Review Insights · App Store
RISE: Sleep Tracker
Rise Science Inc · 58,323 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
58,323 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 43 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"trial"
16 negative reviews mention this · 37% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No free trial reminder. I was evaluating if this app would work for me and I was skeptical that 1 week would be enough to see any noticeable differences but I figured i’d try it anyways. My biggest complaint is that I was not given a reminder that my free trial w…" - InspirAZN
2
"sleep"
11 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unhelpful. App doesn’t do anything. It fake tracks your sleep but is unsuccessful in doing so. I cancelled a subscription and it still went and charged me. It pretends to know when your energy levels will be good but they’re just casting a wide net. G…" - Beats from Schrute
3
"free"
10 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No free trial reminder. I was evaluating if this app would work for me and I was skeptical that 1 week would be enough to see any noticeable differences but I figured i’d try it anyways. My biggest complaint is that I was not given a reminder that my free trial w…" - InspirAZN
4
"subscription"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money. I hate when apps let you do half of the things you need to do to set up the app just to give you a stupid subscription fee RISE is horrible 0 if possible" - veckhvgscgvs
5
"work"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No free trial reminder. I was evaluating if this app would work for me and I was skeptical that 1 week would be enough to see any noticeable differences but I figured i’d try it anyways. My biggest complaint is that I was not given a reminder that my free trial w…" - InspirAZN
6
"doesn"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No free trial reminder. I was evaluating if this app would work for me and I was skeptical that 1 week would be enough to see any noticeable differences but I figured i’d try it anyways. My biggest complaint is that I was not given a reminder that my free trial w…" - InspirAZN
7
"charged"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No free trial reminder. I was evaluating if this app would work for me and I was skeptical that 1 week would be enough to see any noticeable differences but I figured i’d try it anyways. My biggest complaint is that I was not given a reminder that my free trial w…" - InspirAZN
8
"free trial"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No free trial reminder. I was evaluating if this app would work for me and I was skeptical that 1 week would be enough to see any noticeable differences but I figured i’d try it anyways. My biggest complaint is that I was not given a reminder that my free trial w…" - InspirAZN
9
"trying"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP!!. I downloaded this app out of curiosity. I don’t know a single human out there that does not have issues with sleep. Figured it’d be interesting to see what the data gave back. First off they want a credit card just to start a free trial. Se…" - over it 99
10
"wake"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Didn’t help at all. Tried trial plan for 30-days. This didn’t change my sleep at all - maybe made it worse. To make up my sleep debt the app had me going to be earlier and earlier each night. It wanted me asleep by 9:00 even though I wasn’t tired. Some night…" - CranioBrian
11
"money"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money. I hate when apps let you do half of the things you need to do to set up the app just to give you a stupid subscription fee RISE is horrible 0 if possible" - veckhvgscgvs
12
"been"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No free trial reminder. I was evaluating if this app would work for me and I was skeptical that 1 week would be enough to see any noticeable differences but I figured i’d try it anyways. My biggest complaint is that I was not given a reminder that my free trial w…" - InspirAZN
📋 All 43 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Money
I hate when apps let you do half of the things you need to do to set up the app just to give you a stupid subscription fee RISE is horrible 0 if possible
Unhelpful
App doesn’t do anything. It fake tracks your sleep but is unsuccessful in doing so. I cancelled a subscription and it still went and charged me. It pretends to know when your energy levels will be good but they’re just casting a wide net. Get Whoop as it’s actually scientific.
DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP!!
I downloaded this app out of curiosity. I don’t know a single human out there that does not have issues with sleep. Figured it’d be interesting to see what the data gave back. First off they want a credit card just to start a free trial. Secondly they don’t give you a month by month options. They make you pay for a year in full. After deciding that I no longer wanted participate in the free trial, I went to delete the app off my phone.… It will not let you delete the app off your phone. It circles you back around to their website trying to cut you a deal, wanting your credit card with no options to actually delete the app. So now I guess I’m gonna have to email the company just to get the damn app off my phone. Dumb!!!
