If you are comparing these apps, you are probably trying to solve one of three problems: your medical records are scattered across doctors who do not talk to each other, you are trying to figure out what is behind symptoms that come and go, or you are keeping track of medications for yourself or someone you love. The short answer: these apps do different jobs, and the right choice depends on which of those problems is yours. Guava pairs your records with daily tracking, PicnicHealth specializes in retrieving deep medical histories, Bearable is a focused symptom and trigger logger, MyChart is the official portal your doctor's office runs, and Medisafe keeps medication schedules on track. Slothwise brings records, claims, medications, symptoms, and device readings together in one place, points out changes that may deserve attention, and holds a loved one's health alongside your own. This guide walks through each one in plain English so you can pick with confidence, whether that means one app or a couple of them together.

Full disclosure before anything else: Slothwise, the company behind this site, makes a health app too. It appears in the comparison below in the same format as everyone else, and every app here gets a fair description of what it does well.

Quick comparison

• Bearable (symptom and factor logging): spotting the daily triggers behind chronic symptoms.

• Guava (records plus daily tracking): visual charts and correlation trends.

• Medisafe (medication adherence): pill schedules, interaction warnings, and family alerts.

• MyChart (official patient portal): messaging your doctors and checking results they ordered.

• PicnicHealth (deep medical record retrieval): complex, multi-doctor health histories.

• Slothwise (records, claims, medications, symptoms, and devices together): watching your whole health picture in one place, for you and family you care for.

Start with your situation

• "My health information is scattered and I want it in one place." PicnicHealth, Guava, or Slothwise. PicnicHealth goes deepest on retrieving old records; Guava and Slothwise pair records with day-to-day tracking.

• "I am trying to figure out what is behind my symptoms." Two different jobs hide in this question. If you want to keep a detailed daily diary of symptoms and suspected triggers, Bearable is built for that, with check-ins that take seconds. If you would rather the connecting happen for you, Slothwise links a texted "headache again this morning" to things you never logged, your sleep, your medications, your labs, and answers in plain language, which matters when the cause is not in yesterday's habits. Guava also pairs symptoms with records on one timeline.

• "I want to be told when something changes, not just shown charts." Logging apps hand you the charts to interpret. Slothwise learns what is normal for you and points out changes that may deserve attention, so noticing is not all on you.

• "I just need the medications taken on time." Medisafe. It does one job and does it well. If medications are part of a bigger picture you are managing, Slothwise tracks them alongside everything else.

• "I need to message my doctor or see the results they ordered." MyChart, if your doctor's office uses it. Nothing else on this list replaces it, and you should keep it no matter what other app you choose.

• "I am helping a parent or spouse with their health." Medisafe can alert a family member about missed doses, and PicnicHealth can collect records on someone's behalf with permission. Slothwise is built to hold a loved one's health alongside your own, and because it works over text messages, the person you are helping never has to learn a new app.

• "I would rather text than tap through an app." Slothwise works entirely over text messages, which matters if you or your parent will not keep a new app charged with attention.

• "I am juggling records, medications, and symptoms all at once." That is the situation Slothwise is built for: one app instead of three or four.

Most of these are not actually competitors

It helps to see the categories, because most of these apps solve different problems and some of them stack:

• The portal. MyChart is not an app you choose; it comes with your doctor. It is the official channel for messages, results, refill requests, and appointments. If your doctors are spread across health systems that use different portals, you may be juggling more than one login, which is exactly the frustration that sends people looking at the rest of this list.

• The single-purpose tools. Medisafe (medications) and Bearable (symptoms and possible triggers) each concentrate on one habit and keep it light.

• The record gatherers. PicnicHealth retrieves and organizes your full medical history. Guava brings in records and adds daily tracking on top.

• The one-place apps. This is where Slothwise sits: records, insurance claims, medications, symptoms, food, and wearable readings together, with plain-language answers about your own information, an eye on changes against your own baseline, and room for a loved one's health next to yours.

A lot of people today run three of these at once: the portal for messages, one app for pills, another for symptoms, and a notebook for the rest. Whether that is fine or exhausting is genuinely personal, and it is the real question behind "which app should I get."

The apps, one by one

Bearable

Free to start, with a paid tier. iPhone and Android. Bearable is a fast daily logger for symptoms, mood, sleep, medications, and the factors that might be influencing them, from weather to caffeine to stress. Over time it surfaces correlations, so you can bring your doctor a chart instead of a guess. It is popular in chronic illness communities precisely because check-ins take seconds on a hard day. Good for: spotting patterns behind migraines, flares, fatigue, or pain, when logging is the main thing you need.

