Smart wake, not spam.
BabyRadar tells a real cry apart from the white-noise machine, the radiator, and the cat. Cry alerts are free on every plan.
A calmer night monitor · Free to startThe nursery is quiet.
The nursery is quiet.
Sleep while it listens.
Free cry alerts on the iPhone you already own. Smart cry detection wakes you only when it matters — no camera, no cloud recordings, no extra hardware.
How it works
Three minutes to set up.
- 01
Dock a spare iPhone in the nursery.
Plug it in, open BabyRadar, pick Monitor. It learns your room on the first night.
- 02
Pair your phone with a 6-digit code.
Open the app on your iPhone, tap Viewer, enter the code. Pair as many viewers as you want.
- 03
Sleep.
If the baby cries, a push notification wakes you — free, on every plan. Pro unlocks one-tap live listen.
What it does
Fewer reasons to check the crib.
The sleep diary writes itself.
Wake up to last night's timeline: sleep windows, cry episodes, settle time. Free event lookback included.
Hear the nursery from any room. (Pro)
Pro unlocks one-tap live listen — straight from the nursery phone to yours. And replay the audio around any event.
Two parents, one nursery.
Pair as many viewers as you want. Both parents get cry alerts. Either can upgrade for live listen.
Tuned to your room.
It learns your room on the first night, so the white-noise machine and the fan don't set off a false alarm.
No cloud recordings. Ever.
Cry detection runs on your phone. Live audio is a direct encrypted relay between paired iPhones — nothing is stored in the cloud.
Free vs Pro
The free tier is the whole alert system.
Pro unlocks live listening and audio playback. Cry detection itself is always free.
Free
$0/forever
- Smart cry detection
- Push notifications when baby cries
- Sleep timeline of past nights
- Event lookback (when, how long, how often)
- Pair unlimited viewers (both parents)
Pro
$4.99/per month
- Everything in Free
- One-tap live listen — hear the nursery in real time
- Audio playback around any cry event
- Works over cellular (different networks, away from home)
- Priority email support
Compared honestly
How BabyRadar compares to Nanit and Owlet.
We list what each product actually does — and what we don't.
| BabyRadar Free | BabyRadar Pro | Nanit Pro | Owlet Dream Sock | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $0 | $4.99 | $10 | — |
| Hardware required | None — uses your iPhone | None — uses your iPhone | Camera + stand | Wearable sock |
| One-time hardware cost | $0 | $0 | $299+ | $299 |
| Cry alerts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Live listen audio | — | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Live video | — | — | ✓ | — |
| Sleep / event history | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (with subscription) | ✓ |
| Audio playback of events | — | ✓ | — | — |
| Heart rate / SpO₂ | — | — | — | ✓ |
| No cloud recordings | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Works over cellular | — | ✓ | Limited | ✓ |
Owlet's Smart Sock measures heart rate and SpO₂ — that's a different category from camera or audio monitors. BabyRadar is a wellness monitor, not a medical device.
See it on a real phone.
Quiet by default. Loud when it matters. Real screens from a paired Monitor + Viewer.
Privacy
We can't hear your baby.
Nothing is recorded. The only ears on your nursery are yours.
- The listening happens on your phone
- BabyRadar figures out cries, stirs, and quiet right on the phone in the nursery. No audio leaves your house to be analyzed.
- Live listen, never recorded
- When you tap to listen in, audio goes from the nursery phone to yours. Nothing is saved, played back, or kept around.
- No camera. Nothing in the crib.
- Just a phone on the dresser. That's the whole setup.
- A sleep diary, not a doctor
- BabyRadar tracks sounds and writes a sleep timeline. It doesn't measure breathing or anything medical.
Guides
Help for the new-parent stretch.
Honest answers, no listicle spam.
iPhone Baby Monitor: Complete Setup Guide for Parents
Everything you need to set up an iPhone-based baby monitor — pairing, distance, what works and what doesn't.
Read →Use iPhone as Baby Monitor: Complete Setup Guide
Turn a spare iPhone into a free, audio-only nursery monitor — step-by-step setup, no hardware to buy.
Read →Turn Your Old iPhone Into a Baby Monitor
Repurpose any spare iPhone (8, X, 11, 12) into a smart cry-detection monitor in three minutes.
Read →Do I Need a Baby Monitor? The Honest Answer
When monitors actually help, when they don't, and how to decide without overspending.
Read →Best Newborn Apps: 11 Essential Tools for New Parents
The handful of apps that actually earn their place on a sleep-deprived parent's phone.
Read →Wake Windows by Age: Complete Guide for 0–3 Years
How long your baby can comfortably stay awake at every age, with examples and adjustments.
Read →Now on the App Store
A quieter night, starting with the iPhone in your drawer.
Free to install. Free cry alerts. Audio-only, on-device cry detection, no cloud recordings.