Home/Compare/Waterllama vs WaterMinder
Waterllama is the fun one: more than 150,000 ratings at 4.9 stars, a free Watch app and iCloud backup. WaterMinder is the utility: more than 30,000 ratings at 4.7, a standalone Watch app that works without your phone, and Android. We make Brim, and we’re not one of these two. Pick Waterllama for delight, WaterMinder for your wrist or Android.
The bottom line
Waterllama wins on love and range: the higher rating, a free Watch app, iCloud backup, Mac and Vision support. WaterMinder wins on the wrist and reach: a standalone Watch app that works without your phone, and Android, which Waterllama doesn’t have.
We make Brim, so read this page accordingly. Every claim is sourced, prices were checked on the dates shown, and where a rival is the better fit we say so. We also run price experiments, so the price you see in the app may differ from the one below.
How we picked
- This page reviews exactly two apps you are likely already choosing between, Waterllama and WaterMinder, on an axis no other page in this cluster claims: platform and device depth, from the wrist to the desktop to Android.
- We are not neutral. We make a third app, Brim, and we say so before naming a single winner. Brim is not one of the two apps under review here, and it is never the verdict.
- Every fact was re-checked on the live US App Store and iTunes Lookup on the dates at the bottom of this page. A reviewer’s report is written as a reviewer’s report, not promoted into a fact we did not verify ourselves.
- Apple caps the in-app purchase list it displays at ten items and ranks it by popularity, so an absence from either app’s shelf is never proof that a product does not exist.
What Brim does not do
We are on this list, so here is our own cut, before you read ours.
Brim has no Apple Watch app, no iPad app, no Mac app, no Vision app, no Android version and no Apple Health integration of any kind. Between them, Waterllama and WaterMinder answer every piece of that.
Brim has no backup, no restore and no export. A reinstall deletes your history today. Waterllama ships free iCloud backup, which is a real edge on data safety and beats Brim outright.
Brim’s free tier logs water only. Crediting any other drink is Premium.
Brim is iPhone-only and English-only. Waterllama runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision in 22 languages; WaterMinder runs on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Brim shows a paywall at the end of onboarding. You can dismiss it and stay on the free tier.
Brim has two App Store ratings. Waterllama has 156,498 and WaterMinder has more than 30,000.
The apps
Every app below gets the same two blocks: what it genuinely does well, and the honest cut. Ours included.
Waterllama
Llama Luna Apps Inc
A genuinely charming collection game built around drinking water, with more than 150,000 ratings at 4.9 stars.
Wins on: the most fun, and the better free tier of the two. A native Apple Watch app, Apple Health and free iCloud backup, plus the higher rating.
What it does well
- 156,498 ratings at 4.87, the higher-rated of the two, plus a 2022 Apple App Store Award and an Apple Design Award finalist nod.
- A native Apple Watch app with complications and a Watch Smart Stack widget, a free Mac app (Apple silicon) and an Apple Vision app, all at no cost.
- Free iCloud device backup. Your history survives a reinstall, which neither WaterMinder nor Brim offers.
- A one-time unlock exists alongside its subscriptions, and one reviewer thanks the developers for it directly (5 stars, v1.62.0).
The honest cut
- Its Apple Watch app is not described as standalone anywhere in its own listing; WaterMinder’s works with the phone absent.
- No Android. A mixed-phone household can share WaterMinder and cannot share Waterllama.
- Reviewers report that deleting or editing a logged entry requires Premium (5 stars, v1.92.6). We have not verified this in-app.
- Ten in-app purchases share three generic product names at different prices. One reviewer’s "LIFETIME subscription" complaint that it "expires in ONE YEAR" (1 star, v1.92.6) reads as confusion over which same-named item they bought, not a verified billing fact.
Get Waterllama if you want the more decorated, more loved app of the two, you mostly live on Apple hardware, and a character collection sounds fun rather than silly.
Waterllama on the App Store →WaterMinder
Funn Media, LLC
The 13-year incumbent, with a standalone Apple Watch app, Apple Health sync and editable per-drink coefficients.
Wins on: the wrist and the platform breadth. A standalone Apple Watch app that works without your phone, and Android, which Waterllama does not have.
What it does well
- A standalone Apple Watch app: it logs water with the phone nowhere nearby, the single most-cited reason people choose WaterMinder over anything else in the category.
- Runs on Android too, so a mixed-phone household can share one app; Waterllama cannot cross that gap.
- Its coefficient is user-editable: a reviewer describes seeing and changing what it credits a coffee or a sports drink as, in-app.
- Thirteen years of continuous shipping and more than 30,000 ratings. One reviewer calls the whole thing "a UI so well crafted that no recommendation for improvement is needed" (5 stars, v6.10.7).
The honest cut
- Ads on the free tier, and reviewers report a first-launch subscription screen with no visible dismiss (1 star, v7.2).
- A Solana reward token ($WMDR) and an "AI Gulp Detection" feature its own reviewers are hostile to.
- No lifetime unlock appears among the ten in-app purchases Apple displays on its listing. Apple caps that list at ten, so we cannot say none exists.
