There's no shortage of period trackers these days. But which period trackers are worth your time? And how can you find the best period tracker for your unique cycle and needs? Let's break it down.

It all depends on what you're looking for. If you want something that remembers the start date of your last period so you don't have to, pick any app, and you'll be sorted (or go old-school and revive the pen and paper method).

But if you're looking for more tools and resources to understand how your cycle-related experiences impact your mental and physical health, you'll need an app that goes beyond just bleeding. Your cycle is so much more than just bleeding, after all.

The Best Period Tracker For Your Overall Health

Enter: Clue, a science-based menstrual and reproductive health app created by a women-led team in Berlin in 2012. Clue takes a data-driven approach to decoding your cycle health, turning your tracked experiences into a powerful tool for understanding your overall health. Clue's goal is to help you connect the dots between your body, mind, and hormonal cycle so you can feel more in control of your health, armed with the data to back up your feelings.

Many period trackers stop at period tracking. And while this is an excellent start for gaining actionable insights for predicting and planning around your period, apps like Clue take a more holistic approach to period and cycle tracking.

The basic version of the Clue app is free to use. Its signature science-based Period Tracking mode tracks 150+ cycle-related experiences, from spotting and cramps to energy, feelings and physical activity. Clue Plus, offers tailored modes for conceiving, pregnancy, and even perimenopause, in addition to an enhanced period tracking mode with even more tracking options paired with cycle analysis and advanced cycle predictions.

Countless people with cycles have stories about healthcare providers dismissing their experiences as "dramatic" or even being gaslit by the healthcare system. Clue aims to give you the data at your fingertips to be an ally for every appointment. Because it's not in your head when it's in your data.

Why Track Your Period With Clue At All?

The menstrual cycle is more than just the period. It's a complex chain of activities in the brain, ovaries, and uterus linked to hormones, the chemical signals sent through the blood from one part of the body to another. Your cycle, and the experiences that go along with it, can offer insights into your overall health, too. Tracking the physical and mental changes you observe throughout your entire cycle can help visualize what is otherwise an invisible, hard-to-articulate experience, to identify cycle-related patterns and support proactive conversations with your healthcare provider when needed.

Once you know your baseline (what's normal for you), it's easier to see when something's not normal in your cycle. It's even easier when a tracking app gives you a heads-up when there's been a noticeable change, or when your "normal" is outside of the typical ranges and is something to speak to your healthcare provider about.

But what is "normal," generally speaking? On average, the menstrual cycle has a median length of 28 days, with ovulation typically taking place around day 14. Science can tell us averages on a population level, but it can't look inside your body and know exactly what's up with you and your cycle. Various health conditions, as well as external factors like stress, can shorten or prolong your cycle.

How To Meet Your Changing Health Goals Like Trying To Conceive And Pregnancy

Clue's premium subscription, Clue Plus, was created to meet your changing menstrual and reproductive health goals, from first periods to perimenopause and everything in between.

In Period Tracking mode, a premium subscription to Clue Plus gives you access to additional insightful features, including data visualization of key cycle statistics with cycle-on-cycle comparisons to help you better understand your patterns, symptom pattern analysis, advanced predictions, and fully customizable reminders.

Clue Plus gets you access to 12 cycles of Advanced Cycle Predictions in the Calendar View. Users can also create unlimited custom tracking tags to log the changing experiences that matter most to them and track 200+ cycle-related experiences, such as those related to the vulva, vagina, chest and breasts.

Clue Plus also includes specialized modes tailored to individual health goals and life stages including Clue Conceive, Clue Pregnancy, Clue Perimenopause, and Clue Tracking (without a period).

Clue Conceive uses a clinically validated algorithm to predict your most fertile days using just your period's start date with the option of inputting ovulation test results and recording body temperature. By accurately identifying your fertile window, Clue Conceive helps you time sex or insemination to increase your chances of getting pregnant.

Meanwhile, in Clue Pregnancy mode, you can continue to track symptoms, plus additional categories tailored for pregnancy, like heightened smell, taste, orgasms, and fetal movement and development. Clue Pregnancy mode walks you through each week of pregnancy with expert-written insights and content. Created by a team of expert healthcare providers, it's like having a midwife in your pocket.

With Clue Perimenopause, your Cycle View adapts to your changing cycle and period length, helping you track changes without unnecessary alerts about a "late" period. It's specifically designed for this life stage, with 14 additional categories like hot flashes, night sweats, and brain fog.

Your Data Is Your Superpower–And It Deserves To Be Protected

Your health data is personal, but it's also powerful—especially in a healthcare system that has long overlooked women's needs. Owning and controlling your cycle health data is key to taking charge of your care.

In a world where reproductive rights are uncertain and surveillance is a genuine concern, it's crucial to choose an app you can trust. Clue gives you a secure, private space to track your cycle and reproductive health, protecting your data.

With women's health historically under-researched, anonymized cycle data can drive new insights and better care. With Clue, your data helps empower not just you, but the future of women's health.

Clue continually explores ways to use this dataset to help the global medical community gain insights into under-researched women's health conditions. Most Clue members believe in participating in and contributing to research; more than 80% consent to their de-identified data being used for research purposes.

Clue has partnered with researchers from leading institutions like MIT, Berkeley, and Stanford to put their vast datasets to good use and drive real progress in overcoming gender research, diagnosis, and health gaps while maintaining strict fidelity to data protection rules.

The Final Verdict

Tracking with Clue helps you understand your body better. Remember, it's not in your head; it's in your data.

Clue is a safe space to mindfully track the nuances of your daily physical and emotional experiences, helping you connect the dots between your body, mind, and hormones. By identifying patterns, Clue reveals insights that can impact your metabolism, immune function, reproductive health, energy levels, and more.

This knowledge empowers you to interact more with healthcare providers, and make informed lifestyle choices precisely when they matter. Grounded in data and science, Clue's insights and predictions ease the mental load of navigating all choices and changes alone.

Ready to take control of your cycle with Clue? Use the code: medicaldaily to get 75% off your first year of Clue Plus. Claim your discount here. Your plan will renew at full price after one year, but you can cancel it at any time.