Honest comparison
Tock vs Sleep Cycle
Sleep Cycle taught a generation of people that a phone next to the bed could tell them something about the night. Tock starts from the alarm instead, and the tracking exists to move it.
In short
Switch to Tock if you want the alarm itself to be different: a system alarm that rings on silent and through a Focus, moved up to 30 minutes earlier into a lighter moment, with a task before it stops. Stay with Sleep Cycle if you have years of history in it, or if someone in the house is on Android.
- minute smart-wake window
- 30minute smart-wake windowyour set time is always the fallback
- fall-asleep sounds
- 63fall-asleep soundslayer four at a time and save the mix
- wake-up missions
- 9wake-up missionsmind, body and place
What Sleep Cycle does better
The original phone-microphone sleep tracker, with a smart alarm window and a large library of sleep aids.
- Years of nightly history to compare yourself against, if you have been using it since the beginning
- Runs on Android as well as iPhone, so a household can share the same habit
- A long-established name your doctor or your partner has probably already heard of
Runs on iPhone, Android. Tock is iPhone only, on iOS 26 and later.
Sleep Cycle is a tracker that happens to have an alarm
It was the original phone-microphone sleep tracker, and the shape of the product still reflects that. The night is the main event, the smart alarm window sits on top of it, and there is a large library of sleep aids alongside.
That order matters. If what you want is a nightly record you can scroll back through, Sleep Cycle has been doing exactly that for longer than almost anyone.
The alarm is where the two really part ways
Tock is built on AlarmKit, Apple's own alarm framework. That means a system alarm rather than an app trying to keep audio going in the background, so it rings on silent, through a Focus, and with the app closed, on the native full-screen alert.
Then it asks for something. Nine wake-up missions across mind, body and place, and it keeps ringing until you solve one. Sleep Cycle does not put a task between you and the off button.
In the morning you get to hear what happened
Tock listens all night with the microphone and the accelerometer, classifies snores, coughs and sleep talking on device with Apple SoundAnalysis, and keeps the clips. You can play them back over breakfast next to the rest of the night.
Both apps estimate the shape of your sleep from a phone on the nightstand. Neither can measure stages that way. Measured stages need a wearable, and Tock reads those from Apple Health if you own one.
On phone-only nights, sleep stages in Tock are estimates. That is true of any app without a sensor on your body.
What carries across if you move, and what does not
Apple Health is the only bridge. If Sleep Cycle has been writing nights into Health, those nights stay in Health and Tock reads them from day one. What does not come across is Sleep Cycle's own charts, its scores, its recordings and its long-run comparisons, because those live inside its app.
So the real question is how much that history is worth to you. If you have been tracking since 2016 and you like looking back, that is a genuine reason to stay put.
| What we compared | Tock | Sleep Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| Alarm engine | AlarmKit system alarm (stronger here) | App audio in the background |
| Rings on silent | Yes, and through a Focus (stronger here) | Needs the app running |
| Hearing the room | Mic and accelerometer all night (about the same) | Microphone all night (about the same) |
| Getting out of bed | 9 missions before it stops (stronger here) | No task to solve |
| Falling asleep | 63 sounds, four layered (about the same) | Large sleep aid library (about the same) |
| Sleep stages | Estimated from the phone (about the same) | Estimated from the phone (about the same) |
| Where it runs | iPhone only | iPhone and Android (stronger here) |
| History you already own | Starts tonight | Years of it, if you have them (stronger here) |
Which one you should actually pick
Pick Tock if
Pick Tock if the alarm is the part you want to fix, and you want to hear what the room sounded like at 3am.
Pick Sleep Cycle if
Stay with Sleep Cycle if you have been logging nights in it for years, or if you share a sleep habit with someone on Android. Losing that record to gain a different alarm is a bad trade.
Run both if
They overlap enough that running both is mostly redundant. Pick one and let it own the nightstand.
Questions people ask
Can I bring my Sleep Cycle history across to Tock?
Only the part that lives in Apple Health. If Sleep Cycle wrote your nights to Health, Tock reads them. Its own charts, scores and saved recordings stay in Sleep Cycle, and there is no import for them.
Does Tock have a free version like a trial night?
There is no free tier. Tock asks for a subscription after onboarding, from $39.99 a year, with a 3-day free trial first.
Is Tock on Android?
No. Tock is iPhone only and needs iOS 26, because it is built on Apple frameworks like AlarmKit and SoundAnalysis that do not exist elsewhere. Sleep Cycle is the cross-platform option here.
Do both apps wake me early in light sleep?
Both look for a lighter moment before your set time. Tock watches the 30 minutes before the alarm using movement and sound, and if it finds nothing, your set time still rings.
If Tock is not in the running
Plenty of people land here already choosing between two other apps. These go through those pairings without us in them.
Other comparisons
The same treatment, applied to the rest of the category.
- Tock vs AlarmyIf all you need is a harder alarm, Alarmy has more dismissal tasks than Tock and a free tier, so it is the sensible pick. Tock is worth paying for when you want the night tracked and the ring moved earlier into light sleep, with a mission still standing between you and the off button.
- Tock vs SleepScoreSleepScore is the better pick if you want breathing and movement read contactlessly by a method you can have explained to you, and you already have an alarm you trust. Tock is the pick if you want one app that both tracks the night and wakes you, with playable audio of what it heard.
- Tock vs PillowStay with Pillow if you track on your wrist, because it runs on the Watch and Tock does not. Choose Tock if your phone is the only thing on the nightstand and you want the alarm to be the centre of the product rather than a feature of the tracker.
- Tock vs the iPhone Clock appIf you want an alarm and nothing else, keep the Clock app. Tock rings on the same Apple framework it does, so the reliability argument is a draw. Tock is only worth paying for if you want the night before the alarm to change when it goes off, and you want a morning report and a mission before it stops.
Elsewhere on the site
A different corner of the same problem.
- BedtimesGoing to bed at 12:00amWhere to put the alarm after a 12:00am lights-out.
- Sleep by ageHow much sleep school-age children needThe American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children aged 6 to 12 years sleep 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis. By this age sleep has consolidated into the night, so the figure is effectively a nightly one and the bedtime has to be counted backwards from the school run.
- NapsThe 20 minute napA 20 minute nap is the standard recommendation because it produces a solid alertness benefit while ending before most people reach slow wave sleep, so you wake up clear rather than groggy. It is long enough to be worth the time and short enough to stay safe.
- Wake tonesLoud alarm soundsTock's alarms ring through silent mode and through a Focus because they are built on Apple's AlarmKit, not on an app keeping audio alive in the background. What no app can do is raise your iPhone's hardware volume for you. Loudness gets your eyes open; the wake-up mission is what stops you dismissing it and going straight back to sleep.
- Head to headCalm vs Headspace SleepIf you want to be told a story by a voice you recognise, Calm has the deeper and better-produced library. If you want to be taught a wind-down and nudged to keep at it, Headspace's course structure does more for you.
- FeaturesSnore recordingTock keeps short audio clips of the things it hears in the night and pins each one to the minute it happened. Snoring, coughing and sleep talking are labelled by name, and every clip has a play button in the morning.
The alarm is the part we actually rebuilt
Tock rings on silent and through a Focus because it is a system alarm, moves earlier when it finds a lighter moment, and asks for one small task before it stops.