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Streaks app alternatives: 7 best iPhone picks

The best Streaks app alternatives on iPhone are timespent, HabitKit, and Strides. Compare 7 trackers without the 24-task cap, from free to $5.99.

iPhone resting beside a closed tablet cover and ceramic mug on a white desk

The best Streaks app alternatives on iPhone are timespent for unlimited free timers and streak-free routines, HabitKit for year-long tile grids, and Strides for Apple Health auto-tracking past 24 tasks. While Streaks is a great $5.99 one-time tracker for Apple Watch, these 7 iPhone apps remove its 24-task ceiling, add count-up timers, and let you start on a free tier first.

Which Streaks app alternative should you pick on iPhone?

Pick timespent if you want unlimited count-up timers and flexible routines alongside daily streaks, HabitKit if you want a full-year GitHub tile grid with a $29.99 lifetime unlock, or Strides if you rely on Apple Health to check off steps and sleep across more than 24 habits.

App Timers & units Price (US App Store) Best for
timespent Count-up timers, Pomodoro, counts, measured units Free; Boundless $2.99/mo, $17.99/yr, or $49.99 once Skill hours, units, and streak-free routines
HabitKit Daily tap counts and custom units (no timer) Free (4 habits); Pro $11.99/yr or $29.99 once GitHub-style year grids on one screen
Strides Numeric targets, rolling averages, milestones (no timer) Free (limited); Plus $29.99–$39.99/yr or $99.99+ once Target deadlines and Apple Health sync
Habitify Stopwatch, countdown, and Pomodoro (Pro only) Free (3 habits); Plus $29.99/yr, Pro $49.99/yr Syncing across iPhone, Android, Windows, and web
everyday Yes or Skip check-ins only (no timer) Free (3 habits); $29.99/yr or $49.99–$99.99 once Visual chain boards with skip days
Way of Life Green, Red, or Skip check-ins with notes Free (3 habits); $4.99–$14.99 or $29.99 once Spotting why you miss habits each week
TickTick Pomodoro and stopwatch in Focus tab Free (5 habits); Premium $3.99/mo or $35.99/yr Keeping habits inside a to-do list and calendar
Streaks (baseline) Single countdown per task + Apple Health $5.99 once (no free tier; max 24 tasks) Closing circular rings on iPhone and Watch

Why do iPhone users switch from the Streaks app?

Most people look for an app like Streaks when they hit its 24-task ceiling, want to count up total practice hours instead of just running a daily countdown, or get tired of watching a single missed day reset a long routine to zero.

Streaks won an Apple Design Award by keeping its layout tight: 4 pages of up to 6 circular tasks per page (4 × 6 = 24 tasks total). That grid makes icons easy to tap on an Apple Watch face, but it runs out of room as soon as you break a morning routine, a gym split, and music practice into separate steps.

Three other limits show up once you use Streaks for a few months:

  1. Countdown-only timers: Streaks lets you set a fixed daily countdown, such as 2 minutes of brushing your teeth or 15 minutes of reading. It has no count-up stopwatch for open-ended work, no multi-round Pomodoro timer, and no way to run several timers at once.
  2. Every task forces a streak: Every ring on the board exists to protect a chain. When you group flexible activities like a weekend house reset or a 3-day-a-week hobby, a sick day or busy Tuesday resets your counter and makes you want to abandon the board.
  3. No free trial before buying: Streaks costs $5.99 upfront on the US App Store, whereas every alternative below lets you test its daily workflow on a free plan first.

How does timespent replace Streaks without a 24-task limit?

timespent removes the 24-task cap on iPhone and iPad, gives you unlimited count-up and Pomodoro timers on its free plan, and lets you choose which routines track a streak and which ones don't.

In timespent, each item you track is an Activity built around one of three formats:

  • Timed Activity: Run a live count-up timer (up to 5 running at once on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island), switch to the built-in Interval Timer for Pomodoro focus and break rounds, or add a Session by hand with notes. Apple Health workouts can also become Timed Activity sessions automatically, and Timed Activities are unlimited on the free plan.
  • Simple Tally: Add a count with one tap for daily vitamins, posture checks, or glasses of water.
  • Measured Tally: Log a number with a real unit across weight, volume, distance, or currency.

Each Activity supports a Do More goal (such as 3 hours of guitar a week) or a Do Less goal (such as capping social media at 30 minutes a day or keeping cigarettes at zero), and your scheduled Plans appear in My Day with progress bars and up to 5 reminders per plan.

To prevent the streak fatigue that happens when every ring in Streaks demands daily completion, timespent gives you two types of Arcs: a Habit Arc tracks daily streaks to build consistency, while an Unscripted Arc groups Activities for flexible routines without streaks. You can keep a Habit Arc for daily non-negotiables like medication and stretching, and put your workout split or music practice log inside an Unscripted Arc where rest days never punish you.

You can use timespent to group your daily habits into a Habit Arc, organize your flexible routines in an Unscripted Arc, and track unlimited Timed Activities on your iPhone for free (alongside 1 Tally Activity, 1 Arc, and 1 Supertrend chart). Boundless ($2.99/month, $17.99/year, or $49.99 once) unlocks unlimited Tallies, Arcs, Home and Lock Screen widgets, and full history.

Where Streaks still wins: Streaks offers native Apple Watch complications and auto-completes tasks from non-workout Apple Health metrics such as step counts, sleep duration, and mindfulness minutes. If your main goal is comparing timer workflows across iOS apps, read our guide to iPhone habit trackers with built-in timers.

How do the other 6 apps like Streaks compare?

If you want a year-in-pixels grid, a deadline pace chart, or a Windows and Android web dