Home/Compare/WaterMinder Alternatives
People leave WaterMinder over money and noise: a first-launch paywall reviewers say they cannot dismiss, ten in-app purchases at overlapping prices, ads, and a crypto reward token its own users dislike. The best free replacement is Drink Water Reminder N Tracker. The quietest is Brim, which we make. Neither has WaterMinder’s Apple Watch app.
The bottom line
If the Apple Watch is why you use WaterMinder, nothing here replaces it except Waterllama and Drink Water Reminder N Tracker, both free. If it is the paywall you are leaving, the honest question is which price you would rather pay: ads and an ad ID, or money.
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
- We put Brim first because we make it. That is a placement, not a verdict: every app below, ours included, gets the same credit-and-cut treatment, and where a rival solves what you are actually leaving WaterMinder for, its own entry says so.
- Every app here is one you can install today and use without a WaterMinder account, and every price was re-checked on the live US App Store on the date at the bottom of this page.
- Below Brim, we ranked the rest on what leaving WaterMinder is actually about: what it costs, what the free tier really gives you, and what gets taken in return.
- Apple caps the in-app purchase list it displays at ten items and ranks it by popularity, so we can only tell you what does and does not appear on a listing, never what exists behind it.
- Every app gets both blocks: what it genuinely does well, and the honest cut. We publish this page, so ours gets that same treatment too, not an exemption for leading the list.
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. If you log from your wrist, this page has no replacement for WaterMinder except Waterllama and Drink Water Reminder N Tracker.
Brim has no Apple Health integration, no backup, no restore and no export. A reinstall deletes your history. Waterllama ships free iCloud backup and beats Brim outright on data safety.
Brim’s free tier logs water only, which is thinner than every other free tier on this page. All 25 drinks and their percentages are visible free; logging a non-water drink is Premium.
Brim is iPhone-only, English-only, and has two App Store ratings. WaterMinder has more than 33,000 across 13 years. We have no track record, no community and no support history yet.
Brim shows a paywall at the end of onboarding. You can dismiss it and stay on the free tier.
Brim’s own App Store shelf lists the weekly and the yearly plan twice, at two different prices each, because we run live price experiments. We print both below, the same way we print everyone else’s.
The apps
Every app below gets the same two blocks: what it genuinely does well, and the honest cut. Ours included.
Brim
SYRNIK LTD · we make this one
A quiet, glassy hydration tracker that publishes what every drink is worth and asks for no account.
Wins on: no ads, no crypto and no advertising identifier, with every drink’s hydration value published before you install (logging a non-water drink is Premium), and a one-time unlock alongside the subscriptions.
What it does well
- All 25 drinks sit on a published hydration index, visible free, before you spend anything. Logging a non-water drink is Premium.
- No ad SDK linked in the binary, on any tier, and no advertising identifier declared.
- No account. Your hydration history is stored only on your phone.
- The daily goal comes from weight, activity and climate (plus sex and pregnancy), and setting a custom goal is free.
- A one-time unlock at $39.99, in a category where the loudest positive signal across roughly 6,000 reviews is gratitude for not having to subscribe.
The honest cut
- No Apple Watch, no iPad, no Android, no Apple Health, no backup, no export. English-only.
- The free tier logs water only.
- Two App Store ratings. That is not a track record.
- $39.99 is not the cheap one-time option here. Waterllama runs $8.99 to $19.99 and Hydro Coach lists a lifetime tier below that.
Get Brim if you left WaterMinder over the ads, the paywall and the crypto, you want to see what a coffee is actually worth, and you can live without the wrist.
Brim on the App Store →Drink Water Reminder N Tracker
Phoenix Games LLP
An 11-year-old reminder app with the most generous free tier in the category: six drink types, a native Apple Watch app and Apple Health sync, all without paying.
Wins on: the most you can get for $0. Six drink types, a native Apple Watch app and Apple Health sync, none of it behind a payment.
What it does well
- The Apple Watch app and Apple Health sync both work on the free tier, which is the thing WaterMinder leavers miss most.
