DoFasting Alternative: Check the Billing Before You Commit

Most fasting apps on the App Store rate between 4.6 and 4.8 stars. DoFasting sits at 3.9 across roughly 4,800 ratings -- an unusual gap in a category where the actual product differences are small. Read the one-star reviews and the reason is consistent, and it is not the fasting timer. It is the billing.

That makes DoFasting a useful case study, because the pattern behind it is not unique to one company. This is a checklist for avoiding it in whatever app you pick next. To be transparent: we make FastBreak, one of the apps you might consider, so we show how it answers each point.

1. Find out who actually charges you

This is the single question that determines everything else.

Many weight-loss apps acquire users through a web quiz -- you answer questions about your goals on a website, and pay by card or PayPal at the end, before you ever install anything. That payment does not go through Apple. It goes to the company's own payment processor.

The consequence matters: a card subscription does not appear in your iPhone's subscription list, so you cannot cancel it in Settings. You have to cancel through the company, on their terms. Public complaint records for DoFasting on Trustpilot, Sitejabber and the Better Business Bureau describe exactly what that leads to: charges continuing after cancellation, users cancelling more than once before it took effect, and refund requests refused.

What to check: before paying, ask where the charge originates. If the checkout asks for a card number rather than showing Apple's payment sheet with Face ID, you are outside Apple's system, and you are giving up the two-tap cancellation you would otherwise have.

FastBreak has no web checkout at all. Every subscription is billed by Apple through your Apple ID, appears in Settings → your name → Subscriptions, and cancels there.

2. Check that cancelling is a place, not a conversation

An App Store subscription cancels in two taps, at any hour, with no one to persuade. A card subscription cancels when the company processes your request.

That difference is invisible while everything is fine and decisive when it is not. If the app's own help pages explain cancellation as "contact our support team" rather than "open Settings", note that before you subscribe, not after.

3. Know what happens to your data if you leave

If your fasting history lives on the company's server behind an account, then leaving means losing it -- or asking them to export it for you.

Ask where the history is stored. On-device storage with your own iCloud backup means the app can vanish tomorrow and your streaks survive. It also settles the privacy question: weight, eating windows and progress photos are health data, and the cleanest policy is not a promise about how well a server protects them, it is not sending them anywhere.

FastBreak asks for no registration -- no email, no password, no profile. Your history is stored on the device and backed up through your own iCloud, so there is no login that can lock you out of it. Fasts, weights and water are also backed up to our server against an anonymous id so a new phone can restore them; that id is not tied to your name or email, and you can delete everything from Settings.

4. Separate the coach from the timer

Apps in this category bundle a fasting timer with a meal plan, a supplement line, a step counter and a chat coach, then price the bundle. If you only wanted to know when your eating window closes, you are paying for the rest.

Check what the free tier actually contains. A fasting tracker whose timer, zones, history and stats are all free costs you nothing to test for a month -- and a month is how long it takes to find out whether you will keep fasting at all.

If you are already subscribed to DoFasting

Cancel in the right place, or it will not stick:

Paid on the website, by card or PayPal: the charge is not with Apple. Cancel through DoFasting directly, then check your card or PayPal statement for the following month to confirm it stopped. If you paid via PayPal, you can also revoke the recurring payment authorisation in your PayPal account under automatic payments.
Paid through the App Store: open Settings → your name → Subscriptions, select it, and cancel. It stays active until the end of the paid period.
Charged after cancelling: if the charge came through Apple, request a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com. If it came through a card, dispute it with your bank -- documented complaint records help.

The bottom line

The fasting timer is not what people complain about; almost every app in this category gets that part right. What separates them is whether you can leave. Pay through the App Store, keep your history on your own device, and check the free tier before you subscribe -- and the choice of app stops being a risk.

You do not need to be loyal to any app, ours included. You need one that cannot charge you after you have said no.