Baby tracking with nothing paywalled.
Logging stays free — in writing. Entries save on your phone the moment you let go, predictions explain themselves and take corrections, and your data exports to CSV whenever you like.
- Free forever
- iOS 17+
- No analytics
- No card
Same four complaints, every month, for years.
used this app for 14 months. second baby arrived and the multi-child upgrade deleted three weeks of feeds?? support reply just told me to enable iCloud which was already enabled. paid £80 for the year of plus and the bespoke sleep plan it gave me was 'put baby down drowsy but awake' which I could've found on Mumsnet for free. and don't get me STARTED on removing the mixed diaper option. i hate it here.
I pulled 1,708 of their App Store reviews — US and UK, right up to this month — and categorised every low-star complaint. Four things dominate: free features moved behind the paywall (48% of complaints, and still cited five years later), entries that don't save (rising, 31% of recent ones), a prediction that's wrong for your baby with no way to correct it, and widgets that are broken or cost extra.
Pipkin started as a list of those four things pinned above my desk. It isn't trying to out-clever anyone — it's the boring version that logs a feed in one tap and still has the data next month.
So what's actually different?
Huckleberry does plenty well — people wouldn't be this annoyed with it otherwise. This table is just the sore points, plus a couple of things I cared about.
| Dimension | Huckleberry | Pipkin |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability | Reports of lost entries and sync duplicates after updates. | Local-first SwiftData, native iCloud sync, every record carries an updatedAt for conflict ordering. |
| Diaper logging | Mixed removed — tap pee, then tap poo, every single time. | Mixed restored. One tap. Wet, dirty, mixed, dry — equal first-class options. |
| Pricing | Plus and Premium tiers. Surprise charges. Customer support behind a paywall. | One tier. Logging never costs anything. Plus unlocks insights. 7-day trial, no card. |
| Sleep predictions | "Sweet spot" black-box guess; no way to see the reasoning. | Age-baseline plus your child's recent rhythm, with the explanation displayed alongside the window. |
| Logging speed | Multiple taps from a cold app start. | One tap from Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets. Live Activity timer in the Dynamic Island. |
| Privacy | Third-party analytics and trackers. | Zero third-party analytics. Your data stays in your iCloud private database. |
Built for one thumb in a dark room.
Big colour-coded buttons, because most logging happens half-asleep and one-handed. Every timer is one tap to start, one to stop, and the running duration sits on the lock screen so you don't even have to open the app to check it.
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Sleep
Naps and night sleep with start-and-stop timers. Live Activity on the lock screen so you don't have to open the app.
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Feed
Bottle (with optional ml volume), timed breast left and right, and solids with food notes.
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Diaper
Wet, dirty, mixed, dry — four equal buttons in one row. Mixed is back.
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Insights
Predictions that show their reasoning. Pattern surfacing for sleep regressions, with developmental context.
What's in it
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Sleep
Naps and night sleep with start-and-stop timers, location and notes. Live Activity on the lock screen.
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Feeding
Bottle with volume, timed breast left and right, solids with food notes. Volume captured on stop.
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Diapers — mixed restored
Wet, dirty, mixed, dry. One row, four equal buttons. Mixed is a first-class option again.
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Explained predictions
Nap-window forecasts that combine age-baseline with your child's recent rhythm — and show their reasoning.
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iCloud sync
Native CloudKit private database. Same iCloud account on iPhone and iPad sees the same data, instantly.
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Private by design
No analytics SDKs, no trackers, no card details to start a trial. Everything lives in your own iCloud — I couldn't read it even if I wanted to.
Free, plus one paid tier
Tracking is free with no catch — it isn't a trial and it doesn't shrink later. Plus exists so the app can pay its own bills: it gets you the charts, the predictions, and milestone photos kept at the size your phone took them.
- Unlimited sleep, feed, diaper, growth, milestone logging
- iCloud sync across all your devices
- Home Screen + Lock Screen widgets
- Live Activity timers
- Email support
- Everything in Free, plus:
- Nap-window predictions with reasoning
- Feeding-interval suggestions
- Pattern surfacing for regressions
- Full-resolution milestone photo backup
- 7-day free trial — no card required up front
On the TestFlight beta? You keep Plus free, for life.
What's free today stays free.
The most common complaint about the app I'm replacing isn't a bug. It's that features people relied on — free for years — moved behind a subscription overnight. Parents still write about it, five years on. So, in writing:
Every free feature in Pipkin stays free. All tracking, the day timeline and summaries, growth charts and history, widgets, Live Activities, iCloud sync, and CSV export will never move behind the paywall.
Plus only ever gates new intelligence — predictions, pattern surfacing, full-resolution photo backup. If I ever break this promise, this page will still be here, and every one-star review gets to link to it.
— Josh, Pipkin's developer · Manchester, June 2026
It's on TestFlight now.
Leave an email and I'll send an invite when a spot opens up. The first 200 beta testers keep Plus free for life — partly a thank you, partly because you're the ones who'll tell me what's broken. When they're gone, they're gone.
Beta invites and launch news only — a couple of emails a month, written by a person. Unsubscribe anytime. How your email is handled.
The fine print, up front.
Will free features move behind the paywall later?
No. That's the pledge — dated, signed, and permanent. Plus only ever gates new intelligence, never the tracking you already rely on.
Do I need an account?
There are no accounts. No email, no password, nothing to get logged out of at 3 a.m. Pipkin uses the iCloud you're already signed into, invisibly.
What happens to my data if I cancel Plus or delete the app?
Cancel Plus and every log you made stays exactly where it is — tracking keeps working, forever. Your data lives on your phone and in your own iCloud, and you can export the lot to CSV first either way.
Does it work offline?
Yes — every entry saves to your phone first, in milliseconds, and syncs to iCloud when there's a connection. No spinner, no "downloading settings", no lost 3 a.m. feed.
Is any AI involved?
No. Predictions are simple, auditable rules — age baselines blended with your child's own recent rhythm — computed on your phone. They show their reasoning, and if a window feels off you can nudge it. No chatbot near your child's data.
Can my partner log too?
Honest answer: not yet. Today Pipkin syncs across all devices on one iCloud account. Co-parent sharing across two Apple IDs — no second account, share with a link — is the next major feature on the roadmap, and I won't claim it until it ships.
How do I get my data out?
Settings → Your data → Export everything as CSV. Two taps, opens in Numbers or Excel, covers every event for every child. No email request, no waiting, no tier.
What exactly does Plus cost and gate?
One tier, priced in your local App Store currency, with a 7-day trial and no card up front. It gates the Insights tab — predictions, pattern surfacing, charts — plus nap reminders and full-resolution photo backup. Everything else is free, permanently.