If you've searched for a breastfeeding app, you've probably come across Huckleberry. It's one of the most popular baby tracking apps out there, and for good reason. It tracks feeds, diapers, sleep, pumping, solids, growth, milestones, and more. It even has a "SweetSpot" sleep predictor.
MilkMode takes a completely different approach. It tracks breastfeeding. That's it.
We're not going to pretend we're unbiased here. We built MilkMode. But we also used other apps before building it, and we think there's a real case for both. So here's an honest breakdown to help you figure out which one fits your life better.
TL;DR: Huckleberry is great if you want one app for everything — but the best features require a $5–$15/month subscription. MilkMode is free to download, $4.99 once to keep, and gives you the fastest, simplest breastfeeding timer with zero clutter.
The quick version
| Feature | MilkMode | Huckleberry |
|---|---|---|
| Breastfeeding timer | Yes | Yes |
| Left/right tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Home Screen widget | Full feed control (included) | Requires Plus subscription |
| Live Activities / Dynamic Island | Yes (included) | Requires Plus subscription |
| Sleep tracking | No | Yes |
| Diaper tracking | No | Yes |
| Pumping tracker | No | Yes |
| Pricing | Free 7-day trial, then $4.99 | Free tier, Plus $9.99/mo, Premium $14.99/mo |
| Accounts required | No | Yes |
| Data stays on device | Yes | No (cloud sync) |
Huckleberry's free tier: what you actually get
Huckleberry has a free tier, but it's important to understand what that means in practice. The free version gives you basic tracking: sleep, feeds, diapers, growth, and a breastfeeding timer. That sounds decent on paper.
But the features that make Huckleberry worth using — the SweetSpot nap predictor, schedule creator, data-driven insights, enhanced reports, and AI-powered logging — are all locked behind paid subscriptions. The free tier is a funnel. You get a 14-day trial of Premium features to get hooked, and then they disappear unless you pay $4.92–$9.99/month (Plus) or $9.99–$14.99/month (Premium). The SweetSpot predictor used to be free but was moved behind the paywall.
Even widgets require a subscription. Huckleberry's Home Screen widgets and Live Activities are locked behind the Plus plan. One App Store reviewer called this "a blatant cash grab, especially for parents who already paid for a premium service" after widgets that were previously included got paywalled. And users who do pay report the widgets are buggy — the one-tap tracking widget not linking correctly into the app, and informational dialogs reappearing after being dismissed.
Promotional notifications disguised as tips. The app pushes "tip" popups directly into the tracking list, taking the place of your most-used tracker and shifting everything down. Users report accidentally tapping the tip instead of their tracker, which loads whatever promotional content Huckleberry is pushing at that moment. The app also forces you to visit the Messages page every time there's a new message, even while you're in the middle of logging something. Users report difficulty turning these notifications off.
On top of that, the AI logging button appears in the interface even when you haven't subscribed. Users report syncing issues between caregivers (both parents must share the same email login), entries that don't save, and recent UI regressions that added more taps for basic tasks like diaper logging.
There are no traditional banner or interstitial ads in Huckleberry's free tier. But between the promotional notifications, tip popups, upgrade prompts, and paywalled widgets, the experience is far from ad-free.
When Huckleberry makes sense
If you're willing to pay for a subscription, Huckleberry is great for parents who want a single app that tracks everything. The SweetSpot sleep predictor is genuinely useful if your baby's nap schedule is all over the place. But that requires a paid plan.
If you're planning to stay on the free tier, know that you're getting a basic tracker with limited insights and a lot of "upgrade to unlock" friction.
When MilkMode makes more sense
MilkMode was built for a specific kind of parent. The one who is sitting in a dark room at 3am, baby in one arm, phone in the other, and just needs to tap one button to start a feed.
No login screen. No "what do you want to track?" prompt. No diaper log popping up when all you want to do is start a timer.
Here's what makes MilkMode different:
The widget does everything — and it's included. You can start a feed, switch sides, pause, and finish an entire session from the Home Screen widget. You literally never need to open the app. With Huckleberry, the widget requires a Plus subscription ($9.99/month) and even then it's more of a shortcut that still opens the app. Users report it's buggy even after paying.
Live Activities on the Lock Screen. Once a feed starts, it shows up on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. You can see the timer without unlocking your phone or finding the app. Huckleberry doesn't offer this.
No account, no cloud, no data leaving your phone. MilkMode stores everything locally. You don't need to create an account or agree to data collection. Your baby's feeding data never touches a server. For parents who care about privacy, that matters.
Free to download, then $4.99 once. MilkMode is free for the first 7 days. After that, it's a single $4.99 payment. You own it forever. No upsells, no premium tiers, no "upgrade to unlock" prompts. Huckleberry has a free tier, but the premium features (including the sleep predictor) require a paid plan: Plus at $9.99/month ($58.99/year) or Premium at $14.99/month ($119.99/year). Over a year of breastfeeding, that's up to 24x what MilkMode costs.
Privacy and data concerns
Huckleberry requires an account and syncs all data to the cloud. According to Apple's privacy labels, Huckleberry collects Health & Fitness data, Contact Info, Identifiers, Usage Data, and Diagnostics — all linked to your identity. Usage Data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies. Security researchers at NowSecure have flagged the app for discrepancies in privacy declarations, external server communication patterns, and requesting background location access — unusual for a baby tracker.
MilkMode stores everything on your device. No account, no cloud sync, no location tracking, no data collection. Period.
What MilkMode doesn't do
We believe in being upfront about this. MilkMode does not track sleep, diapers, pumping, bottle feeds, solids, or growth. It doesn't have a sleep predictor. It doesn't sync between caregivers (yet).
If you need those things, MilkMode isn't trying to replace them. It's a breastfeeding timer. That's the whole product.
But here's the thing. A lot of parents download an everything-app and then only use the breastfeeding timer. If that sounds like you, MilkMode might be a better fit. Fewer taps, less clutter, and an interface that's designed around just one job.
The real question
It comes down to this: do you want one app that does 15 things, or one app that does one thing really, really well?
There's no wrong answer. It depends on what kind of parent you are, how much data you want, and how much friction you're willing to deal with at 3am.
We built MilkMode because we wanted less. Less setup. Less cognitive load. Less time staring at a screen when we could be looking at our baby. If that resonates with you, give it a try.
Try MilkMode free for 7 days
One-time purchase after trial. No subscription.
Download on the App Store