Most subscription-tracker comparisons are feature lists copied from App Store pages. This is an attempt at something harder: a fixed set of six subscriptions, a fixed set of measurements, and a protocol precise enough that you can run it yourself and get a comparable number. Below is the protocol, the scorecard we can fill in today from verifiable public information, and a clear statement of which measurements have not been run.
This benchmark is published by TrialBell
It is not an independent review. We make TrialBell, which is one of the six apps compared here. Public-product facts were checked against official App Store listings and documentation, and are dated. Hands-on measurements have not been run for any app, including our own — those rows are labelled "Not yet hands-on tested" rather than estimated, and no overall score is calculated from them.
If you want an independent view, run the protocol below yourself — that's why it's published in this much detail.
What kind of evidence each claim rests on
Everything on this page falls into one of four buckets, and they are kept separate on purpose:
| Bucket | What it means | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Publicly documented facts | Taken from official App Store listings, pricing pages and documentation, with the source and date listed. | Published below |
| TrialBell's own tested behaviour | Things we can state about our own app because we build it and can read the shipping code. | Published below |
| Competitor hands-on results | Setup time, tap counts, and confirming features a listing doesn't mention — needs six installs, paid tiers and a stopwatch. | Not yet hands-on tested |
| Overall score | A single ranking number across all measurements. | Not calculated — see below |
We don't publish an overall numerical score, because two of the eleven measurements have not been run for any app. A score built partly on untested fields would look authoritative and mean nothing.
The short answer
Choosing a subscription tracker comes down to one question before any feature: are you willing to link a bank account? If yes, a bank-linked app like Rocket Money can find charges you've forgotten, which no manual app can do. If no, you're choosing among manual trackers, and the thing that separates them is how seriously they treat the free-trial deadline. Everything else is preference.
The apps
Six iPhone-available trackers that people actually compare against each other: TrialBell, Bobby, Rocket Money, Orbit, ReSubs and Subby.
The sample dataset
The same six subscriptions go into every app, in this order. They're chosen to cover the cases that actually break trackers: an active trial with a near deadline, an annual renewal far in the future, a mid-cycle monthly, a service billed through Apple rather than directly, a non-app recurring bill, and a service in a foreign currency.
| # | Item | Price | Cycle | Key date | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | $17.99 | Monthly | Renews in 12 days | Baseline entry |
| 2 | Canva Pro | $15.00 | Monthly, in free trial | Trial ends in 4 days | Trial + cancel-by handling |
| 3 | 1Password | $35.88 | Yearly | Renews in 210 days | Long-horizon annual |
| 4 | iCloud+ 200 GB | $2.99 | Monthly, Apple-billed | Renews in 21 days | Apple billing route |
| 5 | Home internet | $59.00 | Monthly | Due in 6 days | Non-app recurring bill |
| 6 | Spotify (EU) | €10.99 | Monthly | Renews in 27 days | Second currency |
Dates are relative to the day you run the test, so the dataset doesn't expire. Total: $130.86 + €10.99 per month equivalent, if the app computes it.
What gets measured
- Setup time. Wall-clock seconds from first launch to all six items saved, including onboarding and any account creation. Stopwatch, one run, no rehearsal.
- Taps to add item 1. Counted from the app's home screen to saved.
- Bank connection required. Can you complete the dataset without linking an account? Yes / no / partially.
- Trial support. Can item 2 be marked as a trial distinct from a paid subscription?
- Cancel-by date. Does the app hold a deadline separate from the renewal date, and does it compute one?
- Reminder options. How many lead times, set globally or per item, and does anything fire on the deadline day itself?
- Cancellation assistance. Does the app supply a cancellation route for item 1 without you pasting one in?
- Privacy posture. Account required, data destination, and the App Store privacy label as published.
- Pricing. Free tier limit, paid price, one-time or recurring.
- Export. Can you get the six items out as a file?
- Widgets. Is there a Home Screen widget, and is it free or paid?
Rules that keep it fair
- Same iPhone, same iOS version, same session; airplane mode off.
- Fresh install, no restored data, no prior account.
- Free tier first. If the free tier can't hold six items, record where it stopped, then repeat on the paid tier and report both.
- Count what the app does out of the box — no manual link-pasting where the app is supposed to supply one.
- Publish the date. Apps ship updates; an undated benchmark is a rumour.
