The Best Pacing Apps for Chronic Illness (2026)

Which pacing app is best for what?

Pacing means balancing activity and rest so you stay within your energy limits. The CDC says post-exertional malaise (PEM), when symptoms get worse after effort, typically 12 to 48 hours later, can be addressed by pacing. [1] Apps help in four ways: measuring your heart rate, budgeting your energy, timing rest breaks or keeping a diary you can look back on.

Prices are standard US prices from each company’s website or US App Store listing, checked on 9 October 2026. They can change, so check before you buy. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Who is Visible best for?

Best for: People with ME/CFS, long COVID or POTS who want heart-rate data to guide pacing and are happy to wear an armband. If that is you, Visible is the specialist tool.

What stands out: Visible is built for illness, not fitness. [10] The free app measures your heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) with your phone camera each morning and gives you a Stability Score. Evening check-ins record symptoms and crashes, and you can view Trends, create a Health Report PDF and export your data. [11] With a paid membership and the Visible Band 2.0, which is made by Polar, you get all-day heart rate, heart-rate zones and PacePoints, and Visible notifies you on your phone when you are over-exerting. [10] [11]

Things to know: Membership is only available in the US and UK. [12] On 9 October 2026, Visible’s US website listed membership at $19.99 a month or $179.88 a year, plus $79.70 for the band. [2] Membership works only with Visible Band 2.0 or Polar Verity Sense, so an Apple Watch or Garmin can’t stand in for the band. [13] The Health Report needs 30 days of morning check-ins and leaves out all-day heart rate and PacePoints. [14] It runs on iPhone and Android, and is rated 4.8 from more than 3,600 App Store ratings. [15] [16] We compare it with Juno in Visible vs Juno.

Who is Juno best for?

Best for: People who want to plan a day around limited energy without buying a band, and anyone who finds typing or forms hard on bad days. Juno is our app, so read this section with that in mind.

What stands out: Juno’s pacing tool is built on spoon theory. You rate your energy and Juno turns it into a spoon budget for the day. Each planned activity gets an estimated spoon cost, and Juno can estimate costs for events in your calendar. Costs go up after a poor night’s sleep, or when your wearable shows lower HRV or a higher resting heart rate than your normal. If the day goes over budget, Juno marks it as a crash risk, so you can move something, shorten it or add rest. [17] [18] You can log symptoms by voice or text and bring a one-page summary to appointments. Pacing is part of the free plan. [19]

The research behind it: Our technical white paper, Personalized pacing with Juno, sets out how the budget could learn from your own records. [20] In its method, your budget is your energy rating (1 to 10) times a personal number of spoons per point. That number starts at 2.4, so an energy rating of 5 gives 12 spoons, and it can be fitted from your records within a range of 1.2 to 4.0. The paper also describes updating what a repeated activity costs you from the costs you record, checking whether busier days are followed by lower energy one or two days later, and spotting low-energy episodes against your recent average. It is clear that this is a development prototype, not a clinically validated tool. It does not diagnose PEM, and a higher budget is never an instruction to do more. These learning parts are research, not features in the app today.

Things to know: Spoon estimates are a rough planning aid, not a safe limit, and your own sense of your body comes first. Juno doesn’t give live heart-rate alerts during activity; for that, look at Visible’s band or Pacing Guard with a chest strap. It connects Apple Health, Health Connect, Oura, Garmin, Fitbit, Withings and Whoop, among 20+ wearables and health platforms, and can import your Visible history. [19] [18] [21] The free plan has a monthly limit on AI chat; Juno Pro costs $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year in the US. [3] Juno needs an internet connection. [22] It runs on iPhone and Android, and is rated 4.8 from more than 10,000 App Store ratings. [23] [24]

To try the starting rule before downloading anything, use our free spoon calculator: pick today’s energy, add your plans and see what is left.

Who is Welltory best for?

Best for: People who want a quick HRV reading each day from their phone, or from a watch they already own, without buying a band.

