Head to head
Alarmy vs Pillow
Somebody put these two on the same shortlist because the App Store files both under sleep. Spend a minute on what each one is actually for and the shortlist gets shorter.
In short
These two aren't really competing. Choose Alarmy if the problem is that you stay in bed. Choose Pillow if you own an Apple Watch and the problem is that you have no idea what your nights look like.
Alarmy starts working at the moment you would rather stay in bed
Alarmy's whole identity is the task standing between you and silence, and its range of those tasks is wider than anything else on the store. It's loud, it's gamified, and none of that is an accident. The design assumes the version of you at 6am is not to be trusted.
It runs on Android as well as iPhone, and it has a free tier, so testing whether friction works on you costs nothing but a week.
Pillow is built for a wrist, not a nightstand
Pillow is an iOS sleep tracker that pairs with Apple Watch, and the Watch app is the reason people recommend it. It detects when you drifted off rather than waiting for you to press start, and it round-trips into Apple Health in both directions, which is what people with years of Health data care about.
Take the Watch away and you've bought the smaller half of the product. That's worth knowing before you compare it to anything.
Pillow runs on iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad. There is no Android version.
Getting up and understanding the night are separate jobs
One of these fixes a morning and the other explains one. If you're late for things, a chart of your night won't fix it. If you're on time and exhausted, a maths problem at 6am won't tell you why.
Most people who land on this page already know which sentence describes them. The comparison is only hard when you want both at once.
Wanting both at once is common enough to be worth naming
Tock is an iPhone app that puts the alarm first and lets the tracking serve it: it rings on AlarmKit so the alarm survives silent mode and a Focus, it asks one small task before it stops, and it listens all night with the microphone and accelerometer so it can move that ring into a lighter moment.
Tock has no Apple Watch app. It reads your Watch data through Apple Health instead.
| What we compared | Alarmy | Pillow |
|---|---|---|
| What it is built around | Getting you upright (about the same) | Recording the night (about the same) |
| Apple Watch app | No Watch app of its own | Yes, a real one (stronger here) |
| Dismissal tasks | The widest range anywhere (stronger here) | Not what it does |
| Apple Health | Not its focus | Round-trips both directions (stronger here) |
| Knowing when you fell asleep | You set an alarm | Detected for you (stronger here) |
| Android in the house | Yes, big audience there (stronger here) | Apple devices only |
| A morning you would notice | You're already standing (about the same) | You know why you crashed (about the same) |
Which one to actually install
Pick Alarmy if
Alarmy is the right buy if you're late, not curious. It exists to beat the version of you that dismisses alarms half asleep, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. The free tier makes the theory cheap to test.
Pick Pillow if
Pillow makes sense if you already wear an Apple Watch to bed and you want the night captured without starting anything, then written properly into Apple Health where the rest of your data lives.
Pick neither if
If the honest answer is both, Tock is an iPhone alarm that also tracks the night: snores, coughs and sleep talking classified on device with the clips saved so you can play them back, and one small task before the alarm stops. It has no Watch app of its own. A 3-day trial, then from $39.99 a year.
Questions people ask
Does Pillow wake me up?
Pillow's positioning is tracking first: an iOS sleep tracker that pairs with Apple Watch and writes into Apple Health. If a hard-to-dismiss alarm is what you're shopping for, that's Alarmy's specialism, not Pillow's.
Do I need an Apple Watch for Pillow?
For the version of Pillow people rave about, yes. The Watch app and the automatic detection are the reason to choose it. Without a Watch you're paying for the quieter half.
Can I just run both?
You can, and some people do: Pillow for the night, Alarmy for the morning. Two apps means two sets of permissions and two things to keep an eye on, which is the usual reason people go looking for one app that covers both.
Does Alarmy track my sleep too?
Its identity is the dismissal task rather than the night before it. If what happened between midnight and six is the thing you want answered, that's the column Pillow is in.
Where Tock sits against each of them
These pages are written the same way as this one, which means they state what Alarmy and Pillow each do better than we do.
Related matchups
Other pairings involving one of these two.
- Alarmy vs the iPhone Clock appIf you get up when your alarm goes off, the Clock app is the honest answer and Alarmy is friction you don't need. If you dismiss alarms in your sleep and it has already cost you something, Alarmy's tasks are the only thing on this page that changes the outcome.
- Alarmy vs Sleep as AndroidOn an iPhone this is over before it starts: Sleep as Android is Android only, so Alarmy is your only option of the two. On Android, take Sleep as Android if you want depth, and Alarmy if you only want the alarm to be harder to beat.
- Alarmy vs Sleep CyclePick Alarmy if you sleep through alarms and need one you can't beat. Pick Sleep Cycle if you wake up on time but feel wrecked when you do, and you want a gentler window plus a record of the night.
- Apple Health Sleep vs PillowApple's built-in tracking is enough if you want hours and stages and nothing more. Pillow is for the Watch wearer who finds Apple's presentation too thin and wants the night detected and shaped for them without pressing anything.
- AutoSleep vs PillowAutoSleep suits the person who wants every number and no recurring bill. Pillow suits the person who wants the night caught automatically and presented calmly, then written properly into Apple Health.
- Pillow vs Sleep CycleIf you wear an Apple Watch to bed, Pillow gives you measured stage data and starts itself. If you do not own a Watch, or half the house is on Android, Sleep Cycle is the sensible pick.
- Pillow vs SleepScoreIf an Apple Watch is already part of your night, Pillow gets far more out of it than SleepScore can from across the room. If buying a wearable is off the table for you, SleepScore was made for exactly that person.
Elsewhere on the site
A different corner of the same problem.
- RoundupsThe best free alarm apps for iPhoneThe best free alarm app for iPhone is the Clock app that came with it. It is free forever, it rings through silent mode and a Focus, and it has never failed. Alarmy is the best free option if you need an alarm that is hard to turn off. Tock is not free and is listed last for that reason.
- Wake timesWaking up at 7:00amBedtimes by sleep cycle for a 7:00am alarm.
- BedtimesGoing to bed at 8:00pmWhere to put the alarm after a 8:00pm lights-out.
- Sleep by ageHow much sleep toddlers needThe American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children aged 1 to 2 years sleep 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours, including naps, on a regular basis. Most of that has consolidated into the night by the second birthday, with one daytime nap doing the rest.
- NapsThe 60 minute napA 60 minute nap includes a substantial amount of slow wave sleep, which is useful for recovery and for some kinds of memory, and it usually ends before the cycle completes. That means the benefit is real and the wake-up is often groggy, so it suits situations where the hour afterwards is flexible.
- Wake tonesKalimbaKalimba is Tock's thumb-piano wake tone: warm plucked notes with a short woody decay that lift you rather than startle you. It still runs on Apple's AlarmKit, so a silent switch, an active Focus and a closed app make no difference to whether it goes off.
If neither of them is quite the alarm you wanted
Tock is built on Apple AlarmKit, so it rings on silent and through a Focus, moves earlier when it finds a lighter moment, and keeps ringing until you solve something.