Scorecard: what's verifiable today
The first ten rows come from public App Store listings, official pricing pages and — for TrialBell — the shipping app itself. They don't require the hands-on run, so we can publish them now. The last three rows are the measurements that do require it, shown explicitly as untested rather than quietly left out.
| TrialBell | Bobby | Rocket Money | Orbit | ReSubs | Subby | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone | iPhone | iOS, Android, web | iPhone | Cross-platform | iPhone |
| Bank connection required | No | No | Yes, for its core feature | No | No | No |
| Finds charges you forgot | No — manual only | No — manual only | Yes, from your bank feed | Manual + statement import | Manual + CSV import | No — manual only |
| Cancel-by date, separate from renewal | Yes, computed | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly | Trial alerts | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly |
| Deadline-day alert as well as a lead reminder | Yes | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly |
| Built-in cancellation routes | 42 | Not listed publicly | Assisted cancellation service | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly |
| Pricing model | Free to 3; $19.99 once | Free with limit; one-time IAPs from ~$0.99 | Free tier; Premium ~$7–14/month | Lifetime from $24.99 | Lifetime from $36.99 | ~$9.99 |
| Recurring cost to keep using it | None | None | Monthly | None | None | None |
| Export | CSV (Pro) | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly | Not listed publicly | CSV import listed | Not listed publicly |
| Privacy label highlights | No account; on-device; optional own-iCloud backup | No account listed | Account + linked financial accounts | No account listed | Listing notes tracking identifiers and cloud sync | Developer states no data collected |
| Setup time (6 items) | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested |
| Taps to add item 1 | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested | Not yet hands-on tested |
| Overall score | Not calculated | Not calculated | Not calculated | Not calculated | Not calculated | Not calculated |
"Not listed publicly" means exactly that — the app's public App Store listing doesn't advertise the feature. It is not evidence the feature is missing. "Not yet hands-on tested" means no one has run the protocol for that app, including us. Both are marked rather than guessed at.
What we haven't measured yet
Setup time, taps-to-first-item, and the hands-on verification of every "not listed publicly" cell all require installing six apps, paying for the paid tiers, and running the dataset with a stopwatch. That run has not been done — for any app, including TrialBell. Those rows say "Not yet hands-on tested" and will keep saying it until someone actually runs the protocol. We would rather carry a visibly incomplete table than publish invented seconds, and we don't compute an overall score while any measurement is untested.
When the run happens, the numbers land here with the date, the iOS version and the app version of each competitor. If you run the protocol yourself first, send it to hello@trialbell.app and we'll publish it, including results that don't flatter us.
How to read a benchmark like this
- Setup time is a weak signal. You pay it once. A tracker you'll use for years should be judged on what it does on the day a deadline lands, not on the day you install it.
- Feature counts are worse. The question is whether the app catches your failure mode. If you never start free trials, cancel-by handling is irrelevant to you and a plain list is fine.
- Privacy is a trade, not a score. Bank-linked apps genuinely do something manual apps can't. "Private" isn't automatically "better" — it's a different set of costs.
What the verifiable rows already show
Two things are settled without the stopwatch. First, only Rocket Money can discover a subscription you never entered — if that's your problem, the manual apps can't solve it. Second, among the no-bank apps, the recurring-cost row is the sharpest divide: Bobby, Subby, Orbit, ReSubs and TrialBell all let you pay once, while a bank-linked service means paying every month to watch your monthly payments. Where TrialBell separates itself is the cancel-by and deadline-alert rows — but those are also the rows most in need of the hands-on run, because a listing that doesn't mention a feature isn't a listing that lacks it.
The app this protocol was built around
TrialBell computes cancel-by dates, sends a lead reminder and a final-day alert, and ships 42 built-in cancellation routes. Free for 3 subscriptions; Pro is a one-time $19.99.
Coming soon to theApp StoreSources
- TrialBell 1.0 — the shipping app (features, pricing, template and link counts), July 2026
- Bobby — Apple App Store listing (id1059152023), July 2026
- Rocket Money — official pricing and product pages, July 2026
- Subscription Manager: Orbit — Apple App Store listing (id6692620188), July 2026
- ReSubs — Apple App Store listing (id6740457603), including its published privacy label, July 2026
- Subby — Apple App Store listing (id6739703718), including its published privacy label, July 2026
Not affiliated with Bobby, Rocket Money, Orbit, ReSubs or Subby; referenced for comparison only. Verified 28 July 2026 — confirm current pricing and features on the App Store, as apps change.