Congratulations on your pregnancy! Whether this is your first or your fifth pregnancy, mobile apps are a great way to learn more about your baby, your body, what to expect, and to get support. With so many apps available out there, you shouldn’t have to pay for them to get access to this information! That’s why I wrote you my list of the best FREE pregnancy apps.
Though I am an iPhone user, most of these apps are also available for Android on the Google Play store. I’ve linked both for you under each app.
If you’re not yet pregnant and are just starting your trying to conceive journey, you can check out my top tips for trying to conceive here.
For tracking your pregnancy (and information about your baby and body)
What to Expect
Features: The What to Expect app was easily my most-used app during pregnancy. I loved it SO much. Tracking your baby’s development by week (and comparing them to fruits and vegetables) is super fun. My husband and I really enjoyed watching videos on all things pregnancy and reading articles about pregnancy and baby development. For support, I read through tons of discussions in the Community forums. Other features include an ovulation calendar, a registry builder, a list of baby products, the chinese gender chart, a photo journal, pregnancy-friendly recipes, and a due date calculator.
Once your baby is born, you can even switch to baby mode and track your baby’s progress by month. You can also track feedings, diapers, and pumping in the app.
Available on: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, and Google Play
Rating: 4.9/5 on the iTunes store
Ovia Pregnancy
Features: I would say the Ovia Pregnancy app was probably my second most-used app. Tracking baby’s development with this one is also really fun because you have the option to choose from comparing your baby’s size to fruit, nostalgic items from the 80s and 90s, or bougie french bakery items. Comparing my baby to Mr. Potato Head seems weird, but it brought me lots of joy during some rough times mid pregnancy. I would look forward to the new articles and tips that would be available every week, and I think the app is generally very user-friendly (and colorful!) You can also track your symptoms and read great, evidence-based articles. Other features include baby names, community support, and food and medication safety (a feature I used often!)
Once you have your baby, you can also switch over to the Ovia Parenting app.
 Available on: iPhone, iPod touch, Google Play
Rating: 4.9/5 on the iTunes Store
Babycenter
Features: Babycenter is another really fun one when it comes to tracking your baby’s growth and development (and comparing it to fruits and vegetables.) The app also shows you growth by inches and ounces, and has AMAZING visuals to help you figure out what your baby might look like in the womb at any given week. These images are honestly what sets this app apart from the rest. The app also has tons of articles, a Community section, a contraction timer, a birth preferences checklist, a registry builder, a kick tracker, a place to take bump photos or “bumpies” and birth classes. You can also check which medications are safe to take during pregnancy.
After your baby’s birth, you switch over to baby mode and can still read articles about your baby’s development by month and week (as opposed to the What to Expect app, which only shows you development by month.)
Available on: iPad, iPhone, Google Play
Rating: 4.9/5 on the iTunes store
The Bump
Features: The Bump has a lot of great features as well. This app is super visually appealing and also compares your baby’s development to popular fruits and vegetables (and gives you a guesstimate as to how many ounces and inches your little one is in there.)
Rather than having several apps for each phase of your baby’s development, The Bump keeps it all in one place and offers tools for those trying to conceive, those in their first / second / third trimesters, or those with a baby. Tools include an ovulation calculator, community support, baby budgeter, the chinese gender chart, a due date calculator, a place to store photos, and food safety during pregnancy. When the time comes, you can also use the kick counter. Some of the cooler features on this app include the baby name generator, the middle name generator, and the baby name finder. The app also has amazing “virtual” images of what your baby might look like in the womb at any given week.
Once your baby arrives, you can continue to track development, store photos, and track vaccines. This app honestly has tons of great tools and resources, arguably even more than some of the others, however during pregnancy I found it very article heavy and not as user friendly as some of the other apps (though it was still an amazing resource.)
