9 Best Habit Tracker Apps for 2024 and Beyond

Everyone needs habits — to stay fit and healthy or to create better routines overall. And some people want to quit their bad habits, like smoking or eating unhealthy foods. 

To keep hammering away at that habit streak, I’ve tried 9 best habit tracker apps. So, let me share my thoughts about how each could benefit you as it did me. 

Drum rolls, please!

#1: Clockify — best for tracking time spent on habits and tasks

Clockify is best for tracking time spent on developing habits and completing tasks because it records each activity and sorts it in pie charts, graphs, and detailed reports. Charts and reports can be as simple or as detailed as I want them to be.

Whether for a personal or work project, I use Clockify daily because I can mark my daily routines and tasks as either billable or non-billable. In fact, I can track breaks and downtime as well to give me a better idea of where my time goes. All I need to do is enter the name of my activity and hit Start.

Most interestingly, Clockify lets me set up alerts when I forget to track my habits and activities. Say I strive to fall into a healthy and productive habit of engaging in deep work every morning for 2 hours straight. 

Sometimes, I may forget to engage in deep work and instead focus on low-return activities like checking my email. In this case, I can set up an alert in Clockify to notify me if I get off track.

Even if I clock in less time than intended, I can also set up a quick alert to remind me — or others on my team — that I’m falling behind on my progress.

Top Clockify pro: User-friendly interface with simple and advanced habit tracking features.

Top Clockify con: May include too many functionalities for individuals who want a solution that focuses only on habit tracking.

What’s new in Clockify?

In January 2024, Clockify introduced passwordless login that will benefit iOS and macOS users. Apart from that, the team at Clockify has been steadily rolling out UI/UX improvements.

Best fit for: Individuals and small-to-large teams looking to track their individual or team habits.

#2: 10,000 hours — best for simple habit tracking

10,000 hours is best for simple habit tracking because it doesn’t require any action on my behalf before I start tracking my habits. The app got its name from the claim by some experts that you need 10,000 hours doing a skill to perfect it.

When I launched this habit tracker app, all it took for me was to write who I wanted to become and launch the timer. This prompt sets an intention for me to adopt every time I log in. In this case, I said my intention was to become a Health Wizard — or someone who cares for what he eats and how much he works out. 

Unlike other habit tracking apps, 10,000 hours doesn’t have too many buttons for me to click on. So, I can start and end the timer by simply pressing the timer’s numbers. 

Every time I complete a session, I get an encouraging message saying that I’m a bit closer to reaching my goal of 10,000 hours spent on a habit. This piece of encouragement sometimes makes all the difference for me. Here’s what it looks like in the app:

Co-founder of GreenPal, Gene Caballero, says 10,000 hours is his favorite habit tracking app because it lets him track his piano playing as part of his productive routine:

“I’ve been using 10,000 for over 4 years, and it stands out due to its simplicity and effectiveness in tracking the time and consistency of my piano practice. This app helps ensure that I dedicate sufficient time to piano playing, which is not only a source of relaxation but also a key factor in boosting productivity.”

Top 10,000 hours pro: Tracking habit development is easy if you have a single habit you want to work on.

Top 10,000 hours con: Doesn’t offer advanced habit tracking options like detailed reports, categories, color-coding, or goals.

What’s new in 10,000 hours?

10,000 hours hasn’t seen a new feature in years. Perhaps the team behind the app simply wanted to keep the tool’s clean and simple look.

Best fit for: Individuals looking for a very simple and clean habit tracker app with no more features apart from the bare minimum.

#3: Loop — best for unit-based measurable habits

Loop is best for measurable habits because it lets me attach units to my habits. For example, suppose I need to add a unit such as the number of miles I need to run a day or ounces of water I need to drink. In this case, I can simply select a measurable habit, and this free habit tracker app does the rest. 

The way Loop works is that I have to enter the name of a habit I want to perform and start marking whether I completed it. Say I want to mark that I drank 1 ounce of water today — all I need to do is tap on the field on the right side of “Drink 1 ounce of water,” and the habit is ticked for the day.

A standout Loop feature is viewing the best streaks (or longest streaks) and the frequency of habits I’ve engaged in. This allows me to get a better sense of how often I check off my ritual and which habits have the longest streaks. 

