Comparison
Postdrome vs Apple Health
Apple Health is free, built into your iPhone, and genuinely private. It is also a place to store a single headache flag, not a way to understand a migraine. This comparison is about modeling depth, and we will be clear about where Apple Health is actually the stronger choice.
Choose Postdrome if
You want to understand your migraine, not just log that one happened: the postdrome phase, aura, triggers, vestibular attacks, and a doctor report. You are glad Postdrome also keeps data in your iCloud.
Choose Apple Health if
You want zero cost and nothing extra installed, you only need to store a basic headache flag, and you do not need pattern insights or a clinical report.
| Postdrome | Apple Health | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free core, $14.99 one-time Pro | Free, built in |
| Migraine concept | A full migraine model | A generic "Headache" symptom, five levels |
| Aura / prodrome / postdrome | Yes, all modeled | None |
| Triggers and correlations | Yes | None |
| Light / sound sensitivity | Yes | Not available in HealthKit |
| Vestibular / headache-free | First-class dimension | A separate Dizziness symptom, not linked |
| Doctor report | Free, tamper-evident, neurology-ready PDF | None |
| Privacy | Your iCloud | Your iCloud, end-to-end encrypted by default |
Give Apple Health its due
Apple Health is free, already on your phone, and its privacy is excellent: health data is end-to-end encrypted in iCloud by default, which means not even Apple can read it. If your only goal is to keep a private, occasional record that you had a headache, it does that well and costs nothing.
It is worth being honest about this, because Postdrome does not beat Apple Health on privacy. Postdrome also keeps health data in your iCloud. The comparison here is not about privacy. It is about how much of your migraine the tool can actually represent.
What Apple Health cannot represent
In HealthKit, headache is a single generic symptom with five severity levels: not present, mild, moderate, severe, and unspecified. There is no concept of a migraine, no aura, no prodrome, no postdrome, no trigger, and no field for light or sound sensitivity at all. Dizziness exists as a separate symptom, but it is not linked to any migraine record, so a vestibular attack is just an unconnected dizziness entry.
That means Apple Health can tell you a headache happened and roughly how bad it was. It cannot show you a pattern, a phase, or a recovery tail, and it cannot produce a report a neurologist or an insurer can use.
Apple Health stores a flag that says "headache." It has no field for the migraine around it.
When to use which
If you have infrequent headaches and want a free, private flag, Apple Health is fine, and you do not need anything else. If you are trying to understand a migraine, find its triggers, see how long the postdrome lasts, or hand a clinician a real record, you need a tool that models the disease.
Postdrome is built for the second case, and it keeps your data in the same private iCloud Apple Health uses, so you give up nothing on privacy to get the modeling.
Where Apple Health wins
- Free and already on every iPhone
- End-to-end encrypted in iCloud by default
- Nothing extra to install
- Fine for an occasional headache flag
- Central place that other health apps can read
Where Postdrome wins
- An actual migraine model, not a generic headache flag
- Aura, prodrome, and the postdrome phase
- Triggers, light and sound sensitivity, and patterns
- Vestibular attacks as first-class data
- A neurology-ready PDF, with data still in your iCloud
Same private iCloud. A tool that actually models the migraine.
Postdrome models the continuous pattern, the postdrome phase, and vestibular attacks as first-class data. Free pattern insights, a free neurology-ready PDF, one lifetime price, and your health data stays in your iCloud.
Get Postdrome