What stands out: Welltory measures HRV with your phone camera: you cover the lens and light with a fingertip and stay still for about a minute, and it reads the result against your own baseline. No ring or watch is needed. It can also take readings from an Apple Watch, Samsung Watch or Bluetooth heart-rate monitor, and pull in overnight data through Apple Health, Health Connect, Samsung Health, Oura and Garmin. [25]

Things to know: Welltory is a general wellbeing app, not one built for chronic illness. Its activity feature sets a goal and gently encourages progress, which may not suit PEM, so use it for readings rather than targets. [4] The free app includes one camera or heart-rate-monitor reading a day; Premium removes that limit. [25] The US App Store lists yearly Premium plans at $99.99 and $119.99. Some phones can’t take camera readings because the flash sits too far from the lens. [26] It runs on iPhone, Apple Watch and Android, and is rated 4.7 from about 134,000 App Store ratings. [4] [27]

Who is Pacely best for?

Best for: People with long COVID, ME/CFS, a brain injury or burnout who want a calm day planner with a small energy budget, and no scores or streaks.

What stands out: Each morning you set a small budget. During the day you drag activities into time blocks at one of five intensities, and rest gives points back. In the evening there is a short check-in. Pacely says it never pushes you to do more and does not predict crashes. If you think in spoons, it says the idea is the same. It works in any browser or as an app, with no smartwatch needed. [5] [28]

Things to know: Planning, check-ins and your activity list stay free. Charts, the assistant and a share link need Pacely Pro, at €5 a month on the web or $4.99 a month on the US App Store, after a free seven-day trial. [29] [28] It is in English and Dutch, and stores data in the EU. [5] It is new, and its US App Store listing has no ratings yet. [28] [30]

Who is Pacing Guard best for?

Best for: People who want to break activity into short timed bursts with rest in between, without watching the clock.

What stands out: Pacing Guard was made by a developer living with long COVID. It runs GO and REST cycles with voice or haptic cues, so you can put the phone in your pocket. You can set each phase from 5 to 120 seconds. [6] [31] With an optional Bluetooth chest strap, it alerts you as you approach a heart-rate limit you set, and can suggest a starting point from your resting heart rate. Sessions stay on your phone, with CSV export and an optional save to Apple Health. [31]

Things to know: It costs $4.99 once on the US App Store, with no subscription, account or ads, and works offline. [6] It runs on iPhone and iPad only. Its suggested heart-rate limit is based on Workwell Foundation guidance and, as the developer says, is not a personal prescription. [31] It is a timer, not a planner or a diary.

Who is mypacing best for?

Best for: People who already wear a watch or ring and want their resting heart rate, HRV and sleep compared with their own recent normal, next to a quick check-in.

What stands out: mypacing reads steps, sleep, resting heart rate and HRV from Apple Health or Health Connect and compares each with your usual range over the last four weeks. A daily check-in of four questions takes about 20 seconds. In the day plan you give your plans energy points and set your own daily budget, and mypacing adds them up. Its Patterns view shows observations, such as how you felt after very active days, with the number of days behind each one. [32] [33]

Things to know: It is free, in German and English, and says it is not a medical device. [7] [33] The daily recovery picture depends on a watch or ring that sends data to Apple Health or Health Connect. [32] On Android, version 2.0 is currently a direct download from mypacing’s website while it waits for Google Play review. The iPhone app needs iOS 17 or later, and a web app covers the check-in and day plan. [7] [33] It is very new, with one rating on the US App Store.

Who is Elara Health best for?

Best for: People with ME/CFS or long COVID, especially German speakers, who want a free pacing diary that pulls in data from the watch or ring they already wear.