Double Trouble
When opting for the 7-day trial, you’re redirected to their website to finalize “payment”. You think you’re finished but no. Now it’s the app’s turn to have access to your wallet.
Seeing that developers did this on purpose is a MAJOR red flag
Seeing that developers did this on purpose is a MAJOR red flag
Terrible.
Terrible app, does not work as advertised or at all honestly. Concept seems cool but looks like it’s just a cash grab, and an attempt to trick people into spending their money by making cancelling dang near impossible. Would not recommend.
Don’t sign up for a free trial. They still charge you if you cancel.
I have several proofs showing that I cancelled before the billing date. My account even says that my membership expired and yet they still charged me.
Lame
Love that they want you to review them before they let you know they want 6$ a month for this waste of money
REFUND REQUEST
I need someone to process my refund no one is answering
Be careful when you cancel
They let you cancel, and then they charge you your annual fee when you least expect it! Be careful and make sure you cancel at the source .
Force you into 1 year with no easy way to cancel
Careful. Cancelling is practically impossible. It’s still trying to charge my card!
Nothing more than general health app gives you
There is no free version only subscription.
And i am subscribed out of stupid stuff that offers no real benefit beyond making you pay for a different wrapper around the health app
And i am subscribed out of stupid stuff that offers no real benefit beyond making you pay for a different wrapper around the health app
Absolutely Useless
REMEMBER TO CANCEL BEFORE THE FREE TRIAL ENDS!! I have never seen a more useless, bloated app. It’s a bunch of nothing with a marketing team behind it. Do not waste your money.
Very inaccurate data collection
The app seems to internally incorrectly record data. I compared it to my smart bed and it’s off significantly. It also doesn’t record naps unless you do it manually. It’s useless if the data is all wrong
Didn’t help at all
Tried trial plan for 30-days. This didn’t change my sleep at all - maybe made it worse.
To make up my sleep debt the app had me going to be earlier and earlier each night. It wanted me asleep by 9:00 even though I wasn’t tired.
Some nights I wasn’t home from work until after 7:00 and eating at 8:00. But it wanted me in bed by 8:30.
I tried going to bed earlier and earlier but I would just wake up earlier. Plus, going to bed earlier just made my sleep lighter and I woke up more during the night. It didn’t do anything to help me stay asleep longer. And the app doesn’t track waking up at night.
Also, the daily “peaks” and “dips” were way off. It doesn’t take into account meal times or daily activities.
I sent them an email after a couple weeks. They basically just told me to keep going and things would change. Didn’t offer any solid advice. Nor does the app address the issue of how to stay asleep longer.
After a month trial my sleep has not improved and may actually be a bit worse.
To make up my sleep debt the app had me going to be earlier and earlier each night. It wanted me asleep by 9:00 even though I wasn’t tired.
Some nights I wasn’t home from work until after 7:00 and eating at 8:00. But it wanted me in bed by 8:30.
I tried going to bed earlier and earlier but I would just wake up earlier. Plus, going to bed earlier just made my sleep lighter and I woke up more during the night. It didn’t do anything to help me stay asleep longer. And the app doesn’t track waking up at night.
Also, the daily “peaks” and “dips” were way off. It doesn’t take into account meal times or daily activities.
I sent them an email after a couple weeks. They basically just told me to keep going and things would change. Didn’t offer any solid advice. Nor does the app address the issue of how to stay asleep longer.
After a month trial my sleep has not improved and may actually be a bit worse.
Your information is locked and taken
Edit to add:
After your trial is over all the information they collected about you is locked unless you pay up. To me, I saw myself as a participant to their research, I should at least be able to access my historic data. In a clinical trial, they pay for participants not the other way around. After trying for a month, I still did not see any improvements in my sleep. I got better results from other apps.
--///-/-///--
It doe not account for the time I need to wake up for work. It keeps showing as sleep debt… how is this supposed to help if it does not account for that? I need to wake up at 6:40am for work M-F and the app tells me I should go to bed 2:22am and wake up sometimes around 9 am but says I need at least 8 hrs of sleep??? Then after a week it tells me my morning peak is at 5:58pm. I think something is off or there is too much information on screen and I can’t find what I am look for…to edit it.
