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Best Snoring Apps for iPhone: 6 Compared, Free Tiers

By · Published · 8 min read
Six small charcoal neumorphic tiles in two rows on a dark surface, each with a different glowing LED waveform, one tile lit brighter green than the rest.

The best snoring app is the one that lets you hear your own snoring without a fight: a dedicated recorder if snoring is the question, a general sleep tracker if snoring is a side interest. Six apps below cover both. We make Snorly, one of the six, so treat this as a comparison written by one of the contestants and check every row yourself; each takes one night with two phones on one nightstand. SnoreLab is the app most people try first, with about 57,000 App Store ratings.

Key facts
  • Phone-based snore detection agrees closely with manual counts for loud snoring in validation studies and less well for quiet snoring in noisy rooms (Chiang 2021, SnoreClock; Figueras-Alvarez 2020, SnoreLab on three phones)
  • No app on this list diagnoses sleep apnea, and every one of them says so in its listing (App Store, September 2026)
  • The free tiers differ mainly in playback: SnoreLab limits nights and samples, Sleep Cycle and ShutEye keep snore audio in their subscriptions, SnoreClock is a one-time purchase, Snorly is a free trial then Premium (store listings and developer FAQs, September 2026)
  • The most-voted Reddit advice on the topic: "free, ad-free, good: pick any two" (r/snoring, 2024)
  • Snorly runs detection on the phone and has no account; recordings never leave the device unless you share a clip (our data)

How we compared them

We looked at six things people actually argue about in reviews and on Reddit: what the app keeps (clips only or the whole night), whether you can play the clips back without paying, whether audio is processed on the phone, whether it flags breathing pauses, how it charges, and which platforms it runs on. Ratings and prices were read from the US App Store on 2 September 2026; free-tier limits come from each developer's own FAQ and change without notice, so verify before you rely on them.

Six snoring apps side by side

AppPlatformKeepsPlayback without payingBreathing flagsPrice model
SnorlyiPhoneOnly detected snoring, sleep talk and cough clipsDuring the free trialPauses and gasps per hourSubscription or one-time lifetime
SnoreLabiPhone, AndroidSnoring samples through the nightLimited nights and samples on the free tierPremium insightsFree with limits, then subscription
SnoreClockiPhone, AndroidSnore detection with a night chartYes, after the one-time purchaseNoOne-time purchase ($9.99 on iPhone)
Do I Snore or GrindiPhoneSnoring and teeth-grinding eventsYesNoFree (last updated 2019)
Sleep CycleiPhone, AndroidSleep tracking; snore and sleep-talk audio as a featurePremiumNoSubscription
ShutEyeiPhone, AndroidSleep tracking with a sounds library; snore detection as one featureSubscriptionNoSubscription

Snorly and SnoreLab are the only two built around the snoring itself; the other four either add snoring to a sleep tracker or stopped evolving. For a deeper look at the top pair see Snorly vs SnoreLab.

Dedicated snore recorders

Snorly (ours). Records only when it hears snoring, talking or coughing, keeps each clip on a night timeline with four loudness bands, and scores the night 0 to 100 (higher is better). Breathing pauses and gasps are counted per hour and flagged as something to discuss with a doctor, never as a diagnosis. Everything runs on the phone; there is no account. Free trial, then a subscription or a one-time lifetime price. Skip it if you are on Android or want sleep stages and a smart alarm.

SnoreLab. The category veteran with a decade of refinements, the largest user base and the most written about its score. Remedy and factor tagging is mature, and there is a remedy shop inside the app. The free tier limits how many nights and samples you get; the current numbers are in SnoreLab's FAQ. Pick it if you are on Android, want a remedy marketplace, or want a median score to compare yourself against.

SnoreClock. A one-time purchase with no subscription, which is exactly what half of Reddit asks for. It has published validation against a sleep lab (Chiang 2021). The trade-off is a simpler app: no breathing flags, fewer trend tools, and a small App Store footprint (about 60 ratings). Pick it if you refuse subscriptions on principle.

