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Apnealytics vs OSCAR: do you need a cloud app when OSCAR is free?

OSCAR is free, open source, reads more machine brands than anything else, and shows you more raw detail than most sleep labs will. Apnealytics costs money for its Pro tier, reads ResMed, Philips DreamStation 1 and 2 and Fisher & Paykel SleepStyle today, and runs in a browser and on your phone. The honest answer to Apnealytics vs OSCAR is that they are not really rivals. OSCAR is a desktop analysis instrument. Apnealytics is a daily tracking and coaching service. Plenty of people use both. This page lays out the differences so you can decide whether one, the other, or the pair is right for you.

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Apnealytics vs OSCAR: two product cards with price, machines, phone app and key features

What OSCAR is

OSCAR (Open Source CPAP Analysis Reporter) is a free desktop application for Windows, Mac and Linux. You take the SD card out of your machine, put it in a card reader, and OSCAR imports it into a local database on that computer. It reads ResMed, Philips, Fisher & Paykel, Löwenstein and other brands. It has no phone app, no cloud component, and no sharing feature: the data stays on the computer where you imported it, and getting a chart to your doctor means a screenshot or a printed page.

OSCAR is maintained by volunteers. It is extremely capable, and it has a steep learning curve. The default screen presents dozens of channels at once and expects you to know what you are looking at.

What Apnealytics is

Apnealytics is a cloud platform. You upload the SD card through the web portal and the data lands in your private storage. The dashboard then shows a Sleep Score, your AHI with a band, usage, leak P95, pressure P95, a 30-night trend, "What changed?" and "Heads up" alerts, and so on. There are phone apps (iOS on the App Store; Android on Google Play) that sync Apple Health or Health Connect and show the same data. Pro adds per-night waveforms, oximetry overlays, a doctor-ready PDF, share links and the API.

It reads ResMed machines (AirSense 10/11, AirCurve 10/11, S9 / Lumis), Philips DreamStation 1 and 2 and Fisher & Paykel SleepStyle today. Löwenstein is partly supported.

Side-by-side comparison

Feature	Apnealytics	OSCAR
Price	Free tier; Pro $8.99/month or $99.99/year	Free
Free tier	$0 forever: unlimited imports, nightly dashboard, last 30 nights of history, Apple Health / Health Connect, Ask your data, family logins, data export	Everything is free; no tiers
Machines supported	ResMed AirSense 10/11, AirCurve 10/11, S9 / Lumis (live), Philips DreamStation 1 & 2 and F&P SleepStyle (live). Löwenstein partial. Luna G3, Transcend on waitlist	ResMed, Philips, Fisher & Paykel, Löwenstein and others
Phone app	iOS (iPhone + iPad) on the App Store and Android on Google Play. Card import web-only today	None. Windows, Mac and Linux desktop only
Apple Health / Health Connect	Yes, free	No
Oximeters	Pro: Wellue O2Ring, CMS50-family (Contec) CSV, ResMed SAD.edf, any EDF/CSV oximeter	Yes, several models
Waveforms	Pro: airflow, pressure, leak, event strips; parsed on demand in the browser or on the phone; crosshair and zoom	Yes, extensive: all channels the machine records, with full zoom
PDF report	Pro: doctor-ready PDF (compliance + clinical), compliance autopilot drafts the letter	Print/export of the current view
Sharing	Pro: tokenized, read-only, aggregate-only, revocable share links, not indexed	No sharing feature; screenshots or printouts
AI	Free: Ask your data with your own OpenAI or Anthropic key (BYOK), read-only	None
Privacy model	Private cloud storage (Cloudflare R2), direct upload, row-level security, no ads or trackers on health pages, never sold, export or delete everything	Entirely local. Nothing leaves your computer unless you send it

Where OSCAR is ahead

It is free, fully. No tier, no subscription, no account.

It reads more machines. If your machine is Philips, Fisher & Paykel or Löwenstein, OSCAR reads it today. Apnealytics does not.

Depth of raw detail. OSCAR shows every channel the machine records, including flow limitation, snore, minute ventilation, tidal volume and respiratory rate as continuous traces, and lets you zoom to the individual breath. Apnealytics shows airflow, pressure, leak and event strips at per-night resolution. For someone chasing a subtle flow-limitation pattern across a whole night, OSCAR gives you more to look at.

Privacy by absence. There is no server. Data that never leaves your laptop cannot be breached from the outside. For some people that settles the question.

Where Apnealytics is ahead

Phone and web, not one computer. OSCAR lives on the machine you installed it on. Apnealytics is wherever you are signed in, and the phone apps show your nights without a laptop.

Daily signal over raw channels. OSCAR gives you data. Apnealytics gives you a reading of it: Sleep Score, AHI band, 30-night rolling trend, change-point detection ("What changed?"), anomaly alerts ("Heads up: AHI 8.5, 2.9× your usual ~3.0"), Mask Analytics by mask, and Goals and streaks. If you want to glance each morning and get on with your day, that matters.

Health context. Apple Health and Health Connect sync puts resting heart rate, HRV, SpO₂, sleep hours and weight beside therapy. OSCAR has no equivalent.

Doctor workflow. The compliance autopilot finds your qualifying window and drafts the letter. Share links are read-only and revocable. With OSCAR you build the report yourself.

Oximeter overlay without extra setup. Pro overlays SpO₂ and pulse on the night with ODI₃, ODI₄ and T90 from any oximeter that exports EDF or CSV.

Ask your data. Free, BYOK, read-only. Ask "which mask had the lowest AHI this year?" and get an answer from your own records.

Gentler learning curve. This is subjective, but OSCAR's own community acknowledges the ramp. Apnealytics is designed so the first screen makes sense without a tutorial.

Who should pick which

Pick OSCAR if:

Your machine is Philips, Fisher & Paykel, Löwenstein, or another brand Apnealytics does not read yet.
You want zero cost and zero cloud.
You want breath-level detail across every channel and are willing to learn the interface.
You only ever look at your data on one computer.

Pick Apnealytics if:

You use a ResMed machine.
You want a daily, phone-friendly view with trend detection rather than a channel wall.
You want Apple Health or Health Connect data beside therapy.
You need a compliance report or a clinician share link without building it yourself.
More than one person in your household uses CPAP.

Use both if: you are a ResMed user who wants the daily dashboard and alerts from Apnealytics and the occasional deep-dive in OSCAR. The two read the same card. Upload to Apnealytics, then import the same card into OSCAR when you want to zoom into a particular night. Nothing conflicts.

The things neither does

Neither reads the ResMed AirMini, which has no SD card. Neither diagnoses anything: both show machine-estimated AHI, which is an estimate from the machine's flow sensor, not a sleep study. And neither replaces the conversation with your clinician. What both do is make that conversation better informed.

FAQ

Questions people ask

Help center →

Is OSCAR better than Apnealytics?

It depends on what you want. OSCAR is free, reads more brands and shows more raw channels. Apnealytics runs on web and phone, adds Apple Health / Health Connect sync, trend and anomaly detection, a compliance report and clinician share links, and reads ResMed, Philips DreamStation 1 and 2 and Fisher & Paykel SleepStyle today. Many users run both.

Does Apnealytics replace OSCAR?

For day-to-day tracking on a ResMed machine, yes for most people. For breath-level investigation across every channel, OSCAR still shows more. They read the same SD card, so there is no need to choose: upload to Apnealytics for the daily view and open OSCAR when you want to go deep on one night.

Can I import my OSCAR data into Apnealytics?

Not directly, and you do not need to. OSCAR stores its own database, but the original source is your SD card. Upload the card to Apnealytics and every night on it is imported. If you have older cards, upload those too; re-uploading only adds new nights, so there is no duplication.

Is my data safer in OSCAR than in the cloud?

OSCAR keeps data on your computer, which means it is as safe as that computer. Apnealytics stores raw files in private storage behind short-lived signed links, with row-level security on every table, TLS everywhere, no ads or trackers on health pages, and full export or deletion on request. Both are defensible choices; they are different models.

Does OSCAR have a phone app?

No. OSCAR is a desktop application for Windows, Mac and Linux only. If you want your CPAP data on a phone, you need a cloud service such as Apnealytics or SleepHQ, or the manufacturer app (myAir for ResMed, DreamMapper for Philips), which shows summary data only.