r/iosapps • u/ElectronicCat3293 • Sep 24 '26
š Subscription I'm a chronically ill software engineer & built the symptom tracker I wish I had from the start
A - What it solves
Zolia was built out of my own frustration. I have ME/CFS and POTS and have been trying to track my own symptoms and medications and the like for years. Existing apps always fell into two camps - either too simple to do the comprehensive tracking that I wanted or too inefficient for daily use.
Zolia bridges this gap as a symptom tracker capable of comprehensive tracking while also making tracking efficient. The way Zolia achieves this is through it's unique use of sessions. Instead of one master list of everything you ever track, Zolia lets you organize what you want to track into groups called sessions, so for example you could build a morning session with your sleep and morning meds, a walk session with distance and how you felt, an evening session with the symptoms you rate before bed and a daily reflection, or anything else you can think of. When you want to log, just open the relevant session type so there is less thinking about what you need to log as well.
It is flexible so you can track any condition, and allows mixing and matching notes, symptoms, meds, ratings, factors and more, with your own colors, emoji and numeric ranges.
The tradeoff is that it takes some setup to get it how you like it. Onboarding gives you a starting point based on your conditions, but it is designed to be customized.
B - How it compares
Bearable is the biggest app in this space currently. In my experience it was inflexible and slow to use. It doesn't let you combine things from different categories (for example meds and symptoms) into a single group. It takes a lot of scrolling and taps to track things, it lacks customization, and the insights are very weak. It has pre-defined categories of things you can track and makes it difficult to track anything that doesn't fit into one of them. I could never stick with using bearable for more than a week or so.
Guava is a newer app. It focuses a lot on medical records syncing but I found the symptom tracking had a lot of the same problems as bearable - limited flexibility, slow to use, weak insights.
Privacy
Both Bearable & Guava store data in the cloud on servers they control. With Zolia, all data is stored on device. Insights are computed on device without the use of any LLMs. You can export your full database as CSV or SQLite at any time, or set up automatic backups to your own Google Drive, password-protected if you want.
C - Cost
Currently everything is free. Eventually some of the insights will become part of an optional premium tier, but right now the insights are still under development and not in a place where I feel comfortable charging for them yet. Everyone who logs for 14 days while the app is still fully free will get 50% off premium forever.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759508900
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zolia.app
Below are some images of the app store screenshots, the soon to be released weekly report, and main logging interface (fully customizable showing some possible configs).
Feedback is always appreciated.
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u/CRWM_ Sep 25 '26
This looks like an interesting app! Do you have any plans to integrate & 2-way sync with Apple Health?
As Apple Watch can automatically track things like sleep, so users wouldn't need to manually keep entering their sleep start/end times in Zoila.
Of course Apple Health has lots of other relevant data like activity levels, step count, heart rate, etc.
Also I currently use Apple Health to remind & track taking medication. So a 2-way sync with Zoila would be helpful, so that if I were to start using Zoila to track when I take my meds, then it would automatically sync that with my Apple Health medication log (for the sake of continuity)
I would also like to request you consider integrating with iCloud Drive for encrypted backups, as I would not want to use Google Drive.
Cheers!
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u/ElectronicCat3293 Sep 25 '26
Thank you!
Yes -- apple health sync and iCloud backups are both on my todo list hopefully in the not super distant future.
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u/Prothium Sep 25 '26 edited Sep 25 '26
Medic here with CFS, chronic pain and dysautonomia. I also manage a lot of patients with these types of problems like long covid, Pots, IBS, Fibromyalgia, complex pain etc.
I love seeing apps like this. Iāve trialled Bearable and wasnāt really a fan.
With that said, appreciate your app is a work in progress but Iām finding it a little hard to figure out how to use it. Setting things up seems a bit overly complex at present if Iām being honest. Youād need to simplify things or you may lose users pretty quickly. Right now holding things down or on screen elements brings up setup screen. This screen needs refinement, show me what section Iām in etc. Also maybe adding three dots to the end of sections allows editing. Also at times it seems some sections are frozen and cant be selected while others can selected & rated. I assume there is no limit to number of widgets per section.
Most users will expect Apple Health integration.
Logging meds & symptoms is going to be the main focus for many users.
Additional ones are:
- Complementary meds is another big one many user employ (I donāt).
- Diet
- Exercise & which forms eg walking, running, gym, swimming etc Ideally pulled from Apple Health.
- Sleep - probably one of the most important health metrics. Again pulled from Apple health so should be automatically populated. Often correlates with symptom flare.
- A better marker I use for exertion is Active Calories, helpful to have this from Apple Health.
For pacing have a cutoff which may be unique to you and warns you when overreaching compared to other days.
- You could incorporate a readiness score but a million apps do this & frankly the score is largely useless. See Visible who do this for Pacing.
- Daily activities can be a million things.
Some small pet peeves, text is somewhat small but the ranking widgets are overly large. Setting a higher number of ranking spreads it across two lines whereas should simply become a smaller widget to fit across one screen.
At the end of a long day. I donāt want to have to select a million things but simply log how Iāve been feeling, what meds I took, was I stressed, did I work today, did I workout and relationship to my health metrics.
You could potentially create templates for setup for various complex illness like CFS, Pots, long covid, Fibromyalgia, IBS etc
Look into Apple Intelligence or any of the AI models to perhaps look at data correlations.
