6 Best Streaks Alternatives in 2026 (Tested)

Streaks is a well-made app. An Apple Design Award winner since 2016, 27,000+ ratings at 4.82 stars, and a one-time $5.99 purchase in a market drowning in subscriptions. For many iOS users, it's the first habit tracker they tried and the one they kept.

But the things that make Streaks focused also make it limiting. The 24-habit cap. The Apple-only ecosystem. The streak counter that resets to zero after one missed day, no grace period. The analytics that show calendars and bar graphs but nothing deeper. And the $5.99 price tag with no free trial to test before buying.

We tested over 20 habit trackers and narrowed the list to six that solve specific problems Streaks users run into. Each one fills a gap Streaks leaves open: more habits, more platforms, more flexibility in how you define and measure progress.

Transparency note: Habi is our app. It's on the list because it genuinely addresses several Streaks limitations (unlimited habits, focus timer, screen time controls). Every other app received the same honest evaluation.

Why People Switch From Streaks

Streaks has been a go-to habit tracker since 2015. It earned its Apple Design Award for good reason. But after testing the app and reading hundreds of recent reviews, five patterns keep surfacing.

1. The 24-habit ceiling

Twenty-four habits sounds generous until you start using the app seriously. Morning routines, health habits, work tasks, evening wind-down, weekend-only goals. One reviewer called it a "dealbreaker despite quality." Another wrote: "I genuinely love the app and use it every day without fail, but I really do not understand why you are limited to 24 tasks." Power users hit the wall fast.

2. Apple or nothing

No Android. No web dashboard. No Windows. If your partner uses Android, you can't share habits. If you work on a Chromebook, you can't check progress. For people deep in one ecosystem, this is fine. For everyone else, it's a dealbreaker.

3. Streak anxiety

The "Don't Break the Chain" philosophy is the app's entire motivational model. Build a 47-day streak, miss one day, watch it reset to zero. Research from UCL's habit formation study found that missing a single day doesn't materially affect habit formation. But in Streaks, that missed day feels like losing a month of progress. Several reviewers described quitting the app entirely after a streak reset.

4. Surface-level analytics

Streaks shows monthly calendars and simple bar graphs. It doesn't offer trend analysis, habit correlations, completion rate comparisons, or data export. If you want to understand which habits you're consistent with on weekdays versus weekends, or whether your exercise habit correlates with your sleep habit, you'll need a different tool.

5. No trial before you buy

$5.99 is cheap for an app you use daily. But paying before trying feels backwards when most competitors offer free tiers. "I feel this app is generic and I feel I wasted my money," wrote one reviewer. "I figured the app would offer more considering it costs money," wrote another. The lack of a trial creates a trust problem that Streaks' minimalism makes worse: it's hard to evaluate constraint as a feature before you've lived with it.

Quick Comparison

How We Evaluated These Apps

We installed each app, used it for daily habit tracking, and evaluated it against these criteria:

• Free tier usability. Can you actually evaluate the app without paying? How many habits before a paywall?
• Habit flexibility. Does it support more than yes/no tracking? Timers, quantities, negative habits, custom schedules?
• Analytics depth. Beyond streaks and calendars. Trends, correlations, exportable data.
• Platform coverage. How many devices and operating systems does it sync across?
• Motivation model. Streaks uses "Don't Break the Chain." What does the alternative offer instead?
• Real user sentiment. App Store reviews, Reddit discussions, editorial coverage. We read hundreds of reviews for each app.

No affiliate links. No app paid to be on this list. We included our own app (Habi) because it addresses real gaps in Streaks, and we gave every competitor the same honest evaluation.

The 6 Best Streaks Alternatives

1. Habi - Best for Going Beyond Check-Offs

Streaks tells you whether you did your habits. It doesn't care whether you were focused while doing them, or whether you spent the rest of your day on Instagram. Habi treats those as connected problems.

The app combines habit tracking with a Pomodoro-style focus timer and screen time controls. You track "study for 30 minutes" as a habit, then launch a focus session that plays ambient sounds and blocks distracting apps while you work. When the session ends, the habit checks off. The tracking and the execution happen in the same place.

Where Streaks gives you 24 circles to tap, Habi gives you habits, tasks, projects, focus sessions, and event countdowns in one daily view. There's no habit limit. The app syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro through iCloud.

