A free alternative to Nara Baby
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Gaia is a free baby tracker for iPhone, built as an alternative to Nara Baby for parents who do not want a subscription on a log they will keep for years. It tracks feeds, diapers, sleep, pumping, tummy time, growth, health and milestones, gives every caregiver their own login onto one shared timeline, and imports an existing Nara log by CSV in about a minute.
What is different about Gaia
- Free, and no subscription. No trial that ends, and what you are using today stays free. The thing parents most often regret about a tracker is finding the history they have built is behind a renewal.
- Every caregiver signs in as themselves. Your partner, a grandparent or a nanny each get their own account and password, and every entry shows who made it. Nobody passes a shared login around, and removing someone’s access does not mean changing a password everyone uses.
- Growth percentiles are worked out on your phone. Gaia uses the official WHO Child Growth Standards, evaluated on the device. Your baby’s measurements are not sent anywhere to draw a chart.
- It does not ask for your attention. No streaks and no daily goals. The two notifications it can send — another caregiver’s entry, and a reminder since the last feed — are both off until you switch them on.
- Your log comes with you. The Nara importer is built in, and keeps original dates, units and amounts. The steps are here.
What to check before you switch — whichever app you pick
These are the questions worth asking of any baby tracker, including this one:
- Can you get your data out, as a file, without paying? Try it before you need it.
- Does each caregiver get their own login, or does the family share one password?
- What happens to your history if you stop paying?
- Is anything about your baby sent anywhere to produce a chart or a prediction?
- Can you delete your account, and everything in it, from inside the app?
Gaia’s answers: yes and free; their own login; nothing, because there is nothing to stop paying; no, percentiles are computed on the device; yes, under Account. The privacy policy says what is stored and who hosts it.
Is Nara Baby a good app?
Yes — it is well made, and plenty of families are happy on it. Gaia exists for the ones who want the same job done without a subscription and with a separate login per caregiver. If Nara suits you, the honest advice is to stay on it; if you want to try Gaia, the importer means trying costs you nothing but five minutes, and your Nara log stays exactly where it is.
Download Gaia from the App Store — free, and about a minute to set up.
Looking at more than Nara? See the baby tracker comparison hub for sourced comparisons with Huckleberry, Baby Daybook, Glow Baby, Cubtale, Baby Connect, Talli, Onoco and Baby Tracker.