A Pollen.com alternative for iPhone
Pollen.com's Allergy Alert has been the default US pollen app for years. If you are looking for something different, here is an honest account of what Pollenary does differently — including the part where we disagree with their numbers, and why.
The main difference: which plant, on which day
Pollen.com gives a single 0–12 index per day, plus named "top allergens" for today. Pollenary breaks every day of the forecast into the plants driving it — Tree, Grass, Ragweed, Weed, Mold — each with its own severity. Ragweed on Saturday and grass on Sunday are two different problems, and if you only react to one of them, one blended number cannot tell you which day to worry about.
One notification per allergen
Pollenary sends a separate push for each allergen you have turned on, so a ragweed warning never buries a grass warning. Each throttles independently, once per day.
We use a different severity source, on purpose
This is the part worth being direct about. Before shipping we compared both sources against measured counts from certified pollen-counting stations. Over a month when New York-area stations were recording 0–22 grains/m³ — Low on the National Allergy Bureau scale — the 0–12 index was reporting 7.6 to 9.8. Two other independent forecasters agreed with the stations.
So Pollenary uses Google's Pollen API for severity. We still use Pollen.com — but for plant names, which it gets right and which matched the microscope counts almost exactly. The full comparison, with the data, is here.
Side by side
| Pollen.com Allergy Alert | Pollenary | |
|---|---|---|
| Severity scale | 0–12 index | 0–5 Universal Pollen Index |
| Plants named per forecast day | Today only | Every day of the forecast |
| Separate alert per allergen | No | Yes |
| Account required | Optional sign-in | None, ever |
| Ads | Yes | None |
| Recorded history | Yes | Yes (from install onward) |
| Price | Free with ads | Free; Plus $0.99/mo |
Where Pollen.com is still better for some people
- It has years of historical data. Pollenary's history starts the day you install it, because we would not import numbers we could not verify.
- It is free with ads, and its full forecast is not behind a subscription.
- It covers mold more consistently, since our severity source does not report mold at all.
If a long historical record matters more to you than per-day plant detail, that is a reasonable trade and Pollen.com is the better pick.
Pollen levels are a forecast, not a medical measurement. Pollenary is not a medical device and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Talk to a doctor about your allergies.