Best goal tracking apps for 2027: six honest picks, including when ours is the wrong one

The best goal tracking apps for most people are Strides if your goal is a number with a deadline, Loop if you are on Android and want something free, Streaks if you live on an iPhone and Apple Watch, and Habitica if a game is what keeps you going. If you want to track on the web for free, BeHabitual is ours, and we say below where it falls short. A spreadsheet beats all of them if you like building your own.

One distinction first, because it decides which app fits. A goal is an outcome: read 24 books, save $2,000, run a half marathon. A habit is the daily action that gets you there: read 20 pages, move $40 on payday, run three times a week. Some apps track the outcome, most track the action. The useful ones for New Year goals let you do both, or at least make the daily action easy to log.

Strides: best for goals with a number and a date

Strides is the closest thing on this list to a pure goal tracker. It has four tracker types: Habit (a yes or no each day), Target (reach a value by a date), Average (keep a rolling average, like hours of sleep) and Project (milestones and percent complete). Target trackers draw a pace line, so you can see in March whether "save $2,000 by December" is on track or slipping. It walks you through setting a SMART goal, and there are templates to start from.

It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, and there is an Android version on Google Play. The App Store listing says the free version tracks 3 things. Strides Plus, the paid plan, adds unlimited trackers, sync across devices and data export. The catch: three trackers is a real limit once you add a few habits next to your goals, so most heavy users will end up paying.

Habitica: best if a game keeps you going

Habitica turns your list into a role-playing game. You make Habits (things you do any number of times), Dailies (repeating tasks) and To-dos (one-offs). Checking them off earns gold and experience for your character; missing Dailies costs you health. You can join a party with friends, and Challenges give you shared task lists. It works on the web, iPhone and Android, and the code is open source.

The App Store listing says it "can be fully enjoyed for free". A subscription is optional; on the US App Store it was listed at $4.99 a month or $47.99 a year when we checked. The catch is the game itself. If points and pets motivate you, nothing else here comes close. If they do not, it is a lot of interface between you and a tick box, and the goal can get lost behind the avatar.

Loop Habit Tracker: best free app on Android

Loop is free, has no ads and no in-app purchases, and is open source under GPLv3. It works offline with no account, and its developers say your data is never sent to anyone. Instead of only counting streaks, it scores habit strength, so a few missed days after a long run lower the score without wiping it out. It handles schedules like three times a week, has reminders and home screen widgets, and exports to CSV or a database file.

The catch: it is Android only (Google Play or F-Droid), and it is a habit tracker, not a goal tracker. There is no deadline or target value to aim at. If your goal breaks down into daily actions, that is fine. If you need to watch a total climb toward a number, pair it with something else.

Streaks: best for iPhone and Apple Watch users

Streaks tracks up to 24 tasks a day across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac, synced through iCloud. Its standout feature is the Apple Health link: connect a task like steps or workouts, and Streaks ticks it off when the data arrives, so you do not have to log it yourself. It is a one-time purchase with no subscription and no ads; the price is on the App Store.

The catch: Apple only, and like Loop it tracks daily actions, not outcomes. For goals you can reach through health data, such as steps or exercise minutes, it is the least effort of anything here.

BeHabitual: best free option on the web

Ours. BeHabitual is a website, so it works on any phone or laptop with nothing to install, and it is free while it is in early access, with every feature and up to 30 habits. Each habit is counted the way you do it: a tick, a count like 8 glasses of water, a timer like 20 minutes of reading, or something to avoid. You can set which days a habit is due and take rest days without breaking a run. Month and Year views show which days slip, a weekly review asks what to change, and you can export everything as a spreadsheet file.

Where it is the wrong pick: there are no reminders, it does not read health data, and it is not in an app store. It also tracks daily actions, not a target with a deadline, so for "save $2,000 by December" Strides is the better fit. For time-boxed goals, it has free 75 Hard, 30-day and no sugar challenge trackers that work without an account.

A spreadsheet: best if you like building your own

A spreadsheet can track anything: a goal total in one cell, daily ticks in a grid, a chart of the trend. It is free and nobody can change the price on you. The cost is that you build and maintain it, and a phone is a poor place to tick a cell. If you want a head start, the habit tracker Excel template builds a month sheet for Excel or Google Sheets, and habit tracker vs spreadsheet covers when each one is the better tool.

How to choose a goal tracking app

1. Write the goal down first, then the one daily action that moves it. If you cannot name the action, no app will help yet.
2. Decide what you need to see: a total climbing toward a number (Strides), or a row of days done (the others).
3. Pick by phone. Android and free points to Loop; Apple and Health data points to Streaks; mixed devices point to a web app or Habitica.
4. Count your goals and habits before choosing a free plan, so a limit like 3 trackers does not surprise you in February.
5. Start with one to three things. Adding ten on 1 January is an easy way to stop opening the app by March.

That last point matters more than which app you choose. Trackers only help while you keep opening them, and one reason people stop is that the list grew longer than their day. There is more on that in why habit trackers stop working, and on picking the first thing to track in keystone habits.

The short version

• Number goals with a deadline: Strides.
• Free and private on Android: Loop Habit Tracker.
• iPhone and Apple Watch, with Health data ticking things off: Streaks.
• Motivated by games and friends: Habitica.
• Free on the web, with counts, timers and a weekly review: BeHabitual.
• Full control and no app at all: a spreadsheet.

Whichever you pick, set it up before 1 January with one goal and the action that serves it. If that is BeHabitual, you sign in with a Google account and add your first habit.