- Reminders are its most-mentioned functional complaint in our review sample: reviewers report notifications that misfire, including one congratulating a user for being close to goal while they were already 20% over it (3 stars, v6.3.7).
Get WaterMinder if you log from your wrist with your phone somewhere else, you or your household is on Android, or you want to see and edit the number a drink counts for.
WaterMinder on the App Store →Where each app actually runs
Waterllama and WaterMinder split platform reach cleanly, and neither is a strict superset of the other. This is the full Watch, tablet, desktop, headset, Android and Apple Health picture for the two apps this page reviews; prices and free tiers live on the pages that own those tables.
| App | Apple Watch | iPad | Mac | Vision | Android | Apple Health | Backup / sync |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waterllama | Native app, complications, Watch Smart Stack widget. Not described as standalone anywhere in its own listing | Yes | Yes, Apple silicon, macOS 14+ | Yes | No | Listing says it syncs Water, Caffeine and Dietary Energy. A write path is confirmed by a duplicate-data bug report; reads UNVERIFIED | Free iCloud device backup |
| WaterMinder | Standalone, works with the phone absent. The single most-cited reason people choose it | Yes | Not listed | Yes | Yes, per the publisher’s own site | Read/write confirmed for profile data (weight, sex, date of birth). Whether water volume itself is bidirectional is UNVERIFIED and reviews are split | Not offered. Watch-to-iPhone sync is its most persistent multi-year complaint instead |
What users say
Quoted verbatim from public App Store reviews, with the star rating and the app version or review date. We over-sampled critical reviews deliberately, so these read harsher than any app’s overall average. Brim launched in June 2026: every written review so far is five stars, and there is no critical tail to over-sample yet.
“There’s a one time fee to unlock all features - THANK YOU DEVELOPERS!!!”
“ANGRY because I paid for the LIFETIME subscription for this APP and it says it expires in ONE YEAR! You should be ashamed for misleading people.”
“I’m 20% over my daily goal and I just get a notification saying ‘One more glass and you’re there!’... they just don’t make sense.”
“This is one of those apps that does what it claims and has a UI so well crafted that no recommendation for improvement is needed.”
Frequently asked
Which is more fun, Waterllama or WaterMinder?
Waterllama. It’s the more decorated and more loved of the two: 156,498 ratings at 4.87 against WaterMinder’s 33,870 at 4.74, plus a 2022 Apple App Store Award.
Which has the better Apple Watch app?
WaterMinder’s. It’s standalone and logs without your phone nearby. Waterllama’s Watch app is native, with complications and a Smart Stack widget, but it isn’t described as standalone anywhere in its own listing.
Which one works on Android?
WaterMinder, per the publisher’s own site. Waterllama is Apple-only: iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision, with no Android edition.
Which one is cheaper?
Neither is simple to price. Both show multiple simultaneous prices under the same product name on their live App Store shelves, and Apple caps what it displays at ten items per app.
Does either app tell you what a coffee is worth?
WaterMinder shows you its coefficient in-app and lets you edit it. Waterllama shows nothing: it credits drinks differently but publishes no table.
Which one is more private?
Both sit in the same "no tracking" bucket on Apple’s privacy label. WaterMinder declares a device identifier used for third-party advertising; Waterllama does not.
Neither of these fits me, what else is there?
If you want every drink’s hydration value published before you install, no ads and no ad-tracking identifier, and you don’t need a Watch, we make Brim (Water Reminder – Brim) and it does that. Its free tier logs water only; crediting a coffee or a beer is Premium. We’re disclosing a stake here, not making a neutral recommendation.
Which app called Brim is this?
The Brim mentioned above is Water Reminder – Brim, App Store ID 6777476351, by SYRNIK LTD. A different iOS app is also called Brim (Brim – Smart Water Tracker, ID 6761324419). It is not this app, and this page is not about it.
Keep reading
Sources
- 1.Waterllama on the App Store: description, in-app purchase shelf, App Privacy label and Requirements panel. Checked July 12, 2026.
- 2.Waterllama App Store customer reviews, 497 reviews sampled across sort orders with critical reviews deliberately over-sampled. Checked July 12, 2026.
- 3.WaterMinder on the App Store: description, the ten in-app purchases Apple displays, and the App Privacy label. Checked July 13, 2026.
- 4.WaterMinder App Store customer reviews, 474 reviews sampled across sort orders with critical reviews deliberately over-sampled. Checked July 12, 2026.
- 5.waterminder.com, for Android availability. Checked July 12, 2026.
- 6.Brim on the App Store: the five in-app purchases Apple displays, plus our own beverage catalogue and free-tier gate read from source. Checked July 25, 2026.
Waterllama is a trademark of Llama Luna Apps Inc. WaterMinder is a registered trademark of Funn Media, LLC. Used for identification only. Neither endorses nor is affiliated with Brim.
This page is about Water Reminder – Brim (App Store ID 6777476351, by SYRNIK LTD). A different iOS app is also called Brim (Brim – Smart Water Tracker, ID 6761324419). It is not this app and this page is not about it.
