For years, Nara Baby was free. Well made, no ads, trusted by more than a million parents, and the app every Reddit thread recommended when someone asked for a tracker that wouldn't nag them for a subscription. If one of those threads sent you here, some news: Nara isn't free anymore. It's $9.99 a month or $99.99 for lifetime access, after a 7-day trial. (Here's exactly what Nara costs now and what happens when the trial ends.)
MilkMode costs $4.99, once. So the question has changed. It used to be "why pay for a breastfeeding timer when Nara gives you a full tracker for nothing?" Now it's "what am I actually paying for, and who am I paying?" The answer still comes down to how each app makes money.
One update since this was written: in June 2026 Nara Organics recalled all of its infant formula after four babies were hospitalized with botulism. The app is not a recalled product and still works, but it is the same company, and the recall is a very direct illustration of the point below. The full story is in Nara's formula recall and the app that was never really free.
TL;DR: Nara Baby is an ad-free, full-featured tracker that now costs $9.99/month or $99.99 lifetime. It's owned by formula maker Nara Organics and was built, by the company's own account, to build a relationship with future formula customers. MilkMode is a focused breastfeeding timer, $4.99 once, with no account, no cloud, and no company trying to sell you anything else.
Quick comparison
| Feature | MilkMode | Nara Baby |
|---|---|---|
| Breastfeeding timer | Yes (core focus) | Yes (one of many) |
| Left/right tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Home Screen widget | Full feed control | Limited |
| Live Activities / Dynamic Island | Yes | Yes |
| Diaper / sleep / pumping tracking | No | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Owned by | An independent app team | Nara Organics (a formula company) |
| Account required | No | Yes (for sync & sharing) |
| Data & sync | On-device only | Cloud-based |
| Platforms | iPhone only | iPhone, Android |
| Pricing | Free 7-day trial, then $4.99 once | 7-day free trial, then $9.99/month or $99.99 lifetime |
The Nara Baby experience
Nara Baby is a clean, full-featured tracker. It logs breastfeeding, bottles, pumping, sleep, diapers, and growth, and it lets caregivers sync and share a baby's day across devices. There are no ads, the design is calm, and one payment covers every caregiver in your family. On the surface, it's hard to fault.
The context worth knowing: Nara Baby was launched by Esther Hallam, who founded Nara Organics after struggling to find an infant formula that met her standards. The app came first and grew to over a million parents, largely by word of mouth, while the company developed its organic formula. As Inc. reported, the app effectively became a marketing funnel, a way to build a trusted relationship with parents who are exactly the company's future formula customers.
None of that makes Nara a bad app. The team is clearly thoughtful, and for a long time a free, ad-free tracker was a real gift to a lot of families. But be clear about the deal: the app was free because you, and your relationship with the brand, were the product the company was investing in. Now you pay for the app, and the relationship is still the point.
Every price has a business model
Every app has to make money somehow. The useful question is always: how?
- Subscription apps (Huckleberry, Glow) charge you directly, often $70 to $120 a year.
- Ad-supported apps sell your attention to advertisers.
- Nara Baby now charges $9.99 a month or $99.99 once, and it's still owned by a company that sells formula. Nara's FAQ says the fee lets them keep improving the app, which is fair enough. The brand relationship that feeds the formula business hasn't gone anywhere, though.
- MilkMode charges $4.99 once. That's the entire business model. There's nothing else to sell you.
If you're exclusively breastfeeding, there's something a little ironic about logging every feed inside an app owned by a formula company. To be fair, Nara doesn't push formula at you inside the tracker. But the relationship exists, your account and data live in their cloud, and the long game is a commercial one. Some parents won't mind that at all. Others would rather their breastfeeding data not sit inside a formula brand's ecosystem.
The MilkMode experience
MilkMode does one thing: it's the fastest, calmest way to time a breastfeed. A Home Screen widget lets you start, switch sides, pause, and finish without opening the app. Live Activities put the running timer on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. It remembers which side you started on last time, and it has a dark mode built for night feeds.
There's no account to create and no cloud. Your feeding data never leaves your phone (not even to us). You pay $4.99 once, and that's the whole relationship: no formula emails, no upsells, no data funnel.
When Nara Baby makes more sense
- You want one ad-free app that tracks everything (feeds, diapers, sleep, pumping), and $99.99 once or $9.99 a month feels fair for that
- You need Android support (MilkMode is iPhone only)
- You want cloud sync and sharing across a big caregiver circle (one payment covers everyone)
- You're comfortable with a formula company owning the app and your account data
When MilkMode makes more sense
- You mainly want a breastfeeding timer, and you want it to feel effortless
- You want the fastest logging possible: a widget + Live Activities, usable one-handed
- You'd rather pay $4.99 once than $99.99, and you'd rather your data didn't live in a formula brand's cloud
- You want zero account and data that stays entirely on your phone
- You want a calm, single-purpose app instead of a full dashboard
Which one belongs on your phone?
Nara Baby is a good, ad-free tracker, and for plenty of families the $99.99 lifetime plan is exactly right, especially if more kids are in the plan and there are grandparents and babysitters to keep in the loop. Just go in knowing the whole deal: it's no longer free, it's owned by a formula company, it runs on an account in their cloud, and the company's long game is you as a future formula customer.
If that sits fine with you, Nara is a solid pick. If you'd rather keep your breastfeeding data on your own phone, skip the account entirely, and use an app whose only job is to be a great timer, that's exactly what MilkMode is built for, at a one-time $4.99 and nothing else.
Curious how Nara stacks up against the big subscription apps? Read Nara Baby vs. Huckleberry, or see our roundup of the best breastfeeding app alternatives.
Keep reading
- Nara Baby vs. Huckleberry: Which Baby Tracker Should You Actually Use?
- MilkMode vs. Baby Tracker (Nighp): Which One Should You Use?
- 5 Best Huckleberry Alternatives for Breastfeeding Moms (2026)
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No ads. No account. No data leaving your phone. Just a really good timer.
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