Guava

Free to start, with a paid tier. iPhone, Android, and web. Guava combines imported medical records and lab results with daily tracking, then turns the combination into visual charts and correlation trends. It sits between a records app and a symptom tracker: more history than a pure logger, more day-to-day life than a pure records tool. Good for: people who want to see their labs, symptoms, and habits on the same timeline and enjoy exploring their own charts.

Medisafe

Free to start, with a paid tier. iPhone and Android. Medisafe is a medication manager: reminders shaped around real schedules, refill nudges, warnings about drug interactions, and the option to alert a family member if a dose is missed. It has been at this one job for years. Good for: anyone whose main challenge is a medication routine, especially families keeping an eye on a parent's doses from a distance.

MyChart

Free. iPhone, Android, and web. MyChart is the patient portal used by many hospitals and clinics. It is the official channel to your actual care team: secure messages, test results as they post, refill requests, and scheduling. What it shows is tied to the health systems you visit. Epic's newer account linking can merge some of them into one view, but it depends on your organizations having adopted it, so more than one portal is still common. Good for: direct communication with your doctors and checking the results they ordered. Keep it regardless of what else you use.

PicnicHealth

Free when you join one of its research programs; paid otherwise. PicnicHealth does the heavy lifting of requesting your complete medical records from every provider you have seen, then organizes them into one reviewed timeline. It is the deepest record-retrieval service on this list, and its free path involves contributing de-identified data to medical research, which is a personal decision worth making deliberately. Good for: patients with long, complex, multi-doctor histories who want the whole story assembled once and for all.

Slothwise

Free, with optional paid features. iPhone and Android. Slothwise brings your medical records, insurance claims, wearable readings, medications, symptoms, and everyday tracking together, learns what is normal for you, and points out changes that may deserve attention. You can ask it anything about your own information and get a plain answer, in the app or entirely over text messages, and it is built to hold a loved one's health alongside your own. Good for: one place that holds everything, notices changes, and makes room for the people you look after, especially if you would rather text than tap.

Common questions

Do any of these replace MyChart? No. MyChart is the official line to your care team, and messaging your doctor or seeing results the moment they post happens there. Records apps make a copy of your information so you can see all of it in one place, across every system you have visited, but the portal stays the portal.

Do I need more than one app? Sometimes. A single-purpose tool plus the portal is a perfectly good setup if you have one main thing to manage. The case for a one-place app is when you notice you are maintaining three trackers, or when the question you care about crosses categories, like whether a new medication lines up with a change in your sleep.

Is my health information safe in these apps? Read the privacy policy before connecting anything, and prefer apps that say plainly they do not sell or share your data. One useful external signal: apps listed in Medicare's App Library have passed an independent review of their privacy and security practices, though plenty of respectable apps simply have not gone through that process.

What do they cost? Most of this list is free to start with paid upgrades; MyChart is free through your provider. Pricing changes often enough that the app's own site is the only current source.

Where does Slothwise fit?

If your situation is "my health lives in five places and I want one app that holds it all and explains it plainly," that is the job Slothwise was built for. Two things about it are worth knowing next to the trackers above. First, it does the watching with you: it learns what is normal for you and points out changes that may deserve attention, instead of leaving you alone with the charts. Second, it is built for households, not just individuals: it holds a loved one's health alongside your own, and because it works entirely over text messages, the parent or spouse you are helping never has to install or learn anything new. It can also review the bills and claims that come with care and point out anything that looks wrong before you pay, a job the other apps here do not focus on. And it is listed in Medicare's App Library, which requires an independent privacy and security review and bars listed apps from ever selling or sharing your data; if you are on Medicare, our guide to every app in that library goes deeper. It is free to start.

Slothwise is one option, not the only one. If medications are your whole challenge, Medisafe does that job well. If you mainly want a fast symptom diary, Bearable keeps it light. And whatever you choose, MyChart or your provider's portal remains the right channel to your actual care team.

The short version

• These six apps do different jobs: a portal (MyChart), single-purpose tools (Medisafe for medications, Bearable for symptoms), record gatherers (PicnicHealth deepest, Guava with tracking on top), and a one-place app (Slothwise).

• Keep MyChart no matter what. Nothing on this list replaces the official channel to your care team.

• Match the app to your actual problem first: scattered records, mystery triggers, medication routine, or all of the above.

• If you find yourself running three trackers at once, that is the signal to consider a one-place app like Slothwise, which also watches for changes and holds a loved one's health next to yours.

This article is general information, not medical advice. App features and pricing change; check each app's own site for current details. Slothwise is not affiliated with or endorsed by Medicare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or any government agency. Last updated: July 2026.