Lively - Period Tracker, Cycle reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
An aesthetically pleasing cycle tracker with food, activity and phase guidance — but its advertised "free" turns out to be a 7-day trial with auto-billing, and that contradiction defines how everyone experiences the app.
What users love
The core value is phase-by-phase guidance: what to eat, how to move, what to expect each day
People feel a real difference: food, activity and mood tips tailored to each cycle phase help them align workouts, diet and expectations. For many it's the reason to stay — the app explains WHY they feel the way they do.
I can honestly feel the difference. Even my boyfriend notices the difference in my mood, energy, and overall balance. I also started lining up my gym classes with my different cycle phases
love the whole body approach to cycle tracking! provides great insight to how I can expect to be feeling and how I should treat my body.
I particularly like the recommendations on what to eat and activities to do depending on different stages of your cycle
A calm, aesthetic, ad-free interface without aggressive upsells — and dark mode
The design earns its own praise: clean, not "bubblegum pink," ad-free, customizable to hide clutter. Dark mode is explicitly called a lifesaver during period overstimulation. The simplicity is the main selling point versus a cluttered Flo.
has a dark mode, YES THAT MATTERS i do not wish to be flashbanged when im already overstimulated from my period
No adds plus the easy of use and very calm outlay of everything makes lively amazing.
While I love the app - from it's information to functionality, even to the fact that it is not bubblegum pink like all the other trackers
A lifeline for PMDD: seeing the phase explains sudden mood crashes and suicidal thoughts
The strongest positive thread: for PMDD sufferers, opening the app to see "luteal phase" gives hope the state will pass. For some it literally held them through dangerous moments — a rare depth of value for a tracker.
Whenever I have a terrible episode, I open this app and there it is: the luteal phase. It gives me so much hope knowing I'm not losing my mind
This app saved my life a few times. I have Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
This app has helped me understand when my body is tired or anxious because of my cycle or if it's because of my chronic disorder.
What users hate
"Free" means a 7-day trial requiring a card, and you only find out after a long onboarding questionnaire
The price isn't disclosed before install: users complete the whole intro and cycle setup, hit a paywall, and the only "free" option is a trial that auto-charges ~$30/year. People feel tricked specifically because of the order — invest time first, get billed second.
Subscription required After you go through a lengthy intro explaining all the great things this app can do, you end up at a pay wall. free trial for 7 days and then around $30/year after that
you have to pay to even use this app..went through all the questionnaire to get told you have to purchase a free trial...for SEVEN whole days
If your app costs money say so up front. Don't let me download it just to offer me a "free trial"
It asks you to rate the app BEFORE you're allowed to use it
After building a profile the app demands a rating before the user has tried anything, then immediately throws up the subscription screen. It reads as rating-gaming and erodes trust from the first minute.
it prompted me to leave a review before I could access the features. I can't review an app I have never used.
asked for a review before I could even try it out
asks for a rate before even opening because it's not free
Irregular or long cycles break the app: you can't log a period longer than ~15–20 days
A hard cap on period length (15, 16, 20 days) plus the inability to edit dates makes the tracker useless for exactly the people who need it most — PCOS, postpartum, coming off birth control. The app silently truncates real data.
it's great overall but yalls app WONT LET ME LOG MY PERIOD FOR LONGER THAN 15 DAYS AT A TIME and I'm on day 21
Won't let me track my period because it's "too long". Yeah that's why I'm tracking it I'm concerned, why is there a 20 day limit??
I wasn't able to even properly track my periods because they only allowed a max of 16 days. I have PCOS
Predictions don't learn: it forecasts periods too early and invents an absurdly long luteal phase
Even with a regular cycle the app is consistently 3–5 days off and won't revise its forecast from history — it "guesses then sticks to that guess." The luteal-phase logic is plainly broken (26 days after ovulation).
it telling me my next cycle would start in 26 days after I logged ovulation - no luteal phase is that long!!
it always predicts my period too early and says my luteal phase is super long for no reason
I've been using it for 4 months now and it's always off by 5 days +. I've input all my information correctly and it's still off.
Partner sync constantly drops: every login means re-entering the code and re-registering
The headline feature for couples won't persist login state: desyncs, a fresh code on every open, confusion between partner and user mode — even prompting a man to "track his period." Some leave for Flo specifically over this.
Every time I open it I have to relink my partner. Simply does not work and has caused more issues for us than it has done to help.
partner sync is terrible. doesn't persist login state and gets confused between partner mode and user mode.
Every time I want to use it I have to get the code all over again and it's such a hassle.
An endless "needs an update" screen: there's no update available, yet the app won't let you in
After an update the app gets stuck on an "update Lively" screen even though no update exists in the store. Reinstalling, clearing cache, switching phones — nothing works, and the user is fully locked out of their data and partner.
the app keeps saying it needs a glow up, i.e. download the update. The problem is the app is updated, it just keeps bringing me to that screen every time I open it
uninstalled and re installed app and it still insists i need an update despite an update not being available
I go to update the app in the app store (android) but there's no update available. I restarted my phone, uninstalled then reinstalled the app and still can't access it
Data vanishes: it logs you out, loses years of tracking, and won't save edits
Sudden logouts and glitches wipe out 2 years of history; logged weight and symptoms disappear; the save button spins and reverts edits. For a health tracker, data loss is a fatal flaw.
All my data was lost due to an issue on their end and my account wasnt recovered. So the last two years of tracking data is gone.
it logged me out and no matter how many times I send a "code" to log back in...nothing. I lost almost 2 years worth of cycles.
I'll press the edit button and then edit it, and after I press save it loads but then goes back to how it was before.
The best features get moved behind the paywall retroactively — what was free is suddenly locked
Long-time free users complain that the once-free "eat" and "do" tips got locked behind premium after an update, and the AI advisor is now paid too. The "bait then gate" move stings the most loyal users hardest.
they really hid more insights and information behind the paywall just this update. very trashy to do that. they use to give you tips on what you should eat depending on your cycle, completely free. now it's not.
since the latest update, they've removed one of the info boxes that tells you what to do and eat each day, the 'eat' one is now only available if you pay for premium.
I like it but why can't I use advisor for free anymore?
The AI advisor is loved but constantly fails with "check your connection" on a strong network
The new AI chat is one of the most praised features (helps with scheduling, symptoms, post-miscarriage), which is exactly why its breakage stings: it reliably returns "Something went wrong, check your internet connection" on a working network.
the only answer I get from it is "Something went wrong, check your internet connection." at first I thought it was my internet so I retried when it was better, and I still get the same response.
it keeps glitching saying something went wrong checked internet every time I try to send it a message. this app is the best period tracker I've ever had though
The AI was able to format a fantastic schedule for me to maximize my gym time