Looking for an alternative to the Ava alcohol tracker? Here's how CheersCount compares to Sunnyside, Reframe, Try Dry & more

Short answer: if you're looking for an alternative to the Ava alcohol tracker (or to any drink-counting app) and what you want is a real-time blood alcohol (BAC) estimate built on published science, automatic drinking-session tracking, and a privacy-first, non-judgmental approach, CheersCount is built for exactly that. If you want a coaching program, a sobriety counter or a Dry-January challenge instead, one of the other apps below may fit you better, and we'll say so honestly.

CheersCount is a personal alcohol tracker for social drinkers who want to understand their habits through clear data and reflection, without preaching or judgment. It was built by a solo developer from Austria, a country where drinking is a deeply ingrained part of social life, which shapes its whole tone: it doesn't assume you want to quit; it assumes you want to know.

Comparison at a glance

Here's how CheersCount stacks up against the most commonly recommended alcohol tracking apps (Sunnyside, Reframe, Try Dry, DrinkControl, AlcoDroid and I Am Sober) across the dimensions that actually differ between them.

Competitor descriptions are qualitative summaries of each app's public positioning; features and prices change, so always check their sites for current details.

What makes CheersCount different

1. A BAC engine grounded in published pharmacokinetics

Most drink trackers count standard drinks. CheersCount models what your body does with them. Its BAC engine is a one-compartment pharmacokinetic model: first-order absorption from the gut, zero-order (Widmark) elimination, the standard description used in forensic and clinical alcohol research. Concretely:

• Your distribution volume comes from the sex-specific Seidl et al. (2000) height/weight regression, a refinement over Widmark's fixed body factors.
• Absorption speed depends on beverage strength, and not linearly. Following the published concentration effect (Roine 1991; Mitchell 2014), absorption is fastest around 20-30% ABV and slower for both dilute beer and neat spirits.
• Food matters. Log a meal and the model slows absorption and lowers your peak via calorie-controlled gastric emptying (Hunt 1975; Ramchandani 2001): a substantial meal can shift the peak from roughly 45 minutes to up to two hours, exactly as the literature describes.
• Elimination is personal. The default rate is the population mean of 0.15 ‰/h (Jones 2010), adjustable between 0.10 and 0.25 ‰/h, and if you log real breathalyzer readings, CheersCount fits your personal elimination rate from the decline phase of your curve, pooled across sessions with statistical shrinkage so one noisy reading never skews it.

The projection algorithm is covered by an automated test suite that includes randomized property-based tests, and every tuning constant is documented against its source paper. You can read the full science explainer inside the app, no account required.

2. Honest about uncertainty, by design

Individual BAC varies ±20-30% from any population model because of genetics, tolerance, hydration and more. Instead of hiding that, CheersCount draws an uncertainty band around your curve and says plainly what the estimate is: educational insight into what your body might be experiencing, never a fitness-to-drive test or a medical instrument.

3. Automatic drinking sessions

There's nothing to start or stop. A session begins with your first logged drink and ends automatically when your estimated BAC returns to zero, so a long night, a nightcap after midnight, or a slow Sunday afternoon all get grouped the way your body experienced them, not by calendar day. Each session keeps its full curve, peak ‰, duration, volume and drink breakdown for later reflection.

4. Safety features that are never paywalled

CheersCount shows countdowns until you're estimated to be sober and until you're back below your configured driving limit, and these safety timers are deliberately never behind the paywall. The most safety-relevant output of an alcohol tracker shouldn't depend on a subscription.

5. Privacy first, for real

Your drinking data is sensitive health data. CheersCount stores it on a self-hosted backend in the EU (Germany), operated directly by the developer, not on an ad-funded analytics platform. Sign-in is via Google only, there are no ads, your data is never sold, and JSON/CSV tracking-data export is free for everyone: your data stays yours.

6. No preaching, no judgment

CheersCount doesn't assume you have a problem, doesn't nag you with streaks you're "ruining", and doesn't push you toward abstinence. It shows you honest data about your own habits, and trusts you to draw your own conclusions. For a lot of social drinkers, that's the difference between an app you actually keep using and one you delete after a guilt-trip notification.

What does CheersCount cost?

The core tracker is free: unlimited drink logging, automatic sessions, the live BAC value with peak ‰, the sober-at and driving safety timers, meal logging, breathalyzer calibration, hangouts with friends, full history and stats, free data export and destructive JSON account-data import. CheersCount Pro, from $2.99/month or $22.99/year, with a one-time lifetime purchase through Stripe on the web or Google Play on Android, adds the live BAC curve chart with its uncertainty band, unlimited drink templates, custom drink icons, expense tracking, chat and session stories. Every new account starts with a 30-day Pro trial. See the full pricing breakdown.

When another app is the better choice

An honest comparison cuts both ways. CheersCount isn't the right tool for everyone:

• Sunnyside is a genuinely good pick if you want structure and accountability: a weekly plan, human-feeling check-ins and coaching nudges. CheersCount deliberately has none of that; it measures, you decide.
• Reframe shines if you want to learn your way to change: a daily neuroscience-based curriculum with courses and a large community. If you want a program, choose Reframe; if you want an instrument, choose CheersCount.
• Try Dry, from the charity Alcohol Change UK, is free and excellent for challenge-based goals like Dry January or counting drink-free days.
• I Am Sober is built for sobriety: day counters, milestones and a supportive recovery community. If you're quitting entirely, it's a better fit than a BAC tracker.
• DrinkControl and AlcoDroid are solid lightweight diaries. AlcoDroid in particular pioneered on-device BAC estimation on Android. CheersCount's model goes further (food effects, absorption modelling, personal calibration), but if you want a minimal offline log, AlcoDroid has served people well for years.

Where CheersCount stands alone in this field is the combination: a literature-anchored, food-aware, personally-calibratable BAC model, fully automatic session tracking, a self-hosted privacy model, and a tone that treats you like an adult.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: for market context (adoption numbers and the difference between recovery apps and social-drinking trackers), see How many people use alcohol tracking apps?. For the BAC model doing the work described above, see how much alcohol is in a Maß, and why it absorbs slowly.

Try it yourself

The fastest way to compare is to log tonight's drinks and watch the curve. Open CheersCount in your browser (installable as a PWA, works on iPhone and Android) or get the Android app on Google Play. Sign in with Google and you're tracking in under a minute: free, with a 30-day Pro trial included.

CheersCount's BAC estimate is an educational tool, not a medical or legal instrument. It cannot tell you whether you are fit to drive. If you're concerned about your alcohol use, talk to a health professional.