# Why only feeds and sleep

> Every other tracker records more than baybay does. Here is the argument for recording less, and what it costs you.

Last updated 19 August 2026

Because **every type a tracker records is a decision someone has to make at 3am**, holding a baby, one-handed, half asleep. baybay records two, so logging a feed is two taps and starting a nap is one. A third would cost that, and nothing we could add is worth it.

## The arithmetic of one more type

A tracker with twelve activity types cannot put twelve buttons on a screen, so it puts one button and a menu behind it. Now logging a feed is: open, choose the type, then fill the form. That is two decisions before you have recorded anything, several times a day, every day, for months.

None of those steps is hard. They are just not free at the moment they are asked for, which is the moment both your hands are full. An app does not get abandoned in week three for missing a feature; it gets abandoned because logging stopped being worth the interruption.

## What two types buy

- **The log screen is the whole app.** Two buttons, and the time already filled in. There is no menu because there is nothing to choose between.
- **The amount is optional.** Bottle-fed and counting? Type it. Breastfeeding and not counting anything at 4am? Do not.
- **Sleep is timed rather than typed.** A tap when they go down, a tap when they wake. You never work out a duration or enter one.
- **The dashboard has one job.** Feeds, sleeps and bedtimes over time — the three shapes a first year actually has — instead of twelve charts you scroll past.

None of that survives a menu. It is the same product only while there are two things to log.

## What it costs, honestly

A great deal that other trackers do. Nappies are the first thing everybody asks about, and health visitors ask for wet and dirty counts in the first fortnight; growth curves matter to some families a lot. baybay does none of it, and [the full list of what it does not do](https://baybay.baby/docs/is-baybay-right-for-us.md) is worth reading before you decide.

That list is not a roadmap in a waiting room. Nothing on it is planned, because adding any of it would take the thing this page is about and trade it away.

## The other open source answer

**Baby Buddy** tracks far more — nappies, tummy time, pumping, medication, temperature, weight, height, head circumference — has a larger community and a Home Assistant integration, and it is free and open source too. If you want one app for everything about your baby, it is the better tool and you should use it. It runs on Docker or a Python environment; baybay runs on PHP and SQLite.

We are not the same product with fewer features. Baby Buddy is a record of your baby's first year. baybay is an answer to "when did she last eat, and how long did she sleep" that you can get at while holding her.

## Where the effort went instead

Into the two things it does. The time is pre-filled and adjustable. A feed logged an hour late takes the time it happened, not the time you remembered ([how](https://baybay.baby/docs/i-forgot-to-log-it.md)). A nap you forgot to end can be ended at the time they actually woke ([how](https://baybay.baby/docs/i-forgot-to-end-a-nap.md)). A partner or a sitter joins with a short code and no account ([how](https://baybay.baby/docs/adding-your-partner.md)). Those are the places a feed tracker is actually won or lost.

## See for yourself before deciding

The demo is the real application on a week of sample data, with nothing to sign up for — the fastest way to find out whether two taps is the thing you wanted or whether you will miss the other ten. [What the demo is](https://baybay.baby/docs/what-the-demo-is.md).

It is $7 a month hosted, or free on your own server — [the code is on GitHub](https://github.com/webdevday/baybay). Both run the same application, and [your data comes out as one file](https://baybay.baby/docs/getting-your-data-out.md) from either.

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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/why-only-feeds-and-sleep