Best Headache Diary App: 6 Apps Checked in November 2026

The best headache diary app is the one that records what your doctor will ask about without asking more of you than a headache leaves. For migraine and general headache, Migraine Buddy is the established default. For cluster headache, MyClusters is built for exactly that. The Canadian Migraine Tracker is a short diary made with a national headache society. Bearable suits headache tracked alongside other conditions, Cranium is a quick diary on iPhone, and MigrAid logs migraine in one tap with the weather recorded for you.

One disclosure first: we make MigrAid, the app behind this website, so it is one of the six options here and we are not neutral about it. Everything below about the other five comes from their own App Store and Google Play listings, read on 11 November 2026. This page covers headache diaries in the wider sense. For a ranking of migraine trackers specifically, see our comparison of migraine tracker apps.

What a headache diary needs to record

The Migraine Trust, a UK charity whose headache diary guidance the NHS links to, advises keeping it simple. Its basic list is the date, the day of the week, how long the headache lasted, how bad it was (mild, moderate or severe, or a score from 1 to 10), other symptoms such as dizziness or sensitivity to light and sound, and any medication, including a second dose. It suggests adding possible triggers, your period, side effects and medication changes where they help.

Every app below records those basics in some form. What separates them is how fast an entry is when you feel awful, which headache type the app assumes you have, and what it hands your doctor at the end.

You do not need an app at all. The Migraine Trust offers a free monthly paper diary in Word and PDF, and a paper sheet filled in every day beats an app opened once a fortnight.

The six apps at a glance

Platforms, doctor reports and last update dates as read from each store on 11 November 2026. Dates move whenever a developer ships, so check your own store before you decide.

Migraine Buddy, the established default

Migraine Buddy has been on the App Store since March 2015 and runs on iPhone and Android, both updated at the end of October 2026. Its App Store title is "Migraine Buddy: Track Headache", and its diary export is described as a record of your headache history for your doctor, alongside a separate MIR export for a neurologist.

Entries cover triggers, symptoms, medications and relief methods. The listing adds a seven day pressure and temperature forecast, automatic sleep recording, Apple Health and Oura integration and a large user community. The newest update lets you switch relief intakes and symptom variation off in the recording settings, which shortens an entry. Its vocabulary is migraine throughout, so someone with a different headache type may find parts of it beside the point.

MyClusters, if you have cluster headaches

MyClusters runs on iPhone and Android and was updated on both in the first week of November 2026. It arrived on the App Store in May 2025, so it is young, but it is the only app here made for one non-migraine headache.

That focus shows in the details. You can log an attack live, adding pain, medication and oxygen as it happens, even from the lock screen.

It tracks cluster cycles with their own statistics, sets medication reminders, and can place attacks next to weather, sleep and heart rate data if you choose to connect them. The latest update builds an appointment summary for this bout, the last three months, the last year or a custom range, as a PDF. A general migraine app has no idea what a bout is.

Canadian Migraine Tracker, a diary made with headache specialists

The Canadian Migraine Tracker comes from Migraine Canada, made in collaboration with the Canadian Headache Society and Migraine Québec. It has been on the App Store since 2019 and runs on iPhone and Android. It was last updated on 14 June 2026 on iPhone and 8 October on Android.

Its listing calls the approach "less is more": headache frequency, triggers, symptoms and how you responded to medication, chosen as the information usually discussed with a physician. Reports go to your doctor as a PDF, by email or by fax. Two of its stated purposes are watching for medication overuse, a real risk for anyone treating frequent headaches (our guide to rebound headache explains the day counts), and spotting menstrual migraine. It is available in English and French, and despite the name the US App Store lists it.

Bearable, if headache is one of several things you track

Bearable runs on iPhone and Android and was updated on 9 November 2026 on iPhone, the most recent of any app here. It is a general symptom tracker with a pain, migraine and headache section that records pain level, location and duration.

It looks for correlations between your symptoms and sleep, food, weather, stress, medication and habits, syncs steps, sleep and heart rate from Apple Health and Fitbit, and its medication tracker sets reminders. If your headaches travel with fatigue, gut trouble, mood changes or a chronic pain condition, one diary for all of it is simpler than two. The trade is that headache is one entry among many rather than an attack with its own structure.

Cranium, a quick headache diary on iPhone

Cranium is iPhone only: we found no Google Play listing under its name or its developer's. It has been on the App Store since December 2022 and was updated on 22 September 2026.

Its listing promises an ongoing attack recorded in two taps, medication amounts tracked, and reports of your most frequent triggers and symptoms to share with your doctor. It can read menstrual cycle data from the Health app to compare against your headaches. The September update allows medication in half doses and stretches a single entry from five days to a month, useful for a headache that does not end overnight.

MigrAid, the one we make

MigrAid came out on iPhone in January 2026 and on Android in August 2026, which makes it the youngest app on this page.

I built it for my mom and my wife, who both get migraines, and watching them log attacks shaped what it records. It logs an attack in one tap with the details left for later, and attaches barometric pressure, temperature and humidity to each entry on its own.

It records prodrome, attack and postdrome as separate stages, has a sixteen zone head pain map and twelve built in triggers plus your own, works out a MIDAS score from your logs, and exports PDF and CSV reports for any date range. No account is needed.

It is built around migraine, and that limits it as a general headache diary. The stages and the eight prodrome symptoms it tracks describe migraine attacks, not tension-type or cluster headache. It also has no medication reminders, no community and no Apple Health integration. For cluster headache, MyClusters is the better pick, and for headaches mixed with other symptoms, Bearable is.

If you are not sure what kind of headache you have

Many people looking for a headache diary do not yet know whether their headaches are migraine, tension-type or something else. If that is you, pick an app that does not assume the answer, or a paper sheet. Our explainer on migraine and tension headache covers the differences a diary can help show, and our guide to tracking triggers explains why weeks of steady entries matter more than detail in any single one.

Do not expect clinical proof from any of them. A 2014 systematic review in JMIR mHealth and uHealth by Hundert and colleagues assessed 38 headache diary apps against 7 criteria for a diary a clinician could recommend. None met all 7, and only 18% had been built with scientific or clinical headache expertise. The diary is a record for you and your doctor to read together, not a diagnosis.

When a headache is not a diary entry

A diary is for headaches that keep coming back in a pattern. Some headaches need help straight away.

The NHS says to call emergency services (911 in the US, 999 in the UK) or go to the emergency department if a headache started suddenly and is extremely painful, or comes with a seizure, numbness or weakness in the body or face, trouble speaking, balancing, walking or remembering, drowsiness or confusion, loss of vision, a very high temperature, a stiff neck, bright light bothering you, or a rash that does not fade when a glass is rolled over it.

The same applies to a headache after a head injury in the last three months. If you go, do not drive yourself.

It advises an urgent appointment the same day for a headache with vision or eye problems, one set off or made worse by coughing, sneezing, bending down or exercise, one with vomiting, or one with jaw pain when eating or a sore, tender scalp. Log it afterwards if you like, but get seen first. And if your usual headaches change in pattern or frequency, bring your diary to your doctor rather than waiting for it to explain the change.

Which one to pick

If you have migraine or are not sure and want the most complete app, start with Migraine Buddy. With cluster headache, choose MyClusters. If you want a short diary shaped by headache specialists, with reports you can fax to a clinic, take the Canadian Migraine Tracker. If headache is one of several symptoms you follow, Bearable.

An iPhone user who wants the plainest possible diary can look at Cranium. And if your headaches are migraine and you want logging that takes a single tap, with the weather added for you, ours is built for that, with the caveat about its age. Whichever you choose, the habit matters more than the app.