Poopaya vs Balloon: which gut-tracking app should you get? (2026)
By Mike, Poopaya Founder · August 31, 2026
Short version: if constipation is the actual problem, get Poopaya. If you want a broader gut-health coach with meal tracking and habit lists, get Balloon. I built Poopaya, so you already know my priorities and where my incentives sit. The comparison below uses this same criteria and was checked against both App Store listings on August 31, 2026.
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). This article is educational, not medical advice.
The core difference
Balloon is a gut-health coaching app that happens to include bowel tracking. Poopaya is a constipation tracker that doesn’t try to be anything else. That shows up everywhere: Balloon’s home screen is an overall “gut health” score built from food, fiber, habits, and movements together. Poopaya’s home screen is your log, your Bristol types, and whether you’ve gone today. When you’re constipated, that’s the question you actually came to answer.
Neither approach is wrong. It depends on whether you want a coach or a log.
Choose Poopaya if…
You’re dealing with constipation specifically, possibly medication-caused (GLP-1 drugs are the case I hear about most right now, see GLP-1 constipation). You want to log the days nothing happens, not just the days something does. Most trackers, Balloon included, are built around the assumption you have an event to record. You want medications tracked next to movements, so a pattern between a new prescription and a bad week is visible instead of guessed at. And you want the free tier to actually be useful: full CSV export is free, no paywall, so you can hand a doctor real data without paying first.
Choose Balloon if…
You want a broader gut-health picture, not just constipation: fiber and meal tracking, an AI-assisted overall score, habit to-do lists. You use an Apple Watch and want to log from your wrist. Balloon has a watch app. Poopaya doesn’t (yet). You want doctor-ready summary reports built in. And the price doesn’t bother you: most of what makes Balloon worth having sits behind Balloon Plus.
The main cons of each
Poopaya is the newer app here: a 4.8 rating from a small handful of reviews, not the roughly 1,100 Balloon has behind its identical 4.8. No Apple Watch app yet. And if you want food and habit tracking alongside your movements, Poopaya doesn’t do that. It stays narrow on purpose.
Balloon’s real cost is the paywall. Most of what makes it more than a basic logger (the coaching, the AI fiber tracking, the full reports) sits behind Balloon Plus at $59.99/year or $16.99/month, roughly twice Poopaya Gold’s $29.99/year. Reviewers on the App Store regularly bring this up. And because it’s built around an overall gut-health score rather than constipation specifically, it doesn’t have anything like Poopaya’s no-go-day logging or medication-context tracking.
Side-by-side
All data verified on the US App Store, August 31, 2026.
| Poopaya | Balloon | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Constipation specifically | General gut-health coaching |
| Free tier | Full logging + CSV export | Basic logging |
| Paid tier | Gold: $3.99/mo, $29.99/yr, $59.99 lifetime | Plus: $16.99/mo, $59.99/yr |
| Medication tracking | Yes, alongside movements | No |
| No-go day logging | Yes | Not the focus |
| Apple Watch app | No | Yes |
| Rating | 4.8 (new, few ratings) | 4.8 (~1,100 ratings) |
| Last updated | Aug 2026 | Jul 2026 |
When to see a doctor
Neither app diagnoses or treats anything. They’re both logs. Talk to a healthcare professional if you notice blood in your stool or black, tarry stools; constipation that persists despite sensible changes; severe abdominal pain; or unexplained weight loss. Bring your log, whichever app it’s from. It makes that conversation more useful.
Frequently asked questions
Is Poopaya or Balloon better for constipation? Poopaya. It’s built specifically around constipation: logging the days nothing happens, medication context, and a free tier that includes CSV export. Balloon is a broader gut-health coaching app; it can track constipation, but that’s not what it’s built around.
Which is cheaper, Poopaya or Balloon? Poopaya. Gold is $3.99/month or $29.99/year. Balloon Plus is $16.99/month or $59.99/year, or roughly twice the price for the paid tier.
Does Balloon have an Apple Watch app? Yes, and Poopaya doesn’t (yet). If a watch app matters to you, that’s a point in Balloon’s favor.
Which app tracks medications alongside bowel movements? Poopaya does. It’s built to log medications next to movements, which matters if a prescription (GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic or Mounjaro are the common case right now) is the reason you started tracking.
If constipation is what brought you here, that’s exactly what I built Poopaya for. Download Poopaya on the App Store — free to track, free to export, and built by someone who’s been there for 13 years.