Clue, Natural Cycles, Stardust and Plum all tell you which phase of your cycle you’re in today. Plum and Clue do it in their free apps. Natural Cycles needs a subscription. Flo’s main screen leads with your cycle day and your chance of getting pregnant instead of a phase name, and Apple’s Cycle Tracking doesn’t name phases at all.
We make Plum, so read the Plum part with that in mind. Everything here about other apps comes from their own help pages, websites or App Store listings, read on October 12, 2026.
Which period apps show your cycle phase?
By phases, we mean the four most apps use. They’re your period (the menstrual phase), the follicular phase before ovulation, ovulation itself, and the luteal phase between ovulation and your next period.
| App | Names today’s phase? | Free or paid | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue | Yes, in an overview just below the main cycle view | Overview is in the free app. Clue says some parts of it are only in Clue Plus. | Six subphases and a reminder when a new phase starts |
| Flo | Not as a label on the main screen. Daily stories talk about where you are in your cycle. | Free tracking. Flo Premium adds cycle patterns and expert content. | The Health Assistant may start a chat when a new phase begins |
| Natural Cycles | Yes, under your daily fertility status | Paid subscription, yearly or monthly | Phases come from your temperature, not only your dates |
| Stardust | Its daily insights are built around your current phase | Free version, plus a paid plan called Stardust Super | Moon calendar, horoscopes and tarot |
| Apple Cycle Tracking | No. It shows period days and the fertile window. | Free, built into the Health app | A likely ovulation day after the fact, with a recent Apple Watch |
| Plum | Yes, on the home screen | Free. Premium adds a daily phase tip. | A notification when a new phase starts, with Premium |
How each app shows the phase
Clue calls its feature Cycle Phase Insights. According to Clue’s help center, you scroll down from the main cycle view to see the phase you’re in and what your hormones are doing. It splits the cycle more finely than most apps, into early and late follicular, ovulation, and early, mid and late luteal. You only see the current phase, not past or future ones. Two limits are worth knowing. The overview is hidden if you’ve set a hormonal birth control method in your profile, and Clue says community insights and related science content are for Clue Plus subscribers.
Flo works the phase into other parts of the app. Its help page on the main screen lists your cycle day, your chance of getting pregnant, the symptoms you’ve logged and daily stories. The cycle day stories preview your day based on where you are in your cycle, such as your period or your ovulation phase. Period and ovulation predictions are free. The Premium plan adds cycle patterns, expert-led content and unlimited chats with Flo’s Health Assistant.
Natural Cycles is a temperature-based app sold as birth control in some countries. Its app tour says the Today view shows your cycle day and fertility status, with your current cycle phase just below. Because it detects ovulation from your temperature, its phases rest on more than a calendar count. It runs on a yearly or monthly subscription.
Stardust leans into astrology. Its FAQ says the free version includes cycle predictions, daily insights, symptom tracking and some moon features. Stardust Super, the paid plan, adds horoscopes and tarot readings tied to your cycle phase.
Apple’s Cycle Tracking in the Health app sticks to dates. Apple’s iPhone User Guide lists what the timeline marks. It shows predicted period days, predicted fertile days and the days you logged. With an Apple Watch Series 8 or later, or an Apple Watch Ultra, it can mark a day you likely ovulated. There’s no follicular or luteal label. Our guide to Apple Health cycle tracking covers the rest of what it does.
How do apps work out your phase?
Most of them start from the dates you log. The days you bleed are the menstrual phase. The app predicts when your next period will start, then counts back to estimate ovulation, because the stretch after ovulation is the steadier half of the cycle. Cleveland Clinic puts the average luteal phase at 12 to 14 days, with 10 to 17 still normal. Flo’s support team says the app assumes 14 days unless what you log points to another number. Days between your period and ovulation are follicular, and days after ovulation are luteal.
That makes the phase an estimate, and the ovulation date is the shakiest part of it. A 2019 study of more than 600,000 cycles logged in the Natural Cycles app, written partly by the company’s own researchers, found an average luteal phase of 12.4 days. The follicular phase varied far more. The authors said the common belief that everyone ovulates on day 14 isn’t correct.
So treat an app’s phase as a good guess that can be a few days out. It gets better once the app has seen a few of your cycles, and worse if your cycles swing a lot. On hormonal birth control that stops ovulation, there aren’t natural phases to show. To see where a date lands, our cycle phase calculator works it out from the first day of your last period, and your cycle day by day walks through what each day of a 28-day cycle is like.
Period tracker apps with moon phases
Stardust is the app people usually mean. It shows a moon calendar alongside your cycle, and its App Store listing talks about aligning your cycle with lunar phases. Enjoy it as astrology. There’s no good evidence that the moon decides when your period comes.
The study usually quoted on this is Helfrich-Förster and colleagues in Science Advances in 2021. They looked at long-term period records from 22 women. Among those aged 35 or under, cycles lined up with the full or new moon about a quarter of the time. That fell to under a tenth over 35, and it faded with more light at night. It’s a small, self-selected group, the link came and went, and the authors say their data don’t prove cause.
Are phase tips worth paying for?
Knowing your phase is useful for plain reasons. It tells you when the days before your period are coming, when you might ovulate, and whether a symptom tends to show up at the same point each cycle. You get all of that from the free phase label in Clue or Plum.
Paid phase tips mostly feed cycle syncing, the idea that you should eat and train differently in each phase. Our cycle syncing guide goes through the research, and it’s thin. Pay for tips if you like reading them and they help you plan your week. Don’t pay expecting a phase plan to change your fitness or your hormones.
Cycle phases in Plum
Plum is a period tracker for iPhone. It shows the phase you’re in on the home screen, and that’s free. You can read one full tip for that phase each day. Plum Premium opens every tip and adds a notification when a new phase starts. Plum works the phase out from your logged periods the same way as the calendar-based apps above, so it’s an estimate too. Our help page on how predictions work explains the count.
Which should you pick?
If you want the phase on your screen for free, use Clue or Plum. Clue suits you if you’re on Android or want the finer six-part split. Plum suits you if you’re on iPhone and want the phase up front without paying. Pick Natural Cycles only if you’ll take your temperature every morning, since that’s what you’re paying for. Pick Stardust if you want the moon and astrology as part of the fun. If dates and a fertile window are enough, Apple’s Cycle Tracking is already on your iPhone. For a wider look at these apps, see our best period tracker apps guide.