What it does well:

• Streak protection. Miss a day? Habi doesn't reset your counter to zero. It offers streak protection so one bad day doesn't erase weeks of consistency. This aligns with research showing that missing a single day has no meaningful impact on habit formation.
• Focus timer that blocks distractions. A Pomodoro timer with ambient soundscapes (rain, cafe, forest) that actively blocks apps you choose during sessions. Streaks has no timer and no way to protect your attention during habit execution.
• Unlimited free tier. Unlimited habits, full focus timer, screen time controls, widgets, shared projects, and calendar integration. All free. No 3-habit gate, no 5-habit gate, no "try for 7 days then pay."
• Shared projects with nudges. Invite family or friends to shared habit projects. Participants get nudge notifications when someone completes a habit. It's accountability without a leaderboard or RPG layer.

Where it falls short:

• Apple ecosystem only. Same limitation as Streaks. No Android, no web. If cross-platform matters, Habitify or Habitica are better picks.
• Launched in 2026. The core is polished, but Streaks has a decade of updates and 27,000+ ratings. Habi is still earning that track record.

Pricing: Free (unlimited core features). Pro from $1.99 for advanced themes and extras.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro

Bottom line: If Streaks' 24 circles feel like they're only tracking part of your day, Habi fills the rest: focus protection, screen time limits, tasks, and shared accountability.

2. Productive - Best for Coached Routines

Streaks doesn't tell you what habits to build. You figure that out yourself, add up to 24 circles, and start tapping. Productive takes the opposite approach: it ships with pre-built coaching programs that walk you through habit sequences step by step.

Programs like "Healthy Morning," "Better Sleep," and "Stress Management" include daily articles explaining why each habit matters and how to implement it. For someone who knows they want better routines but isn't sure where to start, this guided approach removes the blank-page problem that Streaks' empty circles create.

The app also has Android support, which Streaks lacks entirely. If you or your household uses a mix of Apple and Android devices, Productive covers both.

What it does well:

• Coaching programs with daily content. Not just templates. Multi-day sequences with articles explaining the psychology behind each habit. Streaks assumes you know what to track. Productive teaches you what to build.
• Rich habit statistics. Completion rates, weekly and monthly breakdowns, consistency scores, and historical calendar views. Significantly deeper than Streaks' basic graphs.
• Flexible repeat scheduling. Specific days, every other day, three times per week, custom intervals. Streaks handles most of these, but Productive's scheduling UI makes complex patterns easier to configure.
• Custom habit icons and colors. Over 800 icons and extensive color options for visual organization. Streaks offers 600+ icons but Productive's visual customization goes further.

Where it falls short:

• Subscription fatigue. The free tier limits you to roughly five habits. Premium runs $34.99/year. Since Bending Spoons acquired the app, prices have climbed. Multiple reviewers noted costs increasing: "Was a great app at $20/year. Now nearly $30 with no meaningful additions."
• Sync and data reliability concerns. Recent App Store reviews flag data loss after updates and sync problems. "For the second time, they made a big update to the app, and I lost 4+ years of data," wrote one long-time user. That's hard to forgive in an app built around long-running streaks.

Pricing: Free (limited). Premium $6.99/month or $34.99/year.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android

Bottom line: Productive is the right Streaks alternative for people who want guidance building routines, not just a grid of circles to tap.

3. Habitify - Best for Data-Driven Tracking

Streaks shows a calendar with filled and empty circles. That's useful for seeing whether you did something. It's not useful for understanding patterns. Habitify fills that gap with analytics that actually tell you what's working.

Completion rate trends by week and month. Best and worst performing habits. Consistency comparisons across time periods. Exportable CSV data for anyone who wants to build their own dashboards. For people who make decisions based on numbers, Habitify provides the data that Streaks withholds.

It also runs natively on iPhone, Android, Mac, Apple Watch, and the web. That's the widest platform coverage on this list. Log your morning habits on iPhone, check stats on your Mac during lunch, review the week from any browser.

What it does well:

• Area-based habit organization. Group habits into categories like Health, Work, Learning, and Personal. Each area gets its own color and progress summary. Streaks' flat six-per-page layout offers no organizational structure.
• Completion trend analysis. Weekly and monthly completion rates with visual trend lines. Spot declining patterns before a habit breaks entirely. Streaks shows whether you did it. Habitify shows whether you're doing it consistently over time.
• Five-platform sync. iPhone, Android, Mac (native), Apple Watch, and a full web dashboard. The broadest platform support on this list after Habitica.
• Data export. Export your entire habit history as CSV. Build spreadsheets, visualize data however you want. Streaks offers no data export at all.

