Head to head
Pillow vs SleepScore
The gap here is philosophical. Pillow assumes the best sensor you own is already on your wrist. SleepScore assumes you own nothing and never will, and builds the entire product around that refusal.
In short
If 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.
One of these needs hardware and the other refuses it
Pillow pairs with an Apple Watch, tracks automatically, and writes results back into Apple Health. That gets you measured stage data and a night that starts without being told to, which is worth a lot if the Watch is already on your wrist.
SleepScore does the opposite on purpose. It sends out sound you cannot hear, reads what comes back off your body, and gets movement and breathing without anything touching you. Nothing to charge, nothing to remember, nothing to buy.
Contactless is not a compromise, it is the pitch
It is easy to read SleepScore as the budget version of a wearable, and that misses what it is doing. Reading breathing off reflected sound is a different method, not a weaker one, and the app spends real effort explaining how it arrives at its numbers.
If you are the kind of person who wants the mechanism described before you believe a score, that presentation is genuinely part of the product.
Ask what you already own before you compare a single feature
The whole decision collapses into one question. Watch on the wrist overnight: Pillow, and it is not close. No wearable and no intention of buying one: SleepScore, and nothing Pillow does will change that.
The middle case is someone who owns a Watch but hates sleeping in it. If that is you, buy neither on the strength of hardware and instead pick on what you will open in the morning.
| What we compared | Pillow | SleepScore |
|---|---|---|
| What goes on your body | An Apple Watch, ideally | Nothing at all (stronger here) |
| Automatic tracking | Detected without you starting it (stronger here) | Less hands-off |
| The signal it reads | Sensors against your skin (about the same) | Inaudible sound, bounced back (about the same) |
| Breathing while you sleep | Not its headline | Read by sonar (stronger here) |
| If you already own a Watch | Uses it fully (stronger here) | Ignores the wrist |
| Where the data lands | Deep in Apple Health (stronger here) | Not its focus |
| Explaining the method | Assumes you trust the sensor | Research-led, shows its working (stronger here) |
| Someone in the house on Android | Apple only | iPhone and Android (stronger here) |
Which one to actually install
Pick Pillow if
Pillow is the right call if you wear an Apple Watch to bed. It tracks automatically, gives you measured stages and keeps Apple Health as the system of record.
Pick SleepScore if
SleepScore is the right call if you will not wear anything and want nothing on the bed. It reads movement and breathing with sonar and is happy to explain how.
Pick neither if
Neither of these is an alarm clock, which surprises people. If you want the tracking and the wake-up in one app on an iPhone, Tock rings on AlarmKit through silent mode and Focus, tracks from the phone, and keeps playable clips of the snoring and sleep talking it classified overnight.
Questions people ask
Is SleepScore accurate without a wearable?
It reads movement and breathing by bouncing inaudible sound off you, which is a real measurement method rather than a guess from the microphone alone. It is a different signal from a wrist sensor, not a lesser copy of one.
Do I need an Apple Watch for Pillow?
The Watch is what Pillow is built for. Automatic tracking and measured stages both come from the wrist, so without one you are paying for a product designed around hardware you do not have.
Which one works on Android?
SleepScore. Pillow is iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad only.
Where Tock sits against each of them
These pages are written the same way as this one, which means they state what Pillow and SleepScore each do better than we do.
Related matchups
Other pairings involving one of these two.
- Alarmy vs PillowThese 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.
- 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.
- AutoSleep vs SleepScoreIf an Apple Watch is already on your wrist at night, AutoSleep is the better tracker and it asks nothing of you. If you sleep bare-wristed and want to keep it that way, SleepScore is the only one of the two that can track you at all.
- 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.
- Rise vs SleepScoreIf you will genuinely change your bedtime because an app asked you to, Rise is the more useful of the two. If you want the night measured properly without wearing anything, SleepScore.
- Sleep Cycle vs SleepScoreIf you want one app that watches the night and also rings in the morning, Sleep Cycle. If you only want the measurement, and you want the method explained rather than asserted, SleepScore.
- SleepScore vs SnoreLabIf snoring is the complaint and you want to find out whether the mouthguard made a difference, SnoreLab. If you want the whole night measured without wearing anything, SleepScore.
Elsewhere on the site
A different corner of the same problem.
- Sleep soundsWhite noiseWhite noise holds equal power in every one hertz band, which makes it the brightest of the sleep noises and the best at covering thin, sharp sounds: keys in a lock, a running tap, a voice through a wall. That same brightness is why plenty of people last about an hour before switching to pink or brown.
- Tock for youRotating shift nursesYour rota moves you from days to nights and back again, sometimes inside the same week, and there is no schedule to settle into because the schedule keeps changing. Every adjustment gets interrupted by the next one.
- AlternativesTock vs Headspace SleepHeadspace Sleep is the better choice if you want a voice walking you through a wind-down inside a proper course structure. Tock is the choice if you want the night measured from the phone and an alarm that moves into a lighter moment. Neither one covers the other.
- RoundupsThe best sleep apps for iPhone, sorted by what you're fixingFor iPhone, the best sleep app depends on the problem. Tock is the best all-round pick when the alarm and the morning are what is broken, Apple Health Sleep is the free place to start, Calm is for people who cannot fall asleep, AutoSleep is for Apple Watch owners, Rise is for sleep debt and SnoreLab is for snoring.
- Wake timesWaking up at 4:00amBedtimes by sleep cycle for a 4:00am alarm.
- BedtimesGoing to bed at 12:30amWhere to put the alarm after a 12:30am lights-out.
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.