Do I Snore or Grind. Free, from SleepScore Labs, and the only one here that also listens for teeth grinding. It has not been updated since 2019 and its rating shows it (3.7). Pick it if grinding is your question and you accept an old app.

Sleep trackers with snore detection

Sleep Cycle. The smart alarm that wakes you in a light-sleep window is the product; snoring and sleep-talk recording are Premium features. Its "Who's Snoring?" feature tries to separate your snoring from your partner's using a short sample of each voice, which no dedicated recorder does. Pick it if the alarm is the main draw.

ShutEye. A broad sleep app: stages, white noise, sleep notes, and snore detection as one feature among many, with a very large user base (about 350,000 App Store ratings). Snoring gets less depth than in a dedicated recorder and most of the app sits behind a subscription. Pick it if you want one subscription for sounds, tracking and a snore check.

Do snoring apps really work?

For loud snoring, yes. Two open-access studies tested consumer snore apps against manual counts and lab recordings and found high agreement when the snoring was loud and the room was quiet, with weaker results for quiet snoring, fans and traffic. A 2025 study in JMIR reached the same shape of conclusion. In practice the app matters less than the setup: phone 0.5 to 1 m from your head, plugged in, no fan pointed at the microphone.

What no app can do is tell you whether a silent gap was an apnea. Apps hear sound; apnea is about airflow and oxygen. A recording of snoring, silence, then a gasp is a reason to see a doctor, and snoring vs sleep apnea shows the pattern.

Which free snoring app is actually free?

"Free" in this category usually means free to install. The table above has the honest version: Do I Snore or Grind is free and old; SnoreLab is free with limits on nights and samples; SnoreClock is a single payment; Sleep Cycle and ShutEye put snore audio in the subscription; Snorly gives you everything in a free trial, then asks you to pay. If you want one night of proof for nothing, SnoreLab's free tier or Snorly's trial both deliver it. Read the free snoring app page for what Snorly's trial includes.

How to choose in 30 seconds

How to test two apps in three nights

  1. Install both on two phones, or run them on alternate nights on one phone. Same nightstand, same distance, both plugged in.
  2. Record three nights. In the morning, listen to the clips each app kept and count the snoring episodes you can hear.
  3. Compare the counts with each app's timeline and note which one made you actually listen. The app you open at breakfast is the one that will change something.
What to do tonight
  1. Pick one dedicated recorder from the table and install it.
  2. Phone on the nightstand, screen down, 0.5 to 1 m from your head, plugged in, Do Not Disturb on.
  3. Skip alcohol tonight so the first night is a fair baseline.
  4. In the morning, play the loudest clip once. That is the proof; everything else is trend.
Snorly app icon

Hear your own snoring tonightSnorly records only when it hears snoring and plays it back in the morning. Free to try, no account.

Download on the App Store

Related questions

Is there a free app to record snoring?

Do I Snore or Grind is free but has not been updated since 2019. SnoreLab is free with limits on nights and samples. Snorly is free to download with a full-featured trial, then Premium. Voice Memos is free and records the whole night as one file you scrub yourself.

Does the iPhone have built-in snore detection?

No. iOS has no snore detection. Apple Watch Series 9 and later can send sleep apnea notifications based on breathing disturbances measured by the accelerometer, which is a different signal from sound and does not record anything.

Which snoring app is most accurate?

Published tests of SnoreClock and SnoreLab report high agreement with manual counts for loud snoring. Placement and room noise change the result more than the choice of app, so compare apps on the same nightstand before trusting either.

Can a snoring app detect sleep apnea?

No. Apps hear sound; apnea is diagnosed by measuring breathing and oxygen in a home sleep test or a lab study. Some apps, including Snorly and SnoreLab, flag pauses and gasps as a reason to see a doctor, which is as far as a microphone can go.

What is the best snoring app for Android?

SnoreLab is the most established; SnoreClock is the one-time-purchase option; Sleep Cycle and ShutEye add snore detection to general tracking. Snorly is iPhone only.

Sources

Snorly is a snore recorder and tracker, not a medical device. It does not diagnose sleep apnea or any other condition. If you notice pauses in breathing, gasping or daytime sleepiness, talk to a doctor.