Where it falls short:

• Three-habit free limit. Three habits is barely enough to test whether the app fits your workflow. You're effectively paying before evaluating, which is the same problem Streaks has (just without the one-time purchase simplicity).
• Widget reliability issues. iOS widgets have a documented history of not updating. "Doesn't sync. When you contact support, they reply initially then just disappear," wrote one reviewer. Widget glitches are especially frustrating for a habit tracker, since the widget is often the primary interaction point.

Pricing: Free (3 habits). Premium $39.99/year or $89.99 lifetime.

Platforms: iPhone, Android, Mac, Apple Watch, Web

Bottom line: Habitify is the Streaks alternative for people who want numbers, not just circles. If analytics and cross-platform sync are your priorities, it's the strongest option.

4. Habitica - Best Free Cross-Platform Option

Streaks uses a growing number to keep you motivated. The streak climbs. You don't want to break it. The problem is what happens after it breaks: nothing. No consequence beyond a reset counter. No reason to start again except willpower.

Habitica flips the incentive structure. Complete your daily habits and your RPG character earns experience, gold, and items. Miss them and your character loses health. Drop to zero and you lose a level, gold, and a random piece of equipment. That self-regulatory feedback loop creates a pull that a simple streak counter can't match.

The best part: it's genuinely free. Every tracking feature, every quest, every party mechanic, every class system. The subscription ($4.99/month) unlocks cosmetic items only. No habit limit. No paywall on features that matter.

What it does well:

• Real consequences for missed habits. When your character takes damage for skipping habits, the motivation isn't abstract. It's visual. Your health bar drops. Your friends' characters take damage in party quests. The stakes feel tangible in a way Streaks' number-reset doesn't.
• Custom real-world rewards. Define your own rewards ("30 minutes of Netflix" costs 50 gold) and earn the gold by completing habits. You're building a personal incentive system that connects daily actions to things you actually want.
• Works everywhere. iOS, Android, and a full web app. The widest free platform coverage of any habit tracker. If you switched from iPhone to Android and lost access to Streaks, Habitica fills that gap immediately.
• No habit limit, no feature gate. Add as many habits, dailies, and to-dos as you want. No 3-habit cap, no 24-habit ceiling. For free.

Where it falls short:

• Overwhelming at first. Classes, equipment, pets, mounts, gems, gold, quests, challenges. The RPG system has real depth, which means real complexity. Budget 15 to 20 minutes for initial setup and learning, versus Streaks' two-minute onboarding.
• Not for everyone's aesthetic. Pixel art and fantasy themes aren't universal. If you prefer clean, minimal design (which is likely if you're coming from Streaks), Habitica's visual style might feel like a step in the wrong direction.

Pricing: Free (all core features). Optional subscription $4.99/month for cosmetics.

Platforms: iPhone, Android, Web

Bottom line: Habitica is the only alternative on this list that's fully free with no habit limit and works on every platform. If Streaks' motivation model stopped working for you, Habitica's reward-and-consequence system might restart it.

5. Strides - Best for Numeric Goal Tracking

Streaks handles "Did you exercise today?" It doesn't handle "Did you run 3 miles today, and are you on track to hit 100 miles this month?" Every habit in Streaks is binary. Tap or don't tap. Strides tracks the numbers behind the habits.

The app supports four tracking modes: Habit (daily yes/no), Target (reach a specific number by a date), Average (maintain a running mean), and Project (complete milestones with subtasks). That flexibility means you can track "meditate daily" alongside "save $5,000 by June" in the same app, with progress projections for both.

Strides has been quietly building trust since its launch in 2012, maintained by a solo developer who's been responsive for over a decade. It carries 18,700+ ratings at 4.79 stars, and long-time users praise the stability. "Been using since 2014!" is a common refrain.

What it does well:

• Target tracking with pace indicators. Set "read 52 books this year" and Strides tells you whether you're ahead or behind schedule based on your actual logging rate. It projects your completion date. Streaks can only tell you if you read today.
• Average tracking. Monitor metrics that fluctuate: sleep duration, daily water intake, weekly spending. The rolling average smooths out the noise and shows your true trend. Streaks has no equivalent.
• Flexible scheduling. Daily, weekly, monthly, specific days, custom intervals, or "X times per week." More granular than Streaks' scheduling, especially for habits that don't fit a daily cadence.
• No ads, no nagging. The free tier has a 3-tracker limit, but it doesn't bombard you with upgrade prompts. The premium unlock is $4.99/month or $79.99 lifetime. No dark patterns.

