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Comparison

The best free habit trackers, and how to pick between them

Almost every habit tracker has a free tier, and most of them are genuinely usable. The choice is rarely about features. It is about which failure mode you can live with, because that is what decides whether you are still using it in March.

No affiliate links. Facts checked 31 August 2026.

The short answer

  • On Android and want it free forever with no account: Loop Habit Tracker. It is open source, ad-free, and unlimited, and nothing here beats it on those terms.
  • On iPhone and happy to pay once: Streaks. It integrates with Apple Health, which no browser-based tool can do, and a one-time price beats a subscription for a tool you keep for years.
  • Motivated by games: Habitica. If turning habits into a role-playing game works on you, it works far better than any grid, and the core is free.
  • Want the whole month visible at once, on any device, with no install: that is what we built, and it is the case where we would pick ours. If you want a month-at-a-glance view and you move between a laptop and a phone, a browser tool has an advantage that a native app does not.

Free habit trackers compared

Free habit trackers compared
ToolPlatformModelBest forWhere it wins
Loop Habit TrackerAndroid onlyOpen source, freeAndroid users who want no account and no upsellGenuinely unlimited and ad-free, with a habit strength score rather than a raw streak
HabiticaWeb, iOS, AndroidFree core, open sourcePeople who respond to games and rewardsThe deepest free tier here, and the only one where the motivation system is the product
StreaksiOSOne-time purchaseiPhone users who want Apple Health integrationPulls activity straight from Apple Health, so some habits tick themselves
HabitKitiOS, AndroidFree core, optional ProPeople who want a visual grid on a phoneNative apps on both platforms with the grid aesthetic done well
TickTickWeb, iOS, AndroidFree tier, paid upgradePeople who want tasks and habits in one placeCombines a real to-do list with habit tracking, which we deliberately do not
BeHabitualAny browserFree in early accessSeeing a whole month at once across devicesMonth grid with per-habit monthly goals, weekday breakdown, and CSV export

Platform and business model are stable. Prices and free-tier limits change often, so check the developer's own page before deciding. Facts here were verified on 31 August 2026.

Free tiers fail in three different ways

Knowing which kind you are looking at tells you more than a feature list will.

  • Capped free tiers, which give you three or five habits and ask for money at six. Fine if you genuinely track three, and most people should.
  • Ad-supported free tiers, which cost you attention every time you open the app. For a tool you open daily, that adds up faster than a subscription would.
  • Genuinely free tools, usually open source or early-stage. The risk is different: open source projects can go unmaintained, and early-stage products can disappear. Neither is free of cost, the cost is just not money.

Where we are the wrong choice

There is no reminder system here, no native app, and no widget. If what actually makes you log a habit is a notification at 9pm, this will not fix that, and an app with reminders will serve you better.

There is also no way to track anything automatically. Streaks can read step counts from Apple Health and tick a habit without you. Every box here is one you clicked yourself. That is deliberate, but if half your habits are things a phone can already measure, you are doing manual work a different tool would do for you.

And it is early access. There is no support team and no uptime guarantee. A tracker you intend to keep for five years is a reasonable thing to want, and we cannot promise that yet.

What actually decides whether you keep using one

Every tool on this list can record that you drank water. The differences that matter show up in week three, not week one.

The question to ask about any of them is how much a single missed day costs you inside the interface. Tools built around an unbroken streak turn one missed day into a reset to zero, and a reset to zero is where most people quit. Tools built around a rate treat one missed day as a rounding error. Neither is wrong, but they suit different people, and it is worth knowing which one you are before you pick.

A note on this page

There are no affiliate links here and no sponsored placements. We would rather send you to Loop and have you trust the next page we write.

If something above is out of date, it is an error rather than a tactic. Tell us and it gets corrected.

Questions people ask

What is the best completely free habit tracker?
On Android, Loop Habit Tracker: open source, no ads, unlimited habits, no account required. Cross-platform, Habitica's free core is the deepest if gamification suits you. If you want a month-at-a-glance grid in any browser with no install, that is what BeHabitual does, free while in early access.
Is there a free habit tracker with unlimited habits?
Loop Habit Tracker and Habitica both allow unlimited habits at no cost. BeHabitual allows 30, which is a practical ceiling rather than a paywall. Most people should track three to five, so these limits rarely bind in practice.
Do I need to install an app to track habits?
No. Browser-based trackers work on any device with no install and no app store account, which matters if you move between a work laptop and a personal phone. The tradeoff is no home screen widget and no notifications.
Which habit tracker is best for iPhone?
Streaks, if you are willing to pay once. It integrates with Apple Health, so habits tied to movement or exercise can complete themselves, which no web tool can match. HabitKit is the stronger option if you want the grid look with a free core.
Are free habit trackers actually free, or do they sell data?
It varies, and you should check each privacy policy rather than assume. Open source options like Loop and Habitica are auditable, which is the strongest guarantee available. For our part, no advertising or analytics scripts run on this site and nothing you track is sold or shared.

Start with three habits and one month

You will know by the end of it whether this is the tracker that sticks. That is a shorter test than most things you have tried.