What stands out: Elara is a symptom diary and pacing tool built in Germany for ME/CFS, long COVID and chronic fatigue. It brings symptoms, energy, activities, sleep and wearable data together in daily, weekly and monthly views, and includes PEM tracking. [34] Its website says it connects Apple Health or Health Connect, Samsung Health, Garmin, Oura, Fitbit and Polar, can set an Apple Watch heart-rate reminder, and can import HRV, resting heart rate and crash days from a Visible CSV export. [8]

Things to know: Elara says it is currently free. Its own comparison is open that its strain overview is for self-documentation, not a validated PEM prediction. [8] Elara’s website says the app is in German and English, while the US App Store lists German. It runs on iPhone, Apple Watch and Android. [34] [35]

Who is Bearable best for?

Best for: People who like rating energy and symptoms each day and building their own pacing system from what they see.

What stands out: Bearable says it was built with people living with ME/CFS, long COVID, POTS, EDS and fibromyalgia. You can log flare-ups, crashes and good days, and work out which activities drain you or give you energy. It syncs steps, sleep and heart rate from Apple Health and Fitbit. [36] The free plan includes unlimited energy, mood, sleep and symptom tracking, with 30-day trend and comparison graphs. [37]

Things to know: It has no energy budget or live alerts, so you set up pacing yourself. Correlation reports and longer report periods need Premium, at $6.99 a month or $34.99 a year. [37] [9] Because PEM often arrives a day or two later, look beyond same-day links in any chart. [1] It runs on iPhone and Android, and is rated 4.8 from more than 6,400 App Store ratings. [36]

Which pacing app should you choose?

• You want a live warning when you overdo it: Visible with its band, or Pacing Guard with a chest strap.
• You want to plan the day before it starts: Juno, Pacely or mypacing.
• Counting feels like too much: Pacing Guard’s timer, or Pacely’s three short moments a day.
• You want to look back and spot delayed crashes: Bearable, Elara Health or Juno.
• You don’t want to pay anything: Visible’s free app, Juno’s free plan, Pacely’s free planner, mypacing or Elara Health.

Many people use two apps: one for numbers and one for notes. If any screen is too much, our free energy and fatigue tracker is a printable week with room for next-day symptoms, so delayed crashes show up.

Do pacing apps prevent crashes?

Not reliably, on current evidence. In a randomised trial of 250 adults with long COVID, one group used a pacing app with a wearable that sent messages at 50%, 75% and 100% of a daily activity allowance. The other group used an app with data entry only. After six months, post-exertional malaise was no different between the groups. [38] The researchers say natural recovery in long COVID may have hidden an effect, and suggest testing the approach in ME/CFS. [39]

Heart-rate pacing is still being studied. In a feasibility study of 47 people with ME/CFS or long COVID, there were no serious adverse events, and 89% were still using a heart-rate monitor at 8 weeks and 66% at 6 months. [40] The CDC says some people find heart-rate monitors help them track how hard their body is working, and that activity and symptom diaries can help people find their limits. [1] [41]

NICE says energy management should be led by you, that each person’s energy limit is different and changes, and that you are the expert in judging your own limits. It says activity should never be automatically increased, and that self-monitoring should use tools you already use, such as an activity tracker, phone heart-rate monitor or diary. [42] An app’s numbers can help you notice and plan. They shouldn’t overrule how you feel. For more on the delay, read how to spot your PEM window.

How did we choose these apps?

We started with the pacing apps that rank for “pacing app” searches, including Visible, Pacing Guard, mypacing, Pacely and Elara Health, and added Bearable, Welltory and Juno, which people often use for pacing. Each has a current US App Store listing and either a free version or a one-off price.

Every fact about another app comes from its own website, help pages or store listing, checked on 9 October 2026. Juno is our app; for Juno we used only what our own site and store listing say. This compares published features and prices. It is not a hands-on test of every paid plan, and no app here diagnoses or treats any condition.

If you are weighing Juno against Visible, read Visible vs Juno. For condition-specific picks, see the best apps for ME/CFS and long COVID and the best apps for POTS. New to spoons? Start with spoon theory explained.

This article is for general information only and does not replace advice from your own clinician. Juno is a health assistant, not a medical provider.

Last updated: 2026-10-09