- Goal calculated from sex, weight and a hot/cold climate toggle, free.
- 152,099 ratings at 4.50 stars over 11 years. This has been many people’s default water app for a decade.
- No account. You open it and log.
The honest cut
- Ads on the free tier, and the publisher’s own privacy policy confirms Google AdMob and the IDFA advertising identifier.
- It is the one app here declaring Usage Data under Apple’s “Data Used to Track You”.
- Reviewers report the History screen unlocks only after a prompt asking for a five-star App Store review, including for people who already paid to remove ads (1 star, v4.4). We have not verified whether that prompt still ships in v6.1.
- Last functional update was September 2025. Watch it.
Get Drink Water Reminder N Tracker if free is your only criterion, you want your water in Apple Health and on your wrist, and you would rather pay in ads and an ad identifier than in money.
Drink Water Reminder N Tracker on the App Store →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 best free tier if you only drink water. A free Apple Watch app, Apple Health, and free iCloud backup.
What it does well
- Free iCloud backup, which nothing else on this page has, Brim included. Your history survives a reinstall.
- Free Apple Watch app and Apple Health sync.
- 156,498 ratings at 4.87, the highest-rated app in the category, and an Apple App Store Award.
- The collection loop demonstrably changes behaviour. Its own five-star reviews credit it with years of habit.
- A one-time unlock exists, at $8.99 to $19.99 depending on the offer.
The honest cut
- The free tier logs water only, the same limit as Brim’s.
- Reviewers report that deleting or editing a logged entry requires Premium (5 stars, v1.92.6). We have not verified this in-app.
- It applies per-drink hydration maths but does not publish the values.
- It is a game. If the llama and the streak are what you are leaving WaterMinder to escape, this is the wrong direction.
Get Waterllama if you mostly drink water, you want your history backed up, and a character collection sounds like a feature rather than a chore.
Waterllama on the App Store →Hydro Coach
Wired Betterment
A small-studio tracker with a per-drink hydration model, a sea-creature rank ladder instead of streak guilt, and an Apple privacy label that reads "Data Not Collected".
Wins on: the cleanest privacy label on this page. Apple shows “Data Not Collected”, which is cleaner than Brim’s.
What it does well
- Apple’s privacy label reads “Data Not Collected”. Brim declares anonymous analytics, so this is a row we lose.
- No ads.
- A per-drink hydration model, including a penalty for alcohol, and the catalogue grew again in June 2026.
- Reviewers repeatedly call the tone gentle and specifically not nagging, which is rare praise in this category.
The honest cut
- Its own reviewers report that “they have put the most basic features behind a pay wall” (1 star, v1.4.5).
- No Apple Watch app and no Android edition, so it does not solve the wrist either.
- 944 ratings. Small, and it went roughly 20 months without a release between 2023 and 2024.
- No user-created custom drinks were available even on the paid tier as of v1.3.4, and nothing in the current listing says that changed.
- Its yearly and lifetime tiers each appear at two different prices on the live shelf with no label distinguishing them.
Get Hydro Coach if the privacy label is the row that decides it for you, you like a gentle tone, and you do not need a Watch app.
Hydro Coach on the App Store →What each one actually costs
This is the table the rest of our comparison pages link to instead of reprinting. Apple displays at most ten in-app purchases per listing and ranks them by popularity, so an item missing here is not proof it does not exist. Where an app lists the same product at two prices, both are shown.