After your trial is over all the information they collected about you is locked unless you pay up. To me, I saw myself as a participant to their research, I should at least be able to access my historic data. In a clinical trial, they pay for participants not the other way around. After trying for a month, I still did not see any improvements in my sleep. I got better results from other apps.
--///-/-///--
It doe not account for the time I need to wake up for work. It keeps showing as sleep debt… how is this supposed to help if it does not account for that? I need to wake up at 6:40am for work M-F and the app tells me I should go to bed 2:22am and wake up sometimes around 9 am but says I need at least 8 hrs of sleep??? Then after a week it tells me my morning peak is at 5:58pm. I think something is off or there is too much information on screen and I can’t find what I am look for…to edit it.
Be very wary
I got the trial subscription, realized the app just wasn’t worth the prize tag, and canceled said trial immediately. Imagine my surprise when they still try to take $70 out of my PayPal account. Luckily, customer service was quick to respond in my case, but I’m sure an unexpected expense like that could be devastating to others.
Not to mention how predatory the whole app feels in general and the long introduction you have to go through to get back to your profile after you deleted the app because you canceled the subscription (since they don’t seem to have a website that isn’t just an ad for their app). It was incredibly frustrating trying to tap to skip through their little questionnaire just to confirm I did in fact cancel the subscription when I thought I did. ☺️
Not to mention how predatory the whole app feels in general and the long introduction you have to go through to get back to your profile after you deleted the app because you canceled the subscription (since they don’t seem to have a website that isn’t just an ad for their app). It was incredibly frustrating trying to tap to skip through their little questionnaire just to confirm I did in fact cancel the subscription when I thought I did. ☺️
Trial scam
They just want you to sign up and forget you’re paying so they can charge you
Charges anyway
I went to start my free trial and they immediately charged me 22 dollars.
App not working at setup
I’ve been trying to download the app to give it a shot but it simply won’t get past the screen to connect to health apps and devices. I’ve authorized access but it just remains at that screen, I’ve tried deleting and redownloading to no avail. iOS 26.3.1, iPhone Air.
Scammed by in app review
They said I was reviewing the app, but nothing here. Total scam. Advertised as free, for last minute charges.
Non binary?
Any science based app that thinks there’s more than two genders can’t be trusted
too many questions to be paid app
tons of questions before you tell that you charge plenty
Don’t be fooled
It’s a bunch of mumbo jumbo with 10 mins of setup to be told it’s a free week trial.
Would be cool if I could actually use this app
I tried giving it a shot, but unfortunately I can’t use the app cause they keep displaying a advertisement offer- even in my free trial- I can’t say if this app is either good or bad but it sucks already since I cant try it - it’s like they’re forcing you to spend money just to try it out
Ghost alarm even after uninstalling the app. I hope i never installed this app
Cannot find a way to delete the alarm either. Used it on iPhone 15 pro max. Its irritating when the alarm goes on an hours before the actual time i wanna wake up and there is not way to turn it off.
Inaccurate and Frustrating
I am a physician and Sleep specialist, and have heard such great things about this app, so I decided to try it myself. The app set a completely nonsensical sleep schedule for me that recommended a sleep time of 3-4am and a wake time of 10:30-11:30am. I told the app my normal/preferred sleep times (11pm - 6:30am), and connected Apple Health and my Apple Watch, which I use religiously every night for sleep tracking and my alarm, but it was as if my real schedule and real suggestions were completely ignored.
I tried signing out, deleting the app and starting over, but it gave me another ridiculous sleep schedule, now suggesting I go to sleep at 3:30-4:30am. The app claims to make someone become a morning person, yet keeps trying to set a schedule for me that has me wake up near mid day, after staying awake past 3-4am!
I’ve tried changing every setting I could find, and sleeping with the app fully enabled for several nights, to see if my actual sleep schedule would fix this. However, after several nights where my actual, reasonable sleep schedule was recorded perfectly, the app kept insisting I should wait until 4:30am to go to sleep, and wake up at noon.