In my experience using the app, it had a steeper learning curve because I had to figure out how to calculate my habits. But as soon as I did, it was a breeze. I can feel that, in a short while, it made my habits more feasible because I could pinpoint my shortcomings and address them quickly — before my streak ended.

Top Loop pro: Extensive customization options that enable skip days and customizable notifications (sound, vibration, light).

Top Loop con: The app is only available for Android users.

What’s new in Loop?

Loop hasn’t been releasing new features in the past few years. Yet, they have been consistently rolling out smaller improvements to their UI/UX.

Best fit for: Individuals who want to get their habits done in predefined timeframes and with tight deadlines.

#4: Way of Life — best for week-based habit tracking

Way of Life is best for week-based habit tracking because it offers a clean look of my week and 4 simple options for tracking each habit:

• Yes or No — marking whether I completed the habit or not,
• Skip — marking that this habit doesn’t need to be completed every day, and
• Note — allowing me to add a thought on what I think about that day’s habit.

Apart from Clockify, Way of Life is the only other habit tracker app on this list that I’ve been using for years. Way of Life is so useful that it earned a place on my smartphone’s home screen. Whenever I complete a daily habit, I just get into the app and mark it as done — or not.

A standout feature of Way of Life is Descriptions for each habit. When forming new habits and breaking bad habits, it’s essential that I describe to myself why I want to do either of the 2 things. The app makes this easy for me by letting me add short explanations for why I went with this habit in the first place. 

Here’s what it looks like in Way of Life:

Top Way of Life pro: The trend charts that summarize all habits in total and separately, allowing users to tell if they’re more successful in individual habits than their habit stack as a whole.

Top Way of Life con: The reminders sometimes don’t come through on Android.

What’s new in Way of Life?

Way of Life hasn’t released any new features in years. Yet, October 2022 saw them adding an animation and a sound effect when a green chain is broken on the iOS version of the app. A green chain is an on-screen chain that grows longer and bigger as I get more habits done.

Best fit for: People looking for a simple yet motivational way of keeping a simple journal of their habits.

#5: stickK — best for tracking habits with high-stakes commitment 

stickK is best for tracking habits with high-stakes commitment because it takes money off my bank account if I fail to meet a goal. Great thing about the app is that stickK donates this money to charities. Yet, they take my money only if I allow this feature explicitly.

The way this app works is that it prompts me to insert my goal and then allows me to tick off every day until I reach it. 

stickK is perhaps the most complicated of all the habit tracking apps on my list. Yet, it has powerful features, including:

• stickKFlic — allows me to create a one-time video to boast about my progress to my friends and family in an effort to keep me motivated, and
• Communities — gives me access to groups with similar interests and goals.

With the Communities feature, I can easily access groups of people who share my habits. Doing so allows me to check out their journals, including how they struggle and succeed daily — to get a bolt of inspiration and motivation to keep me going. 

Here’s what the Communities feature looks like in stickK:

But stickK comes with other powerful features, too. Health Canal CEO Erik Pham thinks that stickK’s feature that ties his habits to a financial price is an amazing option: 

“The commitment contracts feature on stickK raises the stakes for individuals by attaching a financial cost to their commitments. This not only serves as a motivator, but also introduces a tangible consequence for not meeting established goals. The prospect of incurring a cost creates a powerful incentive for our team members to stay dedicated to their objectives.”

Here’s what the Stakes feature looks like:

Top stickK pro: Referee option – select an accountability partner who verifies whether you’ve done what you said you would.

Top stickK con: Slow loading time — everything takes a few seconds to load.

What’s new in stickK?

This habit tracker is another one that doesn’t have updates all too often. Apart from their improved user interface, the latest major update was in 2022 when stickK included the option to share your goals’ progress on any of the popular social media networks. 

Best fit for: Groups of friends or coworkers who want to keep themselves accountable.

#6: Timelog — best for timer-based habit tracking

Timelog is best for timer-based habit tracking because it offers the option to use a stopwatch, a countdown timer, and a Pomodoro timer for keeping track of my habits.

The way this app works is that I can choose one of 3 timers and track my habit in real time or once I’ve finished it for the day. I simply have to click the play button and get into the habit.

Timelog’s standout feature is adding moods for each activity I undertake. Suppose I feel especially good after completing workouts early in the morning every morning for one month. In this case, I could mark that this activity — and the time of day — was associated with me being in a great mood.

