You may not realize it, but habits shape the quality of your life.
Once habits are set, they are very difficult to break. The brain clings to habits so tenaciously. Nearly half of the actions we perform daily are not based on thought-out decisions, but are well-entrenched habits instead.
Considering that our actions are mostly done out of habit, the quality of our lives can be affected either positively or negatively by our personal habits. It is important to note that the brain cannot distinguish between a bad and a good habit.
Thus, for the sake of our health and well-being, it’s necessary to build good habits.
Of course, with all the distractions around us, building positive habits can be challenging. Fortunately, habit trackers can help us stick to our goals to improve our health, wealth, and happiness, no matter how long it takes to form a new habit.
Today, we’re taking a look at 19 of the best habit-tracking apps that help us achieve our goal of forming positive habits.
Read on to find out more about these apps.
1. Coach.me
Coach.me was formerly known as Lift, but got a name change and a major makeover. The final result is Coach.me, and is perhaps your best partner for self-improvement.
It has all the features of a top-performing habit tracker.
The app allows you to customize the habits you want to work on, and set them as private or public undertakings. When a habit is set to public, other users can post comments or give you support for doing it.
For iOS
2. StickK
StickK provides science-backed habit tracking. Behavioral economists at Yale University designed and created this platform, helping users develop accountability and leveraging rewards and incentives to keep them on track with their goals.
Upon signing up, you draw a contract with yourself to fully commit to reaching your goals. The incentive allows you to bet money on yourself.
You can also assign an accountability partner to monitor your efforts as you work toward your goals. This way, you stay motivated and conscious about staying on track.
3. Chains.cc
Start a new healthy habit, or break a bad one—just don’t break the chain. Chains.cc is habit tracker that helps you stay committed to your goals.
This is a web-based habit tracker. Specify the habits you want to build or break, and the tracker provides a visual representation of your “streaks” toward your personal goals.
Users are motivated to follow through each day. They are fully aware that neglecting to do the habit can break the chain, requiring them to begin anew.
4. Momentum
Momentum is inspired by Jerry Seinfeld’s “don’t break the chain” approach to productivity. As you do a habit every day, your chain grows longer.
When a habit has become part of your system, you’ll be more likely to stick to it.
If you’re interested to see how you’re progressing, you can export the data about your habit to Excel. You get reminders to ensure that you don’t miss a habit. Set weekly targets by specifying the number of days in a week you want to develop (or break) a habit.
5. Habitshare
Habitshare combines habit tracking and social media to keep you accountable for building or breaking personal habits.
With this app, you’ll get reminders about the habits you’ve scheduled. You can add daily or weekly habits.
If you’re concerned about privacy regarding the habits you’re posting, you don’t need to worry. You are in control of what specific habits you show your friends so they can provide the support and encouragement you need to stick to a habit.
6. Y-Productive
Y-Productive not only tracks the habits you want to improve or get rid of, it is also a great productivity tool. Self-employed individuals, entrepreneurs, software developers, and business managers can benefit from using Y-Productive.
The interface graphics are visually pleasing, and the app provides information about your efficiency and distractions in real time.
If you are aiming to develop the habit of productivity at work, this is the ideal app for you.
For MacOS
7. Productive – Habit Tracker
If you’re looking for an app that easily helps you track your daily habits, give Productive a try.
The uncluttered interface is the main draw of this app. It is the ideal interface if you’ve just started practicing some good habits and want to make sure you stay on track.
The free version of the app already comes with various features that help you:
An upgrade to the premium paid version is available, which unlocks additional cool features such as location-based reminders, weekly reports on habit trends, motivations and challenges, etc.
8. Beeminder
Beeminder helps you stick to your goals through monetary incentives. You pay a penalty (called a pledge) whenever you get off track.
When you set a goal, the app’s self-tracking system provides quantifiable data that you can monitor through a graph. You can view graphs of your different goals.
The creators of the app used akrasia—or human beings’ tendency to be weak-willed—to develop this habit tracker.
Some goals that users have reached using Beeminder are:
9. Flora
Flora is an app that helps curb your Facebook addiction.
Most people can’t put down their phones. This has become a problem for many, affecting their relationships, productivity, health, and safety. So here’s an app that helps limit your phone usage.
This app promotes mindfulness, enriching relationships, and other healthy habits that happen away from the negative influence of technology.
With friends, you plant a virtual tree and make it grow by avoiding distractions (gaming apps, social media, etc.) on smartphones. When someone uses their phone for any of these distractions, the tree dies.
The app has an incentive where you can set a price for a tree before it’s planted. When the tree dies, the user who killed it must pay that price for an actual, real tree to be planted in a chosen rural community in Southeast Asia or Africa.
For iOS
10. HabitBull
If you want to form or improve a habit using a simple interface, HabitBull is for you. Its features include reminders, a streak calendar, and motivational quotes and sayings.
You can view your progress through visually appealing graphs that can motivate users to stay on track. A built-in discussion forum is your avenue for getting support and suggestions from other users.
