# Is baybay right for us?

> What it tracks, what it deliberately does not, and who would be happier with something else.

Last updated 18 August 2026

baybay tracks **feeds and sleep, and nothing else**, for one or more children, in a household that can include a partner and a sitter. If that is what you want, it is very good at it. If you want more than that, it is the wrong tool and this page will save you a month.

## What it tracks

- **Feeds** — bottle or breast, with an optional amount and a note.
- **Sleep** — naps and nights, started and ended with a tap, timed for you.
- **More than one child** — twins and siblings each get their own log and charts.
- **An optional [daily rhythm](https://baybay.baby/docs/the-daily-rhythm.md)** — a routine baybay ticks off as you log against it.

## What it does not track

Nappies, growth, weight, height, head circumference, milestones, medication, temperature, pumping, solids, tummy time. None of it, and none of it is planned.

That is the trade. Logging a feed takes two taps *because* there is no menu of twelve other things it might have been.

## Other limits worth knowing

- **It needs a connection.** baybay installs to your home screen and opens full screen, but it does not work offline. Nothing is cached, and a failed save says so rather than queueing.
- **Amounts are in millilitres.** There is no ounces option at the moment.
- **There is no smart-device integration.** No Home Assistant, no watch app, no API for your own scripts.
- **There is no reporting to anyone.** No emailed weekly summary, no shared link for a paediatrician. You export the data and send it yourself.

## You would probably be happier elsewhere if…

- You want one app for **everything** — nappies, growth curves, milestones. Baby Buddy tracks far more and is also free and open source.
- You need to log **without signal** regularly.
- You measure bottles in **ounces** and would resent converting.

## Hosted or your own server

Both run the same application, with every feature — nothing is held back for the paid plan and there is no upgrade to buy.

- **Hosted, $7 a month.** We run the server, take daily backups, apply updates and get you back in when a phone goes missing. Ready in about a minute.
- **Self-hosted, free.** PHP 8.2 and SQLite on any ordinary web host — no Docker, no build step. You handle updates and backups. The [README](https://github.com/webdevday/baybay) is the guide.

You can move between them whenever you like: export the file, drop it into the other one. [How export works](https://baybay.baby/docs/getting-your-data-out.md).

## Try it rather than take our word for it

The demo is the real thing on sample data, with no signup. [What the demo is](https://baybay.baby/docs/what-the-demo-is.md).

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From [How to use baybay](https://baybay.baby/docs.md). baybay — Feed and sleep tracking for the first year, logged in two taps. Hosted for $7 a month, or self-hosted free on PHP and SQLite with no Docker and no build step. Everything one family logs lives in a single SQLite file they can export or delete.

Canonical: https://baybay.baby/docs/is-baybay-right-for-us