Where it falls short:

• Apple ecosystem only. iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. No Android, no web. Same platform limitation as Streaks.
• Four tracker types is a lot to learn. Habit, Target, Average, Project. Each has different settings and visualizations. If you just want to tap circles and move on, Strides' depth might feel like overhead. The learning curve is steeper than Streaks' three-second interaction.

Pricing: Free (3 trackers). Plus $4.99/month, $29.99/year, or $79.99 lifetime.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch

Bottom line: Strides is for Streaks users who realized that "did I do it?" isn't enough and they need to know "how much did I do, and am I on pace?"

6. Tangerine - Best for Mood + Habit Tracking

Streaks tracks what you do. Tangerine also tracks how you feel. The app combines habit tracking with mood logging and guided journaling, then shows you how they connect. Did your mood improve on days you exercised? Did skipping your morning routine correlate with worse afternoons? That feedback creates a layer of self-awareness that Streaks' binary check-offs never touch.

The design is deliberately warm and calming. Apple named it App of the Day in 2020. Where Streaks aims for minimal efficiency, Tangerine aims for emotional engagement. Habits are organized by morning, afternoon, evening, and anytime. The journaling prompts encourage reflection, not just completion.

It's also one of the few habit trackers with a genuinely usable free tier. Unlimited habits, mood tracking, and basic journaling. No 3-habit paywall.

What it does well:

• Mood-habit correlation. Log your mood alongside habits and Tangerine shows patterns between what you do and how you feel. This gives habits a "why" that's personal, not abstract. Streaks tells you your meditation streak is 30 days. Tangerine shows you that your mood scores 18% higher on days you meditate.
• Guided journaling prompts. Daily reflection templates help you process your day. For people using habit tracking as part of a broader self-care practice (not just productivity optimization), this context matters.
• Android support. Unlike Streaks, Tangerine has an Android app. Cross-platform users don't have to choose between their phone and their habit tracker.
• Beautiful, calming interface. A warm color palette and gentle animations designed to make daily check-ins feel inviting rather than clinical. "The most cozy and comforting habit tracking app," as one user put it.

Where it falls short:

• Buggy under pressure. Recent reviews mention crashes, broken notification schedules, and incorrect streak counts. "It will show on the calendar that I've completed a whole month of a habit but then it will say 3-day streak," wrote one reviewer. Core reliability issues undermine the trust a habit tracker needs.
• Premium analytics are thin. The paid tier ($29.99/year) promises deeper insights, but multiple reviewers found the data shallow: "So few insights and so little that you're able to click on or analyze." If analytics are the priority, Habitify is a better investment.

Pricing: Free (unlimited habits, mood tracking, basic journaling). Premium $4.99/month or $29.99/year.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android

Bottom line: Tangerine is the Streaks alternative for people who want to understand not just what they did, but how it made them feel. The mood-habit connection turns tracking into self-knowledge.

Which Streaks Alternative Should You Pick?

If Streaks' 24-habit limit is your only complaint, pick Habi. Unlimited habits, plus focus timer and screen time controls that Streaks doesn't have. Same Apple ecosystem. Free.

If you want someone to tell you what habits to build, pick Productive. Coaching programs with daily guidance. Good for beginners who don't know where to start.

If you need it to work on Android, Mac, and the web, pick Habitify. Five-platform sync with the best analytics on the list.

If you want everything free with no habit limit, pick Habitica. Full feature set on iOS, Android, and web. The RPG layer is optional in spirit but baked into the experience.

If you track numbers, not just check-offs, pick Strides. Target tracking, averages, progress projections. The most measurement-oriented tracker on the list.

If habits are part of a bigger self-care picture, pick Tangerine. Mood tracking, journaling, and habit-mood correlations in a calm, beautiful interface.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

Streaks is a great app that does one thing well: daily habit tracking with minimal friction. The $5.99 one-time purchase is genuinely fair, and the Apple ecosystem integration is best in class. But the 24-habit limit, the platform lock-in, and the bare-bones analytics push a lot of users to look elsewhere.

The right alternative depends on which gap matters most to you. Habi goes beyond tracking into focus and screen time control. Productive guides you with coaching programs. Habitify gives you real analytics across every platform. Habitica makes it free and fun. Strides adds numeric depth. Tangerine connects habits to emotional well-being.

Every app on this list offers a free tier or trial except Streaks itself. Try the one that addresses your specific frustration. If it clicks, you'll know within a week.

Looking for more comparisons? See our best habit tracker apps roundup or the Habitify alternatives guide.