Who wrote this: One of the nine below — Kalend — is ours. It is judged on the same fields as everything else and carries the same "watch out" line. No affiliate links: we earn nothing whichever you choose.
A habit tracker is a very small piece of software doing a very specific psychological job, which is why the category is full of apps that look almost identical and price themselves completely differently.
The things that actually differ are worth knowing before you pick: whether missing a day is punished or forgiven, whether the data stays on your phone, whether reminders are flexible enough to be useful, and whether the free version is a real product or a demo with a paywall in front of the useful part.
Habit data is also more personal than most people consider. A list of what you did every day for two years — including therapy, medication and drinking — is a genuinely sensitive file. Where it is stored deserves more thought than it usually gets.
At a glance
| App | Best for | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Streaks | A polished tracker that stays out of the way | Paid once |
| Kalend (ours) | Habits alongside tasks, calendar and a journal | Free, no subscription |
| Habitica | People who need habits to be a game to stick | Free tier plus subscription |
| Apple Health | Automatic tracking of anything the phone can measure | Free, included with iOS |
| Way of Life | Long-term trend spotting rather than streaks | Free tier plus paid upgrade |
| Finch | Gentle self-care habits rather than performance | Free tier plus subscription |
| Done | Habits you do several times a day | Free tier plus subscription |
| Loop Habit Tracker | Open-source, offline, no account, no cost | Free and open source |
| Productive | A polished tracker with strong scheduling | Free trial then subscription |
The apps in detail
Streaks
- Best for
- A polished tracker that stays out of the way
- Highlights
- One-time purchase, no subscription
- Excellent Apple Watch and widget support
- Automatic tracking from Health data
- Deliberately capped at twelve habits, which helps
- Pricing
- Paid once
- Watch out
- The twelve-habit cap is a design decision, not a limitation you can pay to remove. Some people find it freeing and some find it a dealbreaker.
Kalend
Ours- Best for
- Habits alongside tasks, calendar and a journal
- Highlights
- Habits sit beside your tasks and calendar, not in a separate app
- Syncs through your own iCloud — no account, no server of ours
- Journal entries can be attached to the day
- Free with no paid tier
- Pricing
- Free, no subscription
- Watch out
- iPhone only, with no Apple Watch app, and the habit statistics are deliberately simple. If you want deep charts of a two-year streak, a dedicated tracker will do it better.
Habitica
- Best for
- People who need habits to be a game to stick
- Highlights
- Turns habits into an RPG with a character and party
- Genuinely motivating if the format appeals
- Strong community and shared quests
- Free tier is fully usable
- Pricing
- Free tier plus subscription
- Watch out
- The game is the point, so if it does not click for you the whole app is overhead. Your data lives on their servers and requires an account.
Apple Health
- Best for
- Automatic tracking of anything the phone can measure
- Highlights
- Already installed and already tracking
- Encrypted and stays on device by default
- Steps, sleep, mindfulness and exercise handled automatically
- Everything else can read from it
- Pricing
- Free, included with iOS
- Watch out
- It is not a habit tracker. There are no streaks, no manual habits and no reminders to do something it cannot measure.
Way of Life
- Best for
- Long-term trend spotting rather than streaks
- Highlights
- Simple yes/no/skip model that forgives a missed day
- Charts built for spotting patterns over months
- Notes attached to individual days
- Data export to CSV
- Pricing
- Free tier plus paid upgrade
- Watch out
- The free version is limited to a small number of habits, and the interface is showing its age.
Finch
- Best for
- Gentle self-care habits rather than performance
- Highlights
- Deliberately kind framing — no punishment for missing
- Pairs habits with mood and reflection
- Very approachable if other trackers feel like pressure
- Usable free tier
- Pricing
- Free tier plus subscription
- Watch out
- The tone is not for everyone, and the more useful customisation sits behind the subscription.
Done
- Best for
- Habits you do several times a day
- Highlights
- Handles "eight glasses of water" properly
- Flexible schedules, not just daily
- Clean, quick to mark off
- Good widget support
- Pricing
- Free tier plus subscription
- Watch out
- The free tier caps how many habits you can track, and it is iPhone only.
Loop Habit Tracker
- Best for
- Open-source, offline, no account, no cost
- Highlights
- Completely free with no paid tier and no ads
- Works entirely offline, nothing leaves the device
- A genuinely good scoring model rather than raw streaks
- Open source, so the claims are checkable
- Pricing
- Free and open source
- Watch out
- Android only. Listed here because people keep asking for the iPhone equivalent, and there is no true one-to-one match.
Productive
- Best for
- A polished tracker with strong scheduling
- Highlights
- Time-of-day habit scheduling that works well
- Attractive, well-maintained interface
- Detailed statistics and streak tracking
- Good reminder handling
- Pricing
- Free trial then subscription
- Watch out
- Effectively subscription-only — the free trial is short and the app is close to unusable after it ends.
What is still missing
Habit tracking is one of the few categories where a subscription is genuinely hard to justify. The app checks a box, stores a date and draws a chart; there is no ongoing server cost to fund, and yet most of the polished options in this list bill monthly.
The other thing worth weighing is where the record lives. Two years of daily entries covering exercise, drinking, medication and mood is a sensitive document, and most of these apps hold it on a company server tied to an account.
Kalend keeps habits on the device and syncs through your own iCloud, alongside your tasks and calendar rather than in a separate app. The honest trade-off is that its statistics are basic and there is no Watch app — if the streak charts are the part you care about, Streaks does that better and asks for one payment.
Common questions
What is the best free habit tracker for iPhone?
For a genuinely free one with no cap and no subscription, Kalend — though its statistics are simple. Habitica's free tier is fully functional if the game format suits you. Most others cap habits or expire after a trial.
Do habit trackers actually work?
The evidence suggests visible progress and a specific cue help, which is what these apps provide. What matters more than the app is picking a habit small enough that a bad day does not break it — and a tracker that forgives a miss rather than resetting you to zero.
Which habit trackers keep my data private?
Kalend and Apple Health keep data on the device, and Loop is fully offline on Android. Habitica, Finch and Productive all store your record on their servers behind an account.
How many habits should I track at once?
Fewer than you want to. Streaks caps you at twelve deliberately, and most people do better with three or four. A tracker with thirty habits becomes a second job.
Can I export my habit history?
Way of Life and Loop both export to CSV. Several others do not offer any export at all — worth checking before you build up two years of data you cannot take with you.