elara vs
what to expect.
What to Expect is a free, content-rich pregnancy app built around Heidi Murkoff’s editorial library and enormous birth-club forums. Elara is a premium, ad-free pregnancy tracker built for two: the partner gets his own live view, weekly tips and tasks. If you want crowds and articles, choose What to Expect; if you want calm and a shared journey, choose Elara.
what what to expect does well.
What to Expect has one of the largest pregnancy content libraries anywhere — decades of editorial, medically reviewed articles, and week-by-week videos. Its birth-club community groups are the busiest in the category: thousands of posts a day from people due the same month as you.
It is free to use, and its due-date communities are genuinely hard to replicate.
where elara differs.
Elara trades the crowd for quiet. There is no feed, no forum noise and no ads between you and your week. And where What to Expect offers dad articles to read, Elara gives your partner a living view of the pregnancy on his own phone — the same week, the same baby, plus weekly tips written for him and small tasks he can actually do.
side by side.
 Elara |  What to Expect | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for two from the start | Yes — partner mode is the core feature | — |
| Partner sees week & baby size in real time | Yes, live on his own phone | No — reads the same app, no linked partner view |
| Weekly tips written for the partner | Yes, every week 1–40 | Dad articles to read, not a weekly partner track |
| Tasks & reactions for the partner | Yes — tasks plus one-tap reactions she feels | No |
| Ads | None, ever | Yes, ad-supported |
| Journal & photos stay on her device | Yes — never sync anywhere | Community posts are public; account-based |
| Platform | iPhone | iPhone & Android |
Compared from public app listings and product pages, June 2026. Where we can't verify a claim, we say so rather than guess.
App icons and names belong to their respective owners; comparison based on public listings, July 2026.
the verdict.
choose what to expect if
you want the biggest birth-month community and a vast free article library, and you don’t mind ads around it.
choose elara if
you want a calm, ad-free space that includes your partner as a first-class participant — his own view, his own weekly tips, his own tasks.
common questions.
Is What to Expect free and Elara paid?
What to Expect is free with ads. Elara is free to download with a premium tier and a three-day trial; the partner side is completely free.
Does What to Expect have a partner mode?
It offers content for dads to read, but there is no linked real-time partner view. In Elara the partner joins with a six-digit code and sees the week, size and milestones live.
Can I use both?
Yes — many people keep a community app for the forums and Elara for daily tracking together. They don’t conflict.
More on tracking together: pregnancy app for couples · how partner mode works