As a result, this could lead me to better understand when I feel at my best to perform certain habits. Here’s what setting moods in Timelog looks like: 

Apart from tracking my mood, the Timelog habit-building app allows me to add duration, notes, dates, and colors to each activity. For example, suppose I set the duration of my habit for today to 30 minutes. After those 30 minutes have passed, I get a notification to stop doing the habit for today.

Finally, the app’s visually appealing interface makes me come back to it every day to track my progress. In my opinion, that’s what the best habit tracker apps have in common — a beautiful interface, notifications, and notes.

Top Timelog pro: You can track your habit by manually adding it as a Log or as an Activity — or by starting the Timer in the app.

Top Timelog con: It takes a bit of time to set up each habit. 

What’s new in Timelog?

In January 2024, Timelog released duration presets — an option that allows users to pick duration from preset habits for quicker logs and timer creation.

Best fit for: People who want to instantly track habits via widgets.

#7: Awesome Habits — best for results-oriented habit tracking

Awesome Habits is best for results-oriented habit tracking because it offers progress charts and a way to track habits as percentages and numbers — options that help me stay motivated.

Of all the habit tracking apps on my list, Awesome Habits took the least time to set up and use — which was enough to get it on my good side right from the start. 

To use the app, all it took was to select one preset habit with a goal of my choosing and dive right into it. In my example, I wanted to reduce my social media intake to 30 minutes per day. 

The standout feature of Awesome Habits is enabling Vacation mode. When I turn it on, the app automatically skips all or selected habits until I turn it off again. Vacation mode is especially useful when:

• I’m on a business trip that doesn’t allow me to get all my daily habits done,
• I feel sick, or
• I otherwise can’t complete my daily routine count.

CTO at 3DGearZone, Paul Chow, says that Awesome Habits lets him focus on execution and not spend too much time fiddling with the app:

“No daily pressure, just clear progress charts that motivate me to hit my goals. It tracks my progress beautifully, then gets out of the way, letting me focus on execution. Plus, I can link it to my project management app for weekly reviews, keeping everything streamlined.”

Top Awesome Habits pro: Offers preset habits with metrics and icons.

Top Awesome Habits con: Requires a paid plan to unlock more detailed statistics in reports.

What’s new in Awesome Habits?

In December 2023, Awesome Habits introduced its Vacation mode — the latest feature I mentioned above as its standout feature.

Best fit for: Individuals who want to pause their habits for a while so they don’t get overwhelmed by their habit-building process. 

#8: Habitica — best for gamified habit tracking

Habitica is best for gamified habit tracking because it helps users acquire and keep track of their habits by presenting a gamified user interface with challenges and Super Mario-like icons.

In Habitica, I can choose which area of my life I want to focus on improving, i.e., work, exercise, health, or productivity. Then, all I need to do is define actions for all areas and insert them into predefined sections like habits, dailies, and to-dos.

The best feature of this free habit tracker app is earning rewards in the form of items I can unlock if I tick off enough habits. This feature increases my chances of completing my daily routine or habits giving me small drips of encouragement throughout the day. I can even personalize rewards to fit my preferences. 

For example, I can set Watch Netflix for 1 hour as a reward if I complete my workout for 2 days in a row. This is what my Rewards section looks like in Habitica:

Speaking of rewards, what got my attention were the cleverly crafted names for rewards, including:

• Peppermint Bark Armor,
• Candy Club, and
• Enchanted Armoire.

In my experience testing the app, each of these rewards gets me in a frenzy to want to get it. As a result, I can upgrade my avatar with equipment, strength, and intelligence points. 

Top Habitica pro: A free plan with many features that have to be paid for in other apps, like customization and the number of habits.

Top Habitica con: Too many items, quests, and challenges may distract some users from the real purpose of the app — to track their progress on habits. 

What’s new in Habitica?

September 2023 brought the latest updates to the app, including new backgrounds for the app’s avatars. Apart from that, the team behind Habitica has been steadily publishing challenges, icons, and avatars to keep their users engaged in maintaining their habits. 

Best fit for: Individuals who like to have a gamified task manager and track their habits as if they were playing a computer game.

#9: Notion — best for customized habit tracking

Notion is best for customized habit tracking because it lets me tweak my habit entries in great detail — from adding covers to inserting checkboxes, files, and media. 

