I have paid for six habit trackers. I have quit five of them.
Not because they were bad apps. Most of them were well made. I quit because of the same small moment each time: I missed one day, opened the app the next morning, and watched a number I had spent two months building drop to zero.
That moment is the reason this page exists. Below is an honest comparison of the habit trackers people actually use in 2026, what each one costs, and what the free version really gives you. Then, at the end, the free one we built and the specific thing we did differently.
I checked every price on this page on 11 August 2026 using the App Store and each company's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
The short version
- Best if you want it to feel warm: Finch. Nothing else in this category is loved the way Finch is loved.
- Best one-time purchase: Streaks, at $5.99 once, no subscription ever.
- Best free app, if you have Android: Loop Habit Tracker. Free, open source, no ads, no account. It is the honest benchmark everything else should be measured against.
- Best if you like games: Habitica, which is free and turns your habits into a role playing game.
- Best if you want it in a browser with nothing to install: ours, and I will be upfront that I am biased.
What each one costs
The free tier is where these apps actually differ. Almost all of them let you download for nothing. The question is what happens on day three when you try to add a fourth habit.
| App | Free version | Paid | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atoms | Yes, with a limit on how many habits | $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, Android |
| Finch | Yes, and it is generous | $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year | iPhone, Android |
| Streaks | None, you buy it once | $5.99, one time | Apple devices only |
| Habitica | Yes, unlimited habits | $4.99 a month or $47.99 a year | iPhone, Android, web |
| Loop | Everything, forever | Nothing. There is no paid version | Android only |
| Habitify | 3 habits, 1 reminder each | $8.99 a month, $49.99 a year, or $119.99 once | Apple, Android, web |
| Everyday | 3 habits | $7.49 a month or $29.99 a year | Apple, Android, web |
| Do (formerly Done) | 3 habits | From $4.99 a month, lifetime around $19.99 | iPhone |
| Productive | Yes, with a habit limit | $10.99 a month | iPhone, Watch, Android |
| Tangerine | Yes, with limits on habits and reminders | $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year | Apple devices |
| Way of Life | Yes, limited number of items | Paid unlock, no subscription | Apple, Android |
| Pixel Pal (ours) | All of it | Nothing, and there is nothing to buy | Any browser |
A note on the three habit limit, because it comes up a lot. Habitify, Everyday and Do all stop you at three. That is not a criticism, it is a business model, and three habits is genuinely enough for some people. But if you are the sort of person who wants to track water, sleep, reading, a walk and a language app, you will hit that wall in about ten minutes.
Atoms
Atoms comes from James Clear, who wrote Atomic Habits. The book has sold more than 20 million copies, and the app is built around its ideas: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying.
What it does well. The thinking behind it is sound, and it shows. It nudges you towards small habits rather than ambitious ones, which is the right advice. If the book helped you, the app speaks the same language.
What it costs. $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year.
What people say. The most common complaint in its reviews is the price against what the app does. One reviewer put it this way: it is a lot to pay every year for what is essentially a very well designed checklist. That is a fair thing to weigh up, and only you can decide it.
Get it if the book changed how you think and you want the same voice on your phone.
Finch
Finch gives you a small bird. You do your habits, the bird gets stronger, and the bird is relentlessly kind to you about it.
What it does well. Finch is the most loved app in this whole category and it is not close. Nearly 750,000 people have rated it and the average sits around 4.9 stars. Read the reviews and you will see why. People do not describe it as useful. They describe it as kind. Several say a therapist recommended it. The bird takes on the emotional weight that a number cannot, and because it never scolds you, opening it on a bad day does not hurt.
What it costs. Free to use, with Finch Plus at $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year for extra cosmetics and features.
What to know. Finch has been changing, and some long time users are unhappy about the direction. If you search its community you will find posts from people who feel the self care parts have been pushed back in favour of a shop. I am not going to tell you what to make of that. Try it and see how it feels, because when it works for someone, it really works.
Get it if you want an app that feels like it is on your side.
Streaks
What it does well. Restraint. Streaks shows you six habits in a clean grid and does almost nothing else. It has won design awards for good reason, and the widgets and Apple Watch support are excellent.
What it costs. $5.99, once. No subscription, ever. In 2026 that is genuinely rare and worth saying out loud.
What to know. The same restraint that people love is also the limit. It is built around a small number of habits, and it is Apple only, so there is no Android or web version. The name tells you the mechanic, and if a broken streak is the thing that derails you, this is the app most likely to do it.
Get it if you are on Apple devices, you want to pay once, and streaks motivate rather than stress you.
Habitica
What it does well. Your habits become a role playing game. You have a character, you take damage when you skip things, you earn gold, you can join a party with friends and fight a boss together. For some people this is the only thing that has ever worked, and the social side is the strongest in the category.
What it costs. Free with unlimited habits. A subscription is $4.99 a month or $47.99 a year and buys gems, which buy cosmetics.
What to know. The damage mechanic cuts both ways. If you have a rough week, your character suffers for it, and some people find that motivating while others find it another thing to feel bad about. It also runs in a browser, which is useful.
Get it if games work on you and you want friends involved.
Loop Habit Tracker
I want to give this one more room than its download numbers suggest, because it is the most honest app on this list.
What it does well. Loop is free, open source, has no ads, no account, and no in app purchases. The developer's own description says there never will be. It does not need an internet connection and your data never leaves your phone.
It also has the single best idea in this category, which almost nobody else copied. Instead of a streak, Loop calculates a habit strength score that rises as you repeat something and eases down when you do not. A missed day dents it. A missed day does not destroy it. That one design decision removes most of the reason people quit habit apps, and it has been sitting there, free, for years.
