# Compare NannaLife with other ways of keeping lab results

> NannaLife turns the lab reports you already have into one private, source-linked health timeline, with an AI that answers from your own results.

Five honest comparisons, including the cases where NannaLife is not the right answer. This is the Markdown version of https://nannalife.com/vs/.

## The short answer

A folder of PDFs is free and private but unsearchable. A spreadsheet is searchable but manual. A patient portal covers one provider only. Apple Health Records pulls in participating institutions but needs an iPhone and does not accept a PDF you upload. NannaLife reads the reports you already have, normalizes results across labs, and keeps every value linked to its source. It is free.

## What actually matters

- **Cross-lab history:** do results from two labs end up comparable, with the same marker names and units?
- **Trend:** can you see a value change across years, or only read one report at a time?
- **Source:** can you get back to the original report from a single value?
- **Explanation:** does anything say what the marker measures and what its range means?
- **Effort:** how much manual typing or filing does it take, and how long before that stops?
- **Privacy:** who can see the data, and what is it used for?

## The five comparisons

- [NannaLife vs a folder of PDF reports](https://nannalife.com/vs/pdf-folders): free, private, and impossible to search.
- [NannaLife vs a spreadsheet tracker](https://nannalife.com/vs/spreadsheets): total control, and the data entry that comes with it.
- [NannaLife vs hospital and lab portals](https://nannalife.com/vs/patient-portals): official records from one provider, usually with a limited window of history.
- [NannaLife vs Apple Health Records](https://nannalife.com/vs/apple-health-records): results from participating organizations inside the Health app on an iPhone.
- [How to choose any tracker](https://nannalife.com/guides/best-lab-report-tracker-apps): the nine questions that predict whether you will still use it in three years.

## Approach summary

| What matters | PDF folder | Spreadsheet | Portal | Apple Health Records | NannaLife |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Keeps the report you have | Yes | No | Its own only | No | Yes |
| Works with any lab | Yes | Yes | One provider | Participating only | Yes |
| Cross-lab normalization | No | Manual | No | No | Names and units |
| Trend for one marker | No | Manual | No | No | Yes |
| Value traced to its source | The file is the source | No | No | Record level | Every value |
| Work per report | File it | Type everything | None | None | One upload |
| Explains a marker | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Take your data with you | Yes | Yes | Limited | Limited | Export not available yet |

## Links

- [Homepage](https://nannalife.com/)
- [FAQ](https://nannalife.com/guides/faq)
- [Privacy Policy](https://nannalife.com/legal/privacy)