| App | Free tier | Subscription | One-time |
|---|---|---|---|
| WaterMinder | Ad-supported. Reviewers report a launch paywall with no visible dismiss (1 star, v7.2) | Monthly $2.99; yearly $19.99; “Premium Yearly” $14.99 / $19.99 / $29.99; “Yearly Offer” $7.49 | None among the ten IAPs Apple displays. Remove Ads $0.99 |
| Drink Water Reminder N Tracker | 6 drinks, Watch app, Apple Health, goal calculator. Ads | Premium monthly $0.99; three months $2.49 | Pro upgrade $1.99 |
| Waterllama | Water only. Watch app, Apple Health, iCloud backup. No ads | Listed on the shelf alongside the unlock | $8.99 to $19.99 depending on the offer |
| Hydro Coach | Basic logging, base drink catalogue, reminders, stats. No ads | Monthly $2.99; yearly $9.99 and $19.99 | Lifetime $8.99 and $24.99 |
| Brim | Water only. Goal, reminders, widgets, undo, streak. No ads | Weekly $1.99 and $2.99; yearly $24.99 and $29.99, 3-day trial | Lifetime $39.99 |
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.
“It won’t let me use WaterMinder without a 7-day sub free trial and I don’t want any subscriptions and it won’t let me go into the free version because there is no ❌ there.”
“It suggest/forces you to write a 5 star review to see the history.”
“I love the one time purchase model, it’s absurd every app thinks they’re entitled to a subscription model.”
“They have put the most basic features behind a pay wall and they make you say you don’t want to pay every single time the app loads.”
“…logging water is very simple from the locked screen with a widget with one tap. Very helpful when working from home and fully locked in”
Frequently asked
What is the best free WaterMinder alternative?
Drink Water Reminder N Tracker gives the most for $0: six drink types, a native Apple Watch app and Apple Health sync. It pays for that with ads, the AdMob advertising identifier, and a History screen that reviewers report unlocks only after a five-star review request.
Is there a WaterMinder alternative with a one-time purchase?
Yes. Waterllama sells a one-time unlock at $8.99 to $19.99, Hydro Coach lists lifetime tiers, and Brim sells one at $39.99. No lifetime unlock appears among the ten in-app purchases Apple displays on WaterMinder’s own listing, and Apple caps that list at ten, so we cannot say none exists.
Which alternative counts coffee and beer properly?
Waterllama, WaterMinder, Hydro Coach and Drink Water Reminder N Tracker all apply some per-drink maths. Only Brim publishes the whole table, and logging a non-water drink in Brim requires Premium. WaterMinder shows you its number in the app and lets you edit it, which Brim does not.
Do any of these work on Apple Watch?
Waterllama and Drink Water Reminder N Tracker do, both free. Brim and Hydro Coach do not. If the Watch is why you use WaterMinder, that narrows this page to two options.
Why did WaterMinder add crypto?
It added a Solana reward token ($WMDR) alongside points and an “AI Gulp Detection” feature. Its own reviewers ask the same question and mostly dislike the answer: “Why is there crypto in my water tracking app?” (1 star, v6.11.2).
Are these apps cheaper outside the US?
Prices vary by territory and by promotion. Every price on this page is the US App Store on the date shown at the bottom, and Brim additionally runs live price experiments, so your own price may differ.
Which app called Brim is this?
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.
Keep reading
Sources
- 1.WaterMinder on the App Store: listing, the ten in-app purchases Apple displays, and the App Privacy label. Checked July 13, 2026.
- 2.Drink Water Reminder N Tracker on the App Store: listing, in-app purchases, version history and App Privacy label. Checked July 13, 2026.
- 3.Phoenix Games privacy policy for Drink Water Reminder N Tracker, confirming Google AdMob and the advertising identifier. Checked July 12, 2026.
- 4.Waterllama on the App Store: listing, in-app purchases and App Privacy label. Checked July 13, 2026.
- 5.Hydro Coach on the App Store (id 1459692731, Wired Betterment): listing, in-app purchases and the “Data Not Collected” privacy label. Checked July 12, 2026.
- 6.App Store customer reviews for all four apps, sampled across sort orders with critical reviews deliberately over-sampled. Checked July 12, 2026.
- 7.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.
WaterMinder is a registered trademark of Funn Media, LLC. Waterllama is a trademark of Llama Luna Apps Inc. Drink Water Reminder N Tracker is a trademark of Phoenix Games LLP. Hydro Coach is a trademark of Wired Betterment. Used for identification only. None endorses or 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.