I paid for the extended 1 month trial, and am abandoning this app after less than a week. I was hoping this might be something I could suggest to my patients, as a way to improve sleep hygiene, but after my experience, I can’t recommend this app to anyone.
I tried signing out, deleting the app and starting over, but it gave me another ridiculous sleep schedule, now suggesting I go to sleep at 3:30-4:30am. The app claims to make someone become a morning person, yet keeps trying to set a schedule for me that has me wake up near mid day, after staying awake past 3-4am!
I’ve tried changing every setting I could find, and sleeping with the app fully enabled for several nights, to see if my actual sleep schedule would fix this. However, after several nights where my actual, reasonable sleep schedule was recorded perfectly, the app kept insisting I should wait until 4:30am to go to sleep, and wake up at noon.
I paid for the extended 1 month trial, and am abandoning this app after less than a week. I was hoping this might be something I could suggest to my patients, as a way to improve sleep hygiene, but after my experience, I can’t recommend this app to anyone.
More or less broken compared to earlier iterations
I used it in the past with no problem. Now it only works about 30% of the time and I’m being generous. It constantly changes sleep debt and energy, seemingly without any particular reason going from 84% of 5% even though nothing changed. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that it logs sleep when I’m clearly up and moving around which both my phone and my watch would indicate and it’s even before the recommended sleep window, and then when I actually do sleep, it doesn’t log it at all. It’s so inconsistent with this. It will work for one night and then just won’t work for three nights. Also particularly wonderful is how the smart alarm only goes off maybe three times out of 10. You literally could not trust it to wake you up.
I want to like it as much as when I used it a few years ago, but it has become so bloated and so confusing and getting itself tripped up with Apple health and the various different sleep schedules that exist between different devices, and you can spend hours trying to untangle it yourself and everything should be working and then it just doesn’t.
It should also be worth noting the UI has become horrible. There is way too much going on and you cannot find basic useful things that you might use frequently.
I want to like it as much as when I used it a few years ago, but it has become so bloated and so confusing and getting itself tripped up with Apple health and the various different sleep schedules that exist between different devices, and you can spend hours trying to untangle it yourself and everything should be working and then it just doesn’t.
It should also be worth noting the UI has become horrible. There is way too much going on and you cannot find basic useful things that you might use frequently.
Unable to change ridiculous sleep suggestion
I went through all the questions, put in what I want my ideal sleep schedule to be as I work in the morning. Wanted to change my sleep health as I have to be up at 3:30AM, and it suggested my "ideal" bedtime *as* 2:30-3:00am with a 10:30/11:00am wakeup - thats halfway through my shift. I was unable to change my sleep schedule without being asked for a subscription. Deleted the app before even really using it.
Charged Without Subscription
BEWARE this app will charge you when you dont have an active subscription. be careful.
RUN FORREST RUN
The app is glitchy and there is an infinity loop of can’t submit email to cancel or request refund and NO CONTACT INFO FOR SUPPORT
SO WHEN YOUR TRIAL RUNS OUT AND YOU try to cancel…tough luck, they are going to draft your account anyway
SO WHEN YOUR TRIAL RUNS OUT AND YOU try to cancel…tough luck, they are going to draft your account anyway
Will not work for Midnight Shift/Daysleepers
Updated - previously [2 Stars]
App pulls data only once a day in the morning - and will not update again no matter what you do. Midnight Shift/Daysleepers cannot see progress for 12-24 hours because of this.
Contacted support and they verified that it will NOT work with Daysleepers correctly.
With shifted sleep schedules, it also missed data imports multiple data in my first week, making the app have incorrect data. There is the ability to manually import all data, but then why do I even have the app?
They also have questionnaires for various things that can affect sleep, such as ADHD - but they stick with generic questions that someone who doesn’t understand it would ask. Zero questions on inability to quiet the mind or to concentrate focus.
All in all, this app looks really, really nice, but it’s intentionally not built for everyone. You can tell in just a short time that it’s made by people who don’t understand any outliers in society.
App pulls data only once a day in the morning - and will not update again no matter what you do. Midnight Shift/Daysleepers cannot see progress for 12-24 hours because of this.