What it costs. Nothing at all.
What to know. Android only. No iPhone version, no web version. If you have an iPhone, you cannot use it, which is a shame.
Get it if you have an Android phone. Genuinely, go and get it.
The others, briefly
Habitify is polished and works on nearly everything including the web, but the free tier stops at three habits with one reminder each. Everyday is similar, also three habits free, with a clean calendar view. Do, which used to be called Done, allows three habits free and is the one to look at if you want to track something several times a day. Productive looks lovely and has a habit limit on free. Tangerine mixes habits with journaling. Way of Life deserves a mention for using a yes, no and skip system with a colour for each, where a deliberate skip is its own colour rather than a failure, which is a small idea done well.
What almost none of them do
Reading through several thousand reviews of these apps, the same three requests come up again and again, and hardly anybody ships them.
1. Letting you fill in a day you forgot. This is the most requested missing feature in the entire category. People do the thing, forget to tap the button, and open the app the next day to be told they failed. One review put it plainly: I forgot to track three habits last night and today I was started back at zero, I wish there was a way to back log.
2. A rest day that counts as a rest day. Not a gap, not a miss, a day you chose off on purpose. Way of Life does a version of this. Almost nobody else does.
3. Either or habits. Run or cycle. Meditate or walk. People ask for this constantly. Nobody ships it.
There is a reason these are missing, and it is not laziness. A streak that can break is very good at bringing people back to an app, and the numbers that investors read reward that. Forgiveness is worse for engagement metrics in the short term, which is exactly why it keeps not getting built.
What we built
We make free tools at Live Life Happy. No accounts, no ads on the tools, nothing to buy. Pixel Pal is our habit tracker, and it does the three things above plus a few more.
It works in your browser. There is nothing to install and no email to hand over. You pick one of 64 pixel characters, name them, pick what you are working on, and start.
Nothing resets to zero. There is a consistency score that rises as you show up and eases down when you do not, the same idea Loop had. A bad week dents it. A bad week does not delete it.
You can fill in any day you forgot. Tap any square in your history and complete it. We decided to just take your word for it. There is no leaderboard here and nobody else can see your log, so the only person you could possibly be cheating is you, and that seems like your business.
Rest days are a real thing. Choose one and your chain holds. It is not a hole in the chart.
Half done days count. If you did two of your four things, that is logged as a day you showed up, because it is one.
Coming back is the biggest moment in the app. In the largest study ever run on exercise habits, researchers tested 53 different approaches across 60,000 people. The one that worked best was rewarding people for coming back after a missed day. Not the streak. The return. So in ours, the day you come back after a gap gets a bigger celebration than any other day.
There is also an intermittent fasting timer, goals, mood tracking, and every chart the paid apps put behind a subscription: a full contribution grid, per habit strength, a day of the week breakdown showing where you keep slipping, and a CSV export.
Everything lives in your browser and has never touched a server. That is also the honest limitation, so there is a one tap backup file, because clearing your browser data would clear your history.
When you should not use ours
I would rather tell you this than have you waste your time.
- You want reminders that buzz your phone. A website cannot reliably do that. If notifications are the thing that makes a habit stick for you, get a real app. Streaks and Habitify both do this well.
- You want an Apple Watch face or a home screen widget. Streaks is the best in the category at this.
- You want friends fighting a dragon with you. Habitica, easily.
- You want it to sync across devices automatically. Ours does not, because it never sends your data anywhere. You can move it with the backup file, but that is a manual step.
Common questions
Is there a habit tracker that is actually free with no limits?
Yes, two. Loop Habit Tracker on Android is free, open source and has no paid tier at all. Ours is free in any browser. Habitica is also free with unlimited habits, and only charges for cosmetic extras.
Which habit tracker does not use streaks?
Loop uses a habit strength score instead. Ours uses a consistency score that dips and recovers, and you can switch the streak counter off entirely. Way of Life lets you mark a day as a deliberate skip.
Can I use a habit tracker without making an account?
Loop and ours both work with no account and no email. Most of the others need one, usually because they sync your data to their servers.
What happens when I miss a day?
In most apps, your streak resets to zero. In Loop and in ours, a score dips slightly and recovers as you continue. In Habitica, your character takes damage.
Which habit tracker is best for ADHD?
There is no single answer, but a pattern shows up in reviews: people with ADHD tend to prefer apps with less setup and less punishment. Finch comes up most often, and the reason given is usually that it feels like a game rather than another chore. Whatever you pick, the ability to fill in a forgotten day matters more here than anywhere else.
Is a browser habit tracker as good as an app?
For tracking, yes. For reminders, no. A website cannot reliably tap you on the shoulder. If you already have a moment in your day when you would open it, a browser one is fine and you can add it to your home screen. If you need to be prompted, use an app with notifications.
The honest summary
Most of these apps are good. Atoms is thoughtfully built, Streaks is beautiful, Finch is loved for real reasons, Habitica has kept people going for a decade, and Loop is quietly the most generous piece of software in the category.
What almost none of them will do is forgive you, because forgiveness does not show up well in a retention chart. That is the part we cared about, so that is the part we built, and we gave it away because it costs us very little to run and it seems like a strange thing to charge for.
If you try ours and it is not for you, that is genuinely fine. Go and get Loop if you have Android. It is free too, and it had the right idea first.
How we put this together. Every price on this page was checked on 2026-08-11 against the App Store, Google Play or the company's own pricing page. Prices change and vary by country, so check before you buy. We have no affiliate links and no relationship with any app named here. We do make one of the tools mentioned, and we have said so wherever it comes up.