Bearable vs mySymptoms
Bearable: the generalist
A chronic-illness tracker covering migraine, pain, fatigue, mood, medication, menstrual health and a long list of conditions, with a customizable symptom set you can shape to almost anything. It has one of the highest rating averages in this whole category and a large user base, and the praise is consistently about how quick and pleasant it is to log.
Its limits. Generality has a cost. Tracking everything against everything is where spurious correlations come from, and the app has to stay agnostic about mechanism, so it cannot build the things a gut-specific tool can: FODMAP groups by dose, delayed onset windows, Bristol typing. Price is the largest theme in its critical reviews.
mySymptoms: the specialist diary
On the App Store since 2010, which makes it one of the oldest apps still actively used in this category. It records food at ingredient level, supports multiple diaries, and lets you configure the analysis window from 1 to 72 hours. That last setting is the most underrated feature in this comparison: gut reactions are frequently delayed by hours, and a tool locked to same-day correlation will systematically misattribute them.
Its limits. It is work. The most distinctive complaint in its reviews is that logging is laborious, at roughly three times the rate of that complaint elsewhere, and an abandoned diary produces nothing. The interface shows its age next to Bearable.
| Bearable | mySymptoms | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Multiple conditions at once | Food and symptom analysis in depth |
| Breadth of conditions | Very wide | Food, symptoms and related factors |
| Logging effort | Low, and widely praised | High, ingredient level |
| Analysis window | not verified | Configurable 1 to 72 hours |
| Customisation | Extensive | Focused on food and symptoms |
| Platforms | iPhone and Android | iPhone and Android |
| Free tier | Yes, paid analysis | Logging free, paid analysis |
| Multiple-comparison correction | not verified | not verified |
| Export | not verified | Yes |
| On the App Store since | 2020 | 2010 |
| Biggest complaint theme | Price | Logging is laborious |
Checked August 2026. "Not verified" means we could not confirm it from public sources, not that the feature is missing.
Who should choose which
Choose Bearable if
- You are managing more than one condition.
- You want mood, sleep, medication and pain in the same place.
- You know you will not sustain heavy logging.
- You want the nicer daily experience, which is a legitimate reason.
Choose mySymptoms if
- Your gut is the problem you are trying to solve.
- You suspect delayed reactions and want to set the window yourself.
- You are willing to log at ingredient level.
- You want an app with fifteen years of track record.
The thing that decides this more than the app does
Whether you keep logging. Two to three weeks is the minimum before any conclusion is possible, because every useful question here is comparative and needs your own baseline. The most common reason people never identify their triggers is not that they picked the wrong tracker, it is that they stopped in week two. If you are torn, pick the one you will actually open on a bad day.
Second, and almost as important: record the days when nothing happened. A diary of only bad days puts every food you eat next to a symptom and nothing can be told apart from anything else.
Where Minthe fits, if at all
Minthe is a wellness and self-tracking tool, not a medical device. It does not diagnose or treat any condition and isn't a substitute for professional medical advice. If you have red-flag symptoms such as blood in your stool, unintentional weight loss, difficulty swallowing, persistent vomiting or a fever alongside gut symptoms, see a clinician rather than tracking them.
Frequently asked
Which is better for IBS, Bearable or mySymptoms?
mySymptoms, if the gut is your main problem. It is built specifically around food and symptom analysis, records at ingredient level, and lets you set the analysis window anywhere from 1 to 72 hours, which matters because gut reactions are often delayed. Bearable is better if your gut is one of several things you are tracking.
Which is easier to use?
Bearable, clearly. Its logging is quick and the interface is widely praised, which is reflected in an unusually high rating average. The most common complaint about mySymptoms is that thorough logging is laborious, and that is not a bug so much as the cost of the detail it captures. Choose honestly based on how much logging you will actually sustain.
Do both work on Android?
Yes, both are on iOS and Android, which is worth noting because many of the gut-specific alternatives are iPhone only.
Are they free?
Both let you log for free and charge for the fuller analysis features. Price is a common complaint theme for both, more so for Bearable in its critical reviews. Neither is expensive relative to the category, and both are cheaper than the programs that include a dietitian.
Can either one tell me my trigger foods?
Both offer correlation analysis, and mySymptoms is more oriented toward it. The caveat that applies to both, and to every tool that correlates many variables including ours, is the multiple-comparison problem: examine enough foods and some will look significant by chance. We could not find a published description of how either handles it, so we cannot compare them on that basis and we are not going to assume the worst.