Autonomic vs Bearable: A symptom journal that measures your body too.
Bearable is a lovely, flexible symptom tracker. Its paid plan costs less than ours, but the symptom journal is free in both apps, and Autonomic’s free journal also measures your nervous system every morning. If you live with POTS, long COVID or ME/CFS, here is the difference.
Free to download. 14 days of Pro, no card.
Bearable screen redrawn from Bearable’s own published screenshots.
“I’ve been through a dozen apps trying to manage my POTS and PEM. I can say without a doubt Autonomic is the BEST one I’ve tried.”
“It’s already helping me manage my health and gather data to show providers.”
“Only app that isn’t for athlete training and specific to dysautonomia.”
Autonomic and Bearable, side by side.
From each company’s own listing and help pages, checked November 2026. The numbers link to their sources.
| Feature |  Autonomic |  Bearable |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49.99 a year, or $7.99 a month | $34.99 a year, often $18.99, or $6.99 a month2 |
| Free plan | The journal, unlimited HRV readings, your daily score and crash warnings | Unlimited energy, mood, sleep and symptom tracking3 |
| Measures HRV itself | Yes, with the camera, a watch, a Garmin or a strap | Syncs steps, sleep and heart rate from Apple Health and Fitbit1 |
| Pacing budget and alerts | Yes, in hours and minutes | No energy budget or live alerts3 |
| Guided POTS stand test | Yes, with a watch, a strap or by hand | Not listed in its app description1 |
| Finding what helps | Tested against your readings, corrected for chance and the calendar | Correlations, with full reports on premium3 |
| Mood and mental health | Log as your own symptom types | Built in, in depth1 |
| Where your data lives | On your phone, with no account | On your phone, and with an account also on its servers, encrypted4 |
| Tracking | None, and no ads | Contact info and identifiers used to track you1 |
| Export | Your whole journal, anytime | Export or delete in the app1 |
| App Store rating | 4.9 from 26 ratings | 4.8 from 6.6K ratings1 |
US prices. Bearable is a trademark of its owner; we are not affiliated. See Bearable on the App Store →
What you get for $0.
Before anyone pays a cent: the free version of each app, side by side.
| Feature | Autonomic Free | Bearable Free |
|---|---|---|
| Symptom, trigger and medication journal | Free, unlimited | Free, unlimited3 |
| Mood and energy | Free, as your own symptom types | Free, built in3 |
| HRV reading | Free and unlimited, with the camera, a watch or a strap | Not measured; syncs heart rate from Apple Health1 |
| A daily score from your own readings | Free | Not offered |
| Crash warnings | Free | No live alerts3 |
| POTS stand test | Free to capture, with a watch, a strap or by hand | Not listed1 |
| Charts | The last 14 days | 30 days of trends3 |
| Finding what helps | Insights, part of Pro | Correlation reports, part of Premium3 |
Autonomic Pro adds Insights, the pacing budget, your full history and AI reports for $49.99 a year, with 14 days free to start.
Where Bearable is strong.
It is a good app. Here is what it does well, in its own words.
Measure your nervous system, not only describe it.
A five-minute morning reading with your phone camera, a watch or a strap becomes a daily score against your own normal. It is the steadiest thing Insights has to test your days against, and it is free and unlimited.
Bearable syncs heart rate, steps and sleep from Apple Health and Fitbit.1
A budget for today, before the crash.
Your morning readings set a budget in hours and minutes that spends down as you move and warns you before the ceiling. Every day is judged on the two days after it, because a crash lands late.
Bearable has no energy budget or live alerts.3
It’s already helping me manage my health and gather data to show providers.
Patterns that hold up, not patterns found by luck.
Test enough things against each other and something always looks linked. Insights corrects for that, checks a link holds within its own month, and tells you when a supplement you have logged for weeks shows no detected impact.
See how it works →A stand test for POTS.
A guided ten-minute stand test puts a number on what standing does to you, on an Apple Watch, a strap or by hand, and keeps every result.
See how it works →Which one fits you?
Honestly, it depends on what you need.
- You live with POTS, long COVID, ME/CFS or dysautonomia.
- You want a morning reading and a pacing budget, not only a diary.
- You want findings that are corrected for chance.
- You want no account and no tracking.
- You mainly want a mood, mental health and symptom diary.
- You do not want to take a morning reading.
- You want the cheaper paid plan: Bearable Premium costs less than Autonomic Pro.
Autonomic vs Bearable: questions
Is Autonomic a good alternative to Bearable?+
If you live with POTS, long COVID, ME/CFS or dysautonomia, yes. Autonomic keeps a symptom, trigger and medication journal like Bearable, and adds a five-minute HRV reading, a guided stand test, a pacing budget and Insights corrected for chance, with your data kept on your phone. If you want a mood and mental health diary above all, Bearable is excellent and cheaper.
Can I track my own symptoms in Autonomic?+
Yes. Built-in lists cover POTS, long COVID, ME/CFS and MCAS, and you can create your own symptoms, triggers, activities and medications. Each one is tested by Insights like any other.
Is Bearable cheaper than Autonomic?+
For the paid plans, yes. Bearable Premium is $6.99 a month or $34.99 a year, often discounted to $18.99 (checked 2026). For free, Autonomic gives you more: the symptom journal is free in both, and Autonomic’s free journal adds unlimited HRV readings, a daily score, crash warnings and stand test captures. Autonomic Pro is $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year, the journal and every HRV reading are free forever, and every install starts with 14 days of Pro.
Does Bearable measure HRV?+
Bearable syncs steps, sleep and heart rate from Apple Health and Fitbit. Autonomic takes the HRV reading itself, with your phone camera, a watch, a Garmin or a strap, and grades it against your own normal.
Sources
Checked November 2026- Bearable: Symptom Tracker Bearable Ltd. App Store listing, 2026. Rating, Apple Health sync, export and the privacy label.
- Pricing Bearable. bearable.app, 2026. Monthly and yearly prices, and the free plan.
- The best pacing apps for chronic illness (2026) Juno. junocompanion.com, checked 9 October 2026, 2026. What the free plan includes, and what it does not.
- Privacy Policy Bearable. bearable.app, 2026. With an account, data is also stored and backed up, encrypted, on its servers in Frankfurt.
See for yourself, free for 14 days.
Pro is $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year after that, and the journal is free forever.