Although not a habit-building app per se, Notion offers plenty of opportunities to keep track of daily habits. One especially useful feature I found is the option to have a weekly and card view of my habits. This is what it looks like in my habit tracker in Notion: 

Besides, I can add properties for Status and Priority, indicating the current status of my task (Done, Not done, or In progress) and which habit takes priority over others. This is especially useful for long-term habits or goals consisting of multiple smaller steps — like running a marathon.

Growth Lead at Numeric.io, Tierney Pretzer, says that Notion’s interconnected databases are most useful for tracking her goals and habits: 

“The flexibility of databases makes it extremely easy to customize my set-up to track habits, set goals, and organize other aspects of my life in a single pane. I use Notion to track daily, weekly, and monthly habits that role up to a set of goals using interconnected databases. The act of tracking helps keep me accountable and it’s rewarding to see habits stack up over time.” 

The best habit tracker app should offer full customization for free — which Notion does — allowing me to automate habits.

Top Notion pro: Gives users the option to tag habit buddies — others with whom you’re on a habit journey.

Top Notion con: Lacks filtering and sorting options for individual days of the habits you track.

What’s new in Notion?

In November 2023, Notion introduced new enterprise features that offer more visibility and controls when managing users. This new feature includes a new dashboard and control panel with all active (and suspended) users in one place, including their level of control in your Notion workspace.

Best fit for: Advanced users who want to get much more details on how they track their habits.

How I picked the best habit tracker apps

If you’re curious about what criteria I used to mark these as the best habit tracker apps, I’ll lay out a few essential ones below that seemed the most important to me.

Allows for a quick setup

The best habit tracker apps must be easy to set up and use, at least to a reasonable degree. Although some may offer more complex features, they still had to be relatively easy to set up to make it to this list.

Offers streaks option

Habit tracker apps without streaks aren’t useful. If I had a neat visual representation of my current streak of days, I tended to use the app more. The applications with beautifully designed streaks were even more likely to make it to this list of the best habit tracker apps.

Syncs to different devices and platforms

Apart from Notion and Clockify, other apps didn’t offer the possibility of syncing across all devices and operating systems, including macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and others. Although not a disqualifying factor, the ability to sync across devices and platforms was a surefire way of making it to this list.

Inspires feelings of satisfaction

I found that I was more likely to return to and use habit-building apps that boosted my motivation. As a result, going back to the app strengthened my habit-building. 

FAQs on the best habit tracker apps

In this segment, I’ll briefly cover frequently asked questions about the best habit tracker apps.

What is the best routine app?

The best routine app is the one that makes it effortless for you to check off habits and get on with your day. Whether it be meditation or jogging, choose a routine app that doesn’t distract you from your healthy habits. In any case, a routine app and a habit tracking app are the same — just pick the one that works best for you.

How much does a habit tracker cost? 

The price of a habit tracker ranges from $3.99 (Clockify) to $17.99 (Timelog) for single users. For a more comprehensive solution that helps teams or bigger groups track habits, you must pay close to $100 for group annual subscriptions (like stickK).

What is the best free habit tracker app? 

The best free habit tracker app depends on your personal preferences and needs. For example, some people may prefer a beautiful user interface over detailed reports. Yet, others may favor more complex ways of tracking their progress, with zero regard for how pretty the app is. 

Build lasting habits that improve your health and productivity with a simple habit tracking app

The best habit tracker app doesn’t exist — it depends on what you need.

All of the best habit tracker apps on this list can help you improve your habits and, as a result, improve work performance. Yet, some apps better cater to the different needs of different people. 

For example, if you’re looking for a simple, clean, and unsophisticated way to track your habits, your best bet would be:

• Way of Life, 
• 10,000 hours, 
• Timelog, or 
• Loop.

On the other hand, if you want to keep tabs on habits with a free habit tracker app that offers in-depth reports and databases, then you could do with:

• Awesome Habits, 
• Notion, and 
• stickK. 

Thirdly, if you want to gamify your habit-building, you would do well to choose Habitica.

But if you want to level up your habit tracking and track your whole day’s worth of time, try out Clockify — an app best suited for tracking time spent on both habits and tasks. With this habit-building app, you can record all activities, including those from your work and personal life. 

Moreover, Clockify allows you to use it wherever you go, including all browsers and operating systems. Go beyond habit tracking.