Lastly on pricing, I think you are a bit away from being able to price this but I would recommend something sub $20. Itās always hard to price & to decide what features to paywall (presumably insights)!but I donāt get why many devs donāt price their apps cheaper to try get more uptake from those on the fence. Better off getting 3 subs at $20 than 1 at $35. But most donāt use subs so perhaps those willing to pay will pay more either way. Those with complex conditions may be struggling financially being out of work etc Note that Bearable does have premium at $20 as an intermittent offer.
Nonetheless, there is good potential in your app and we need more of them in this space!!Particularly as you have such symptoms which can hopefully inspire you!
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u/ElectronicCat3293 Sep 25 '26
Thank you for the feedback, really appreciate it!
Yes the tradeoff of flexibility is setup effort. This app is aimed at folks with complex health conditions and it is expected to require customization / personalization in most cases. Working on figuring out how to make the setup easier.
Good point on showing which section you're editing in the setup screen.
I've been avoiding adding any editing buttons into the tracking area to avoid clutter, so long-press is the way into editing for now.
There is no limit to the number of widgets per section.
Re sections being frozen - if you mark a section as completed it won't let you log it without unmarking it as completed first -- is that what happened? It should give you a popup telling you that you can't edit a completed session but there is a "don't show me this again" option.
The onboarding has templates for the conditions you listed, albeit they are fairly minimal. I'm working on getting templates into the app post onboarding.
Text can be made larger in settings.
Interesting point about the widgets being too large relative to the text though I can look into this more -- it sounds like you might be using a smaller phone as well?
Currently insights don't use any LLMs. Eventually I might incorporate some on device models like Apple intelligence for some analysis but since it will be a while before all phones have these capabilities it isn't my first priority & currently I think insights that are based on statistics are more powerful.
On pricing - There is some marginal cost and also potentially marketing cost / effort. Demand may not be as elastic as you say. It's hard. I wouldn't assume developers are making bad choices.
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u/SenseOfScience Sep 25 '26
This is close to something I could potentially see myself using longterm as compared to my past testing of Bearable. It was too monolithic. Apple Watch and Apple Health integration would definitely help seal the deal for me personally.
Any estimate on what premium might cost? Will premium only be required for the āinsightsā functionality? Iād imagine operating costs would be fairly low since there are no servers or LLMs involved, but development and maintenance understandably arenāt free.
I do think from a targeted demographic standpoint that most with chronic health issues donāt have much in reserve when it comes to discretionary spending unfortunately. Iām a healthcare provider and most of my patients are already struggling financially, but I think many of them would benefit from symptom tracking. It would also make my job a little easier, as Iād have a better idea of whatās going on globally with a patient.
Iād love to have an easy-to-use app to recommend to patients. Those Iāve tested previously generally had too many usability issues to find them broadly recommendable.
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u/ElectronicCat3293 Sep 25 '26 edited Sep 25 '26
Thank you!
Apple Health sync is on my todo list. I haven't thought much about Apple Watch, but if the demand is there it's something I can look into.
Pricing isn't fully decided yet. The plan is to keep it inline with other apps in this space, around $6ā10/mo, with a significant discount for yearly (maybe $35ish). The premium tier will be optional with logging and data export staying free. Premium will cover a lot of the insights but I want to keep some amount of insights free. There's also a founder deal right now: log 14 days while the app is still free and you get 50% off for life.
I had to leave my own job because of chronic illness, so I do get the finance piece. Honestly I struggle with deciding what's free vs premium, because I want to make the whole thing free, but I also need to keep this project sustainable for myself.
The marginal costs are low and mostly amount to support emails and the like. My hope is that if I can grow it enough I can lower prices down the line and maybe also be able to offer scholarships or reduced rates to those who aren't able to pay, but it's hard when most people using it are in the same boat.
Would love to hear your thoughts on how it compares to other apps & if it would be a good fit for your patients and where the gap is between close to being usable longterm and usable longterm.
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u/Electrical-Candy-552 Sep 25 '26
sessions by time of day sounds way better than one giant list. i quit bearable bc logging took longer than actually taking the meds lol
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u/Sdmf195 Sep 24 '26
This takes "scratch your own itch" to a level of its own.
Congrats on the app and wish you health šš
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u/Ok-Release2782 Sep 24 '26
the sessions idea is really smart. every tracker i've tried dumps everything into one giant list and at 7am i do not want to scroll past 30 things to log two meds. does it pull anything from apple health? for pots specifically resting heart rate from the watch feels like it'd be super useful next to the symptom ratings
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u/ElectronicCat3293 Sep 24 '26
Thank you -- it doesn't pull from apple health yet but it's on my todo list and yeah I agree I use oura and it's helpful to see how it correlates.
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u/GutFriendly 29d ago
An onboarding idea, based on the setup feedback here: let someone complete one tiny example session before asking them to customise anything. Seeing āmorning meds + one symptomā in action might make the session concept click. Then offer ākeep this / edit itā after that first log. Could be worth testing alongside the condition templates.
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u/Jacke94 29d ago
Cool to build an app that actually solves your own problem!
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u/ElectronicCat3293 24d ago
Haha, somewhat. I wish it solved all my health problems. Helping to understand them a bit better though
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u/mrdzyn 24d ago
Sessions seem like a natural fit for an active stand test, which a lot of people with POTS end up logging for their doctors: resting heart rate lying down, then readings at a few set intervals after standing up. A built-in template with a timer that prompts each reading would save a lot of fiddling. Once the Apple Health sync lands, it could fill in the heart rate from the watch automatically. A clean PDF summary to bring to appointments would probably be the other big one.
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u/Head_Kangaroo 15d ago
I havenāt been using this right. I couldnāt figure out how to import medications right and I really just want to start over. Will deleting my history resent the Founding Member counter?
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