, reminders, and Face ID lock. Everything stays on your iPhone, no account required.
## Poop Tracker – Balloon: best for gut-health coaching
Balloon (4.8 stars, ~1,000 ratings) is the closest thing to a direct rival, and credit where due: it's polished. It leans coaching, with an overall gut-health analysis, AI-assisted fiber and meal tracking, habit to-do lists, and doctor-ready reports. It's also the only app on this list with an Apple Watch app, and it shipped an update in June 2026, so someone's clearly home.
The catch is the paywall. Most of what makes Balloon interesting sits behind Balloon Plus at $59.99/year or $16.99/month (twice the price of Poopaya Gold), and reviewers regularly grumble about how much is locked up. If you want a coach and will pay for one, it's a good pick. If you mostly want to find out what's bunging you up, you can get there cheaper.
## plop: best for IBS and IBD power users
plop (4.7 stars, ~1,500 ratings) is the data nerd's option, and I mean that affectionately. It tracks nearly everything (food, meds, stress, sleep, mood) and runs pattern recognition over it, with flare-up early warnings for people managing IBS, IBD, or Crohn's. It got an update in July 2026, and the annual subscription lands around $29.99–34.99, the same range as Poopaya Gold.
All that depth cuts both ways: more fields, more decisions, more app. If you'll actually feed it, it rewards you. If you won't, a simpler tracker you use daily beats a thorough one you abandon in week two.
## Bowelle: best IBS food-and-symptom diary
Bowelle (4.7 stars, ~2,200 ratings) is a Swedish IBS diary that's been around for years and keeps getting updates (most recently July 2026). You log feelings, food, water, stress, and bowel movements, then read your patterns off overlap charts and daily averages. It can email a summary to your doctor, and premium unlocks run a modest $2.49–17.99.
It's diary-first rather than analysis-first (the charts show you overlaps and leave the detective work to you), and it isn't built for constipation specifically. But as a straightforward, affordable IBS diary, it's earned its following.
## mySymptoms Food Diary: best for chasing food triggers
mySymptoms (4.6 stars, ~4,000 ratings) comes at it from the other direction: it's a food-and-symptom trigger analyzer where bowel movements are one signal among many. Barcode scanning, a proper correlation engine, clinician sharing. It's aimed at people hunting a mystery trigger across IBS, migraines, eczema, you name it.
Two caveats. Poop tracking is shallow compared with the dedicated apps (Bristol scale and not much else). And it's the priciest option here: subscription-only after a 7-day trial, at $9.99/month or $59.99/year.
## Happy Poop: best free option
Happy Poop (4.8 stars, ~2,500 ratings) is the pleasant surprise of this list: a genuinely free toilet journal, still updated as of July 2026, whose only in-app purchases are donations to the developer. Bristol scale, duration, color, mood, photos if you're brave, plus habit tracking and doctor-shareable summaries. There's even an on-device-only privacy option.
It won't go deep, though. It's a general journal, not built around any one condition, and it's a hobbyist project rather than a company (the donation model tells you that upfront). As a free starting point to find out whether tracking helps you at all, it's hard to argue with.
## Cara Care: a warning about abandoned health apps
Cara Care deserves a section precisely because you'll still find it recommended around the web. On paper it looks great: 4.8 stars, ~4,600 ratings (the most of any serious app on this list), and a well-regarded low-FODMAP program. In practice, the app hasn't been updated since October 2020, and reports say the company behind it was wound down in 2024.
Please don't start a health log in an app whose developer has left the building. iOS updates will eventually break it, and your years of data can go down with it. Whatever app you pick (mine included), check the "last updated" date on the App Store listing first, and prefer apps that let you export your data.
## The rest of the field
A few others you'll run into: **Poop Map** (4.8 stars, a staggering 63,000+ ratings) is a free social gimmick with zero health features. One button drops a pin on a map, your friends applaud. It's a delight, just not a tracker. **Poopie** is the same idea with toilet ratings. **ColonBroom** looks like a tracker but is really a companion app for the company's fiber supplement. And **PCal** and **Poo Keeper** are simple, older loggers that haven't kept pace.
## Side-by-side comparison
All data verified on the US App Store, July 21, 2026.
| App | Best for | Price | Rating | Last updated |
| ---------- | ------------------- | --------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------ |
| Poopaya | Constipation | Free + Gold $29.99/yr | 4.8 (new, few ratings) | Jul 2026 |
| Balloon | Gut-health coaching | Free + $59.99/yr | 4.8 (~1,000) | Jun 2026 |
| plop | IBS/IBD deep data | Free + ~$29.99/yr | 4.7 (~1,500) | Jul 2026 |
| Bowelle | IBS diary | Free + $2.49–17.99 | 4.7 (~2,200) | Jul 2026 |
| mySymptoms | Food triggers | Sub-only, $59.99/yr | 4.6 (~4,000) | May 2026 |
| Happy Poop | Free journaling | Free (donations) | 4.8 (~2,500) | Jul 2026 |
| Cara Care | (avoid: abandoned) | Free + sub | 4.8 (~4,600) | Oct 2020 |
| Poop Map | Entertainment | Free | 4.8 (63,000+) | Jan 2026 |
## So which one should you get?
Match the app to the problem. Constipation, or a medication that caused it: [Poopaya](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/poopaya/id6755532969), the only one designed around no-go days and medication context. General gut curiosity with a budget for coaching: Balloon. IBS or IBD with a taste for data: plop, or Bowelle if you'd rather keep it simple. Hunting a food trigger across multiple symptoms: mySymptoms. Zero dollars: Happy Poop.
And honestly, most of these have free tiers. Download two, log for a week, and keep whichever one you actually open. The best tracker is the one you'll still be using in a month.
## When to see a doctor
A tracker helps you describe what's happening. It can't tell you why. Whatever app you use, talk to a healthcare professional if you notice blood in your stool or black, tarry stools; constipation or diarrhea that persists despite sensible changes; severe abdominal pain; or unexplained weight loss. Bring your log. It makes that conversation far more productive.
## Frequently asked questions
**Is there a completely free poop tracker app for iPhone?**
Yes. Happy Poop is fully free (its only in-app purchases are donations), and most of the others (Poopaya, Balloon, plop, and Bowelle among them) have free tiers that cover basic logging. The main exception is mySymptoms, which is subscription-only after a 7-day trial.
**What should a poop tracking app actually record?**
At minimum: when you went and the stool form on the [Bristol Stool Scale](/articles/understanding-bristol-stool-scale), since form reflects how long stool spent in your colon. Beyond that, the useful extras are urgency, straining, and completeness, plus the context that explains changes: food, water, medications, stress, and exercise. If constipation is your issue, the app should also let you log days when nothing happened at all.
**Are poop tracker apps worth it?**
If you have an ongoing issue like constipation or IBS, tracking is one of the cheapest, lowest-risk things you can try. A log turns "I think it's been bad lately" into a pattern you can act on, shows whether a remedy is actually working, and gives your doctor something concrete to look at. If your gut runs fine on its own, you probably don't need one.
**Which poop tracker app is best for constipation specifically?**
Poopaya is the only app in this comparison built specifically for constipation: it logs the days you couldn't go, tracks medications alongside movements, and its free tier includes CSV export for doctor visits. Balloon is the strongest alternative if you want a broader gut-health coaching approach. I make Poopaya, so weigh that disclosure accordingly and try the free tiers of both.
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_If constipation is what brought you here, that's exactly what I built Poopaya for. **[Download Poopaya on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/poopaya/id6755532969)** — free to track, free to export, and built by someone who's been there for 13 years._