Available on: iPhone, iPad, Google Play
Rating: 4.8/5 on the iTunes store
MommyMeds
Features: MommyMeds is an app I actually found out about after having my baby, and I’m bummed that it took me so long to find. If you’re like me and constantly find yourself wondering “Is this medication / vaccine / supplement safe to take when I’m pregnant” (or breastfeeding if it’s later on,) then this is the app for you. You tell the app whether you are pregnant or breastfeeding, and it gives you all the dirty details on drugs you can or cannot take. It covers the kind of drug, other brand or generic names it might be known as, pregnancy and lactation risk, and side effects. You can even scan a medication barcode to find more information about it, or just search for the medication in the search bar.
Available on: iPhone, Google Play
Rating: 4.8/5 on the iTunes store (the Google Play version only has 2.0 stars, so take that as you will)
Just baby names
Almost all of the other apps I listed above have features that enable you to search for baby names, but there are some fun apps you can check out if you’re super stuck!
BabyName
Features: My husband and I had a lot of fun with the BabyName app, which is essentially like Tinder for baby names. You and your partner both download the app on your phones and link up your account. Each person swipes left and right as names come up, and the app tells you if it’s a match (aka if you both liked the same name.) There are many filters to choose from including gender, nationality, alphabetically, celebrity, athletes, hipster, and so much more. It also tells you the name meaning, name origin, and any other fun facts about the name.
Though we had an idea of the names we liked, this app is actually how we found our baby name. One downside of this app is the name selection is not huge. If you’re on it for long enough, the names do start to repeat after a while.
Available on: iPhone, Google Play
Rating: 4.2/5 on the iTunes store (3.9 on Google Play)
Baby Names
Features: Baby Names has so much information on each baby name, it’s honestly kind of overwhelming. You can see TONS of info on each name, including: origin, meaning, pronunciation, and how popular the name is. You can also do a custom search to narrow down your results by trends, popularity, origin, parts of a name and meaning of the name. This app is not for the faint of heart when it comes to baby naming.
Available on: iPhone only
Rating: 4.5/5 on the iTunes store
Baby Name Together
Features: Baby Name Together is also very similar to BabyNames (think Tinder for baby names, which always makes it fun!) Some other cool features include custom baby announcements and research on the meaning of certain names. I also love that this one is available for Mac, and that you can use the web browser version of this app.
Available on: iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac
Rating: 4.5/5 on the iTunes store
For labor
Contraction Timer & Counter 9m
Features: When it came time to go into labor as a first time mom, the last thing I wanted to be was confused and trying to count through the pain. I tried a LOT of different contraction timers and Contraction Timer is by far the only one I would recommend. It’s so simple, the user interface is clean and easy to understand, and tracks the duration and frequency of each contraction. The app also makes recommendations on when to go to the hospital. Obviously, you should take these recommendations with a grain of salt since everyone’s situation is different.
Available on: iPhone, iPad, Google Play
Rating: 4.8/5 on the iTunes store
For your registry
Again, tons of the apps above are great for building your registry. But I really only used one app and one app alone and is honestly all you really need. Drumroll please…..
Babylist Baby Registry
Features: I tried building my registry a few other ways, but the Babylist Baby Registry app was unparalleled for lots of reasons. With this app, you can put anything on your registry form any store, either by scanning the item or by searching for it. Babylist also has their own store if you can’t find what you need in other places. Other features include: Adding cash funds, freebies and discounts from Babylist, price change alerts, registry checklists, free shipping on certain items, and free registry cards to include in your baby shower invitations. You can very easily track how many gifts are on your registry and how many have been purchased. You can also log into your account on a computer and manage your registry from there (which is much easier but obviously isn’t as helpful if you see something you love on the go.) Trust me when I say this is the only app you need for registry purposes.
Available on: iPhone, iPad, Google Play
Rating: 4.9/5 on the iTunes store
*As a side note, I know this isn’t an app and it isn’t free, but one of the most enlightening books I read during my journey of trying to get pregnant was Taking Charge of Your Fertility (*affiliate link). She has a great website to accompany the book here.
I hope this list of the best free pregnancy apps serves you well during your 9 months of growing a human! Congratulations mama. You got this!
Leave a Reply