Warranty tracker apps (2026): wrnty, Warranty Keeper, Warranly

The problem is never that you bought things. It is that the warranty card is the one piece of paper you can never find, and the coverage quietly runs out in the dark. A washing machine, a laptop, a pair of headphones, a second-hand bike — each came with some period of cover, and most of it is simply forgotten because nobody wrote down the date. This list is the one people search for when they decide to stop losing that money: the on-device tracker, Warranty Keeper, Warranly and the Apple Notes approach, compared fairly. I will describe what each is genuinely built to do, what it costs, and the one trade-off that decides the choice for most people.

What actually matters in a warranty tracker?

Four things. Reminders — the app tells you before a warranty expires, so the month-eleven failure becomes a claim instead of a repair bill. Attachments — the receipt and the serial number live with the item, not in a drawer. Findability — you can pull up an item by name, brand or serial in seconds. And export — when you make a claim, you get a packet the retailer will accept, not a screenshot from a dead app.

Any option that does all four is worth using. The differences between them are in what you give up to get them: a cloud account, a subscription, a template you have to maintain, or a feature that only works on one device.

Warranty Keeper: the free cloud option

Warranty Keeper is the one a lot of people land on first, and it is a fair choice. It is free to use with unlimited items, you add the product, you attach the proof of purchase, and it notifies you before a warranty expires, with everything backed up to the cloud. That cloud backup is the real draw: switch phones and the records are still there, and the whole family can reach them.

The trade-off is the flip side of "free and simple." It is a small, single-purpose app from a small developer, and your records live with a provider in the cloud. That is fine for most people and exactly the point for those who want a backup. If "my data stays on my own device" is a hard line for you, it is the one to put down.

Warranly: the one-time iOS purchase

Warranly sits in a different spot: it is private by design and you pay once rather than every month. It keeps the warranties, receipts and invoices in a local vault on the iPhone, has no account, and offers iCloud sync, a home-screen widget and PDF and CSV export on the paid tier, which is a one-time in-app purchase. If you dislike subscriptions the way a lot of people do, the "pay once and own it" model is genuinely appealing.

The honest limits are the same category of limits as any small tracker: it is iPhone-only, the feature set is deliberately narrow, and you are trusting a small developer to keep maintaining it. It does exactly the job it sets out to do, no more.

Apple Notes + iCloud: the free DIY that beats the drawer

Do not dismiss the manual option. A single index note, or a note per product, in iCloud, with a consistent template — product, serial, purchase date, warranty end date, and a link to the receipt PDF — is searchable, free, and it survives an app going away. A lot of the value is in the naming and the habit, not in the app, and the receipt photo has to get filed the day you buy, whatever you use. The post on organising receipts is where the naming detail lives.

The catch is the one with every DIY system: nothing reminds you unless you set a reminder, and it only works as long as the person who built it keeps it current. If you are the type who sets a reminder for every warranty the day you buy, Notes is the honest, zero-cost pick and a perfectly good one.

The on-device tracker: private by design

wrnty is the on-device option: an iPhone and iPad app that keeps each product, brand, merchant, price, purchase and expiry date, serial number and receipt photo in one place, with no account and nothing uploaded to the developer. It syncs through your own iCloud if you turn it on. The reminders, widgets, iCloud sync and claim-ready PDF export are on the paid tier, which is a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and the free tier tracks two items.

That is the honest shape of the comparison: the on-device tracker is what you pick when the records staying on your own device is the thing you will not compromise on, and you want the reminders and the PDF export that Notes does not give you for free. If the cloud backup matters more than the privacy, Warranty Keeper is the straightforward pick. If you will maintain a template without being prompted, Notes is the zero-cost pick.

Which one should you pick?

• You want a free, backed-up, family-accessible tracker. Warranty Keeper.
• You want to pay once, not every month, and stay iPhone-only. Warranly.
• You are the one who sets every reminder and keeps every template. Apple Notes + iCloud.
• You want it on your own device, no account, with reminders and a PDF export. wrnty.

Whatever you choose, the habit is the whole ballgame: photograph the receipt and log the date the day you buy, not the day it breaks. That is the one step that no app can do for you, and the one that decides whether a claim goes through in the first place. And when something does break, the claim itself is a separate step — the guide to what counts as proof of purchase is the one to have open.

How long is the warranty on the things I already own?

The manufacturer warranty usually runs from the purchase date, and the statutory consumer right is a separate thing on top of it — in the EU, for example, there is a minimum two-year right to a remedy for faulty goods, but the rules differ by country, so check the ones where you live. Whatever it is, the date is only useful if it is written down somewhere you can find it in thirty seconds. That is the entire job of a tracker, and the entire reason to pick one this week rather than the week your fridge dies.

FAQ

Can I keep my data if an app goes away? That depends on the option. A cloud app keeps a backup with the provider, which helps but is not yours to control. A local app and Notes keep the data on your device or in your own iCloud. If this matters, prefer the options where the data is on your own device and can be exported.

Do I need to register a product for the warranty? Usually not — the manufacturer warranty applies to the sale, and registration often unlocks extras rather than the base cover. The receipt and the serial number are what a claim will ask for, so those are the two things to file no matter what.

Is a one-time purchase or a subscription better? A one-time purchase is better if you will use the tracker for a few years and then not think about it again. A subscription makes more sense if you will lean on it heavily every month. The right answer is whichever one you will actually keep, and "free" is only free if it stays useful.

What if I lose the original paper receipt? Keep a photo or a PDF of the digital invoice, and the order number and date. Many retailers and insurers accept that as proof, though a few still ask for the original — so if you have the paper, keep it somewhere known.