There are two versions of the app—the free one and the premium one. The free one allows you to track up to five habits, with reminders provided. Meanwhile, you can track up to 100 habits on the premium version, as well as have backup and syncing on Cloud, CSV export, and widgets.
11. Habitica
If you’re looking for an app that easily helps you track your daily habits and lets you have fun while doing so, you might want to try Habitica.
This is a habit-building app that incorporates gamification features into your tasks.
Whether you’re working on developing a self-care routine, creating new morning habits, or working on other practices that promote personal development, this app can provide the support you need, with the feel of playing a retro RPG.
Some of the features you’ll enjoy in this app include:
The app is downloadable for free, with in-app purchases and premium versions available.
12. Strides
Strides comes with all the expected features of a good habit tracker, plus some extras. It is quite simple to use, and you can easily customize it based on your needs for habit tracking.
The color-coded system allows you to see where you are hitting your targets and where you need some improvement. Charts and graphs allow you to see the statistics of your efforts to reach your goals.
This app’s interface is clean and well-organized, making the use of it a pleasant experience.
For iOS
13. Fabulous
The creation of Fabulous is backed by science, considering that its inception was at Duke University’s Behavioral Economics Lab. It promises to “transform your life” and “reset your habits.”
The app’s appearance is worth noting. Its interface has vibrant colors, making it a bit different from other habit trackers in the market.
This app lets you create journeys—helping you work on small habits at first, and then moving on to bigger and bigger ones. The idea is that as you form habits through the use of the app, your life will undergo profound positive changes.
The journeys in this app focus on helping users with:
14. Way of Life
The Way of Life app allows you to see how well you’re progressing with forming a good habit or breaking a negative one. It asks you whether you did a habit, and, based on your answer, displays a progress report. The inquiry takes less than a minute.
Users are motivated to stick with or get rid of habits because they know that they’ll have to report on how they fared each day.
The app sends reminders when you forget to make a daily report. Graphs show your progress, so you’ll know at a quick glance whether or not you are on target.
A note-taking feature allows you to jot down details and information for future reference.
This app has been voted as Healthline’s “Best Motivation App of 2019.”
15. Today
Today app’s beautiful images are designed to motivate users as they work toward their goals. It also provides information about the user’s progress.
With Today, you are not only tracking your habits, you are also constantly experiencing a visually delightful treat. When you set a habit, you can also select an inspiring image for each of your goals.
The app allows users to customize the dashboards of their habits. A streak calendar is available to see how well you’re doing at achieving your target.
The app can be connected to Apple’s Health, and users can view relevant Health Data resources. Users can also earn badges upon completion of a goal.
For iOS
16. Habitify
Habitify serves as a visual representation of your progress towards a goal—whether that goal is to build a new healthy habit or break an old, negative one.
Habitify is the ideal app if you are looking for a habit tracker that can motivate you to go after your habit goals on a daily basis.
With this app, you can group your habits together, whether by time or category. If you are doing habit stacking, Habitify is a great tracking tool.
Charts and statistics provided by the app provide insight about your streaks and areas to improve on for habit building.
In-app purchases are available that enhance the efficiency of your habit tracking.
17. Loop
Loop promises to help “keep your life on track.” It is an open-source app available for Android devices and contains features that help improve your quality of life.
The app provides timely daily reminders to keep you on track, whether you’re building or breaking habits. It provides reports presented as charts and statistics on your streaks to help pinpoint areas in your habit building/breaking that are working well, as well as where you need to improve.
The app is completely free to download and use.
For Android
18. WithPeers
Setting habit goals, staying motivated, and accomplishing your goals are best accomplished with friends. With the WithPeers app, you can set goals (such as forming a new healthy habit), track your streaks and trends, and share your progress with others.
Working on goals or new habits with friends can strengthen your bond with each other. This app has the following features to support you and your friends in your collective goal of improving your life:
For iOS
19. Timecap
Timecap is a habit tracker and to-do list developed by Tip Tap Apps. It is designed to help keep track of your activities, habits, and goals.
Not only is this app helpful if you need a straightforward habit tracker for building new habits, but it is also a great ally when it comes to breaking old or bad habits.
If you’re using this app to break bad habits, you can set notifications to tell you when you’ve reached a limit in doing habits that no longer work for you.
This app is available to download for free, with in-app purchases available.
Conclusion
That’s a wrap! We’ve gotten to know 19 habit-tracking apps that help you stay on track with your personal goals. Do you have a favorite among the ones featured today? (If you're looking for an app specific to goal setting, check out our post on the best goal-setting apps.)
Building good habits in all areas of our lives is important. All of our actions have an impact on our health, wealth, and happiness. Thus, let’s all strive to make that impact a positive one.
If you are interested to know more about good habits, check out this post featuring a definitive list of good daily habits that energize your day.
DGH Related Posts:
- 9 Best Gamification Apps to Improve Your Life
- 20 Best Life Planning Apps to Design Your Perfect Future
- 11 Best Productivity Apps for Your Android or iOS Device
- 17 Best Organization Apps to Streamline Your Life
Finally, if you need help with building habits, then check out this nine-step blueprint that walks you through the entire process of creating lifelong habits.)
