Fia as a Flo alternative: what changes, and where Flo wins

Flo has more than two million ratings on the US App Store. If you’re looking for a Flo alternative because of privacy, the biggest difference is where your logs go, so that comes first here. Where Flo is ahead comes next, and how to bring your dates across comes last.

Where your logs go

In Flo, what you log goes to Flo’s servers. In its regular mode, Flo says, it can see your IP address, your device’s details and your health data together (Flo). Your account is what lets you sign in on a new phone and find your logs there (Flo Help).

Flo says it encrypts your data in transit and where it’s stored, makes its money from subscriptions only, and has never sold user data (Flo). In 2021, the US Federal Trade Commission alleged that Flo had shared sensitive health data from millions of users with companies including Facebook and Google, after promising to keep it private. Flo settled FTC, 2021.

Fia works the other way around. It has no account, and SideSwipe Labs has no server that holds your logs, so nothing you log comes to us. Your logs stay on your iPhone, and in its backups unless you turn that off. iCloud sync is off until you turn it on, and then it uses your own iCloud, where Apple encrypts it. With Advanced Data Protection on, it’s end-to-end encrypted Apple. What “Data Not Collected” means goes through each of these.

Anonymous Mode, and what it changes

Flo’s answer to these worries is Anonymous Mode. Turn it on, and Flo no longer links your name, email address or IP address to your health data. Your requests reach Flo through a relay run by Cloudflare, so neither company sees both who you are and what you logged. Your health data still goes to Flo’s servers, without your name on it.

It’s off until you turn it on, and once it’s on it can’t be undone: Flo makes a new account, moves your cycle data across and deletes the old one. Secret Chats, Flo for Partners, syncing between devices, email notifications and wearables stop working, and if your phone is lost, Flo can’t move your history to a new one (Flo).

Fia has no mode like this because it has nothing to switch off: no account, no analytics and no server of ours in the way. The last point holds for Fia too, though. If your iPhone is lost and you never backed it up, nobody can bring your logs back, us included. A period tracker with no account covers how to back up without one.

The two privacy labels, side by side

Every App Store listing has a privacy label, filled in by the app’s developer, who is responsible for keeping it accurate (Apple). Here are both, as the US App Store showed them on November 3, 2026.

Data used to track you can be combined with data from other companies’ apps and websites, for targeted ads or measuring them, or shared with data brokers. Data linked to you is tied to your identity. Fia’s label reads Data Not Collected. Flo’s notes that its practices may vary with the features you use or your age, so Anonymous Mode changes what’s linked to you.

Read them yourself on Flo’s listing and Fia’s. How to find a private period tracker puts the labels of eight popular trackers side by side.

Where Flo is ahead

A fair comparison says where the other app is better. If these matter more to you than where your logs go, Flo may suit you better than Fia.

• More than Apple devices. Flo runs on Android as well as iPhone (Flo Help), and its account syncs your logs between devices. Fia is for iPhone and iPad, with an Apple Watch app, and syncs only through your own iCloud.
• Languages. Flo’s listing offers English and 20 more languages. Fia is in English.
• People to talk to. Flo has a community, Secret Chats, along with a symptom checker, a chatbot and a health library (Flo). Fia’s guidance cites 317 published sources, every one listed in the app, but there’s no community in it.
• A lost phone. With a registered Flo account, you sign in on the new phone and your logs are there. With Fia, they come back only from a backup: your iPhone’s, iCloud sync, or a backup file you made.

What you get in Fia

• Your period first. Log your period, mood, energy and how your body feels in a few taps. Your next period shows as a range of days, with the cycles it’s based on, and the range narrows as you log. Why a range, and not a date explains how.
• A record for your doctor. Cycle and period lengths, how they compare with the usual ranges, and a one-page PDF summary, made on your iPhone and free.
• Guided kegels. A 12-week journey from five minutes a day, with a figure for every lift, hold and let-go and a timer for every second. Weeks 1 to 4 are free, and how to do a kegel covers the technique.
• Food for the week you’re in. 40 recipes for your phase or stage, each with a line on why it fits today.
• Sharing from your own iCloud. Share a summary of your cycle with up to five people you invite, and choose what each one sees. It goes from your iCloud to theirs, never through SideSwipe Labs Apple. Flo’s partner feature needs an account with your identity on it (Flo).

Moving from Flo

Flo doesn’t send the periods you log to Apple Health (Flo Help), so Health can’t carry them across. To bring your history to Fia:

1. Ask Flo for a copy of your data. In Flo, tap your avatar, then Help, then Contact us, and ask for it. Flo sends a TXT or JSON file. In Anonymous Mode, you have to register first (Flo Help).
2. Copy your period dates into a spreadsheet. Fia doesn’t read Flo’s file. It reads period dates from a spreadsheet saved as CSV: one period a row, its first day and, if you have it, its last.
3. Import them. Save the sheet as CSV, and open Settings → Import period dates in Fia. Only the dates are read, and you see what will be added before anything is saved.

Or start fresh. Tell Fia when your last period started and how long your cycles usually run, and it shows a range from the start. With three logged cycles, it’s about four days either side.

When you’re done with Flo, you can delete your account in Flo’s settings, or ask Flo to by email (Flo).