Contacted support and they verified that it will NOT work with Daysleepers correctly.
With shifted sleep schedules, it also missed data imports multiple data in my first week, making the app have incorrect data. There is the ability to manually import all data, but then why do I even have the app?
They also have questionnaires for various things that can affect sleep, such as ADHD - but they stick with generic questions that someone who doesn’t understand it would ask. Zero questions on inability to quiet the mind or to concentrate focus.
All in all, this app looks really, really nice, but it’s intentionally not built for everyone. You can tell in just a short time that it’s made by people who don’t understand any outliers in society.
Too Inflexible
I have to be up at 5:30 AM. I got this app so that I could figure out how to get over my sleep debt and how to get a better night sleep with a 5:30 AM wake up time. However, the app decided that my ideal wake up time is 7:30. Guess who needs to be at work at 7:30? So I tried to make adjustments and I couldn’t. I sent a message to customer support and customer support informed me that the only way to make adjustments in the app in order to get a schedule that actually works with your set, required schedule, I’s have to “train“ it over a period of time. This renders the app absolutely worthless to me and my purposes for downloading it. You better believe I got a refund on my $.99 trial fee. This app isn’t helpful if you can’t make the necessary adjustments for it to work within your schedule.
Taking my money
I used the free trial to see what the app was abt and they charged me $70 without a warning or asking me which plan i wanted. Now im stuck with the app for an entire year with no way to get my money back.
Bait and switch??
I have loved this app for years and used it nightly. Worked fine for so long and then a few days ago I tried to open the app to see how I slept and I can no longer see anything. Just takes me to a screen wanting me to pay. I understand paying for the premium features but I’ve been using the app with the basics for years and now all the sudden I can’t use it at all. It was good u til it wasn’t. No email or any info saying why I now have to pay to use any part of the app.
Extremely difficult to set up!
I still don’t have it set up and have asked for help but no reply. It’s been since March 24,2026!
No free trial reminder
I was evaluating if this app would work for me and I was skeptical that 1 week would be enough to see any noticeable differences but I figured i’d try it anyways. My biggest complaint is that I was not given a reminder that my free trial was ending and now i’ve been automatically charged $60 for a yearly subscription and no way to refund it. I know this is kind of a ubiquitous practice now but as a user this doesn’t feel good and diminishes all the positive experiences I’ve had during the trial.
Not very useful
I’m very unimpressed with this app and do not believe it is worth any $. It has very limited functionality, when it’s working correctly, and doesn’t really have much to offer otherwise. It only tracks sleep debt, no sleep credit. It claims I need 9.5 hours of sleep per night but gives no indication where that number comes from and it’s more likely used to cause me to go into more sleep debt to motivate me to keep using the app.
The app turns black when I get on it, why ??
Interesting app but can’t even go through the onboarding without the app to bug
Rise Alarm went off at midnight
Must be a bug
Kills my battery life fast
I have to delete this app. My phone dies so fast now. I fully charged my phone yesterday at 4pm and it died in the middle of the night preventing my alarm from going off. The only thing different is having this app. And again today my battery is draining so fast!
Buggy?
The app has been “calculating today’s sleep debt” for over an hour with no results. Also seems like an expensive subscription for what it does.
Time zones
The app completely messed up when I traveled and moved time zones
Kinda pointless
I think this app is meant more for people that don’t have a lot of external factors going on. It doesn’t allow for adjustments. For example: I no longer have a groggy window due to medication changes but it won’t allow me to adjust. Or the instructions aren’t clear how to.
I wanted this app to help me wake up earlier but all it did was take my normal wake up time and didn’t adjust anything. It doesn’t ask what time you’d like to wake up it only asks what time you usually wake up. I don’t need something to tell me that I’m already waking up at the same time I’ve been waking up at…
I wanted this app to help me wake up earlier but all it did was take my normal wake up time and didn’t adjust anything. It doesn’t ask what time you’d like to wake up it only asks what time you usually wake up. I don’t need something to tell me that I’m already waking up at the same time I’ve been waking up at…
Sentiment summary
93%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)