HormoneLog vs Balance
Balance is the sensible first install and HormoneLog does not exist yet. That is the honest headline and everything below sits under it.
Balance is developed by Newson Health, states over a million users globally, is ORCHA-certified, carries an official 4.7/5, and has a shareable health report — the closest thing in the consumer category to a clinician-facing output. Core app free; Balance+ roughly $4.99/month or $49.99/year.
HormoneLog is in development and not released, and will be free. It is built for one job Balance does not do: HRT as a regimen over time — what you take, at what dose, in what formulation, since when, and what changed — rather than as a tick on a day.
If you are tracking symptoms, install Balance. If your problem is specifically that you are titrating HRT over months and have no structured record of the changes, that is the gap HormoneLog is being built into.
Side by side
| HormoneLog (ours, in development) | Balance | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | In development | Shipping, 1M+ users |
| Price | Free | Free core; Balance+ ~$4.99/mo, ~$49.99/yr |
| Symptom tracking | Yes, by clinical domain | Yes, broad and mature |
| HRT as a regimen | Yes — dose, formulation, change dates | Medication log |
| Symptom-vs-treatment timeline | Yes | Partial |
| Clinician-facing output | Appointment summary | Yes — shareable health report |
| Education and content library | No | Yes, extensive |
| Community | No | Yes |
| ORCHA certified | No | Yes |
| Storage | Local-first by design | Account-based |
| Apple Health sync | Planned | Users report gaps |
Where Balance wins outright
- It exists. This is not a small point and it sits above everything else.
- Scale and scrutiny. Over a million users, ORCHA certification, and an Editors' Choice history mean it has been examined by people who are not its developers.
- Education. A substantial, clinician-led content library that HormoneLog will not attempt.
- Community. Real, and valuable in a category where feeling alone is part of the problem.
- The health report exists and works for most people. Whatever its complaints, it is shipping and being used in real appointments.
- Free at the core. You can get most of the value without paying.
Where the gap is
Balance logs medication. It does not model a regimen.
The difference matters if you are titrating. What you need at a review appointment is not "took my HRT on these days" — it is what changed, on what date, and what happened in the weeks after. That comparison requires a before that was recorded before you knew what would happen, and a structure that treats a change of formulation or dose as an event rather than another daily tick.
That is the whole of what HormoneLog is for. It is a narrow job, and it is narrow on purpose. How to log an HRT change. · HRT formulations explained.
The complaints worth knowing about either way
Balance: App Store reviews cite failed report generation and difficulty entering basic fields such as birth year and height, and users report data not being pulled from Apple Health or Garmin. Those are execution complaints about a good product. If the report is the reason you are installing it, test that it generates before you rely on it for an appointment.
HormoneLog: it does not exist. There are no reviews, no users, and no evidence it works. That is the position of an unreleased app and we are not going to dress it up.
What neither of them does, and neither should
Neither diagnoses anything. Diagnosis is clinical judgement. NICE NG23's position is that in women over 45 with typical symptoms it is made on symptoms rather than blood tests.
Neither implements the two best-known licensed menopause symptom scales. Both a 21-item and an 11-item instrument exist in this space — one administered with no published licence tier for a commercial consumer app, the other requiring contact for commercial licensing. Neither app should be described as "validated", and HormoneLog never will be. What the scales are.
Neither recommends a dose. That is a different category of product under different rules.
The privacy question, which applies to both
A 2023 systematic review of 28 UK menopause apps found 32 percent indicated third-party data sharing, and that most lacked any mechanism for sharing data with a provider or exporting structured records.
Read the privacy policy of whatever you install. Balance is account-based; HormoneLog is designed local-first. Both are defensible choices with different trade-offs — an account gives you recovery and multi-device, local-first gives you a smaller blast radius. Health app privacy.
Information, not medical advice. Prices and features are as published in September 2026 and change. HormoneLog is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed by Newson Health, Balance, ORCHA, NICE or The Menopause Society.
More in this section
About HormoneLog
HormoneLog is an iOS app from Baker Ventures LLC for tracking perimenopause and menopause symptoms and keeping an HRT record: what you took, at what dose, from when, and what changed afterwards. It is built for the appointment, where "it has been bad lately" is worth far less than a dated record of frequency and severity. The app is in development.
HormoneLog is a record-keeping tool. It does not diagnose, does not score you, and makes no claim about symptom relief. The guides on this site link to NICE, the NHS, the Menopause Society and peer-reviewed sources, and say plainly where the evidence is thin. Everything here is free and needs no account.
Questions and answers
Is the Balance app free?
The core Balance app is free, with a paid Balance plus tier at roughly 4.99 dollars a month or 49.99 dollars a year. It is developed by Newson Health, states over a million users globally, is ORCHA-certified and carries an official 4.7 out of 5 rating.
What does the Balance health report do?
It produces a shareable summary of your logged symptoms that you can take to an appointment. It was overhauled in July 2025 to be journal-powered, and it is the closest thing in the consumer category to a clinician-facing output.
Why would I use HormoneLog instead of Balance?
Only if your main need is an HRT regimen record. Balance logs medication the way it logs a symptom, as a tick on a day. HormoneLog models what you take, at what dose, in what formulation, since when, and what changed, which is the record that matters when you are titrating over months.
Is Balance better than HormoneLog?
Today, yes, on almost every axis, because Balance exists and HormoneLog does not. Balance ships, has over a million users, is ORCHA-certified and has a working shareable report. HormoneLog is in development.
What do Balance users complain about?
App Store reviews cite failed report generation and difficulty entering basic fields such as birth year and height, and users report that data is not pulled from Apple Health or Garmin. Those are execution complaints about a good product rather than reasons to avoid it.
HormoneLog. “HormoneLog vs Balance.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 6, 2026. https://hormonelog.bakerventuresstudio.com/compare/hormonelog-vs-balance/