Withings Puts Third-Party Health Sync Behind a Subscription, and an Open-Source Workaround Emerges

Withings now requires new users to subscribe to Withings Plus before health data from its devices can sync to third-party apps. For new accounts, Withings' Apple Health sync costs $9.99 per month, according to Yahoo Tech. Existing users keep free syncing to third-party apps.

Tom Anthony has created YourOwnWeigh, an open-source project that reroutes scale data away from Withings' servers and allows free wireless syncing to other apps and platforms, as The Verge reported on 2026-10-29.

The project consists mainly of a web app that runs on a server the user chooses. The app can run entirely on a free Cloudflare account, a hosting service with a no-cost tier for small web applications. It uses Bluetooth to update Withings scales with alternate firmware, the low-level software that runs on the device, so that the scale uploads its readings to a non-Withings server the user configures. Rather than hosting a copy of Withings' firmware, YourOwnWeigh downloads and patches the firmware as needed.

Setup involves importing the scale's current settings and existing user profiles. The web app then downloads health data from regular weigh-ins.

For Apple Health, Anthony used Apple Shortcuts, Apple's built-in automation tool, to build a scheduled automation that pulls Withings data from the alternate server into Apple Health. The project is currently limited to two older Withings scale models.

Withings' own documentation sets out the baseline it is replacing. The company says weight data syncs with the Withings App within a few minutes after a weigh-in, and that its Body scale also syncs once a night. Withings also states that users need an active Withings+ subscription to export their data to Health Connect, according to its partner app support page.

In my view, the central question is less the monthly fee than who controls a record the owner generates every morning. Withings is free to set pricing for its services. For owners who bought a scale before the change, the question is whether the data path they paid for remains theirs to direct, and a subscription gate on an existing function puts that question squarely in front of them.

The broader context here is that a workaround of this kind carries trade-offs of its own. Reflashing firmware on a connected device and operating a personal server are tasks that suit technically confident owners, and most buyers will not want to take them on. Those who do gain something concrete. Once health data leaves the vendor's cloud, it can be routed to whatever store the owner trusts, and an automation layer such as Apple Shortcuts can carry it into the rest of their stack. Open tooling of this kind is a practical way for an owner to keep a device working with the software they choose, and that portability is the part of the story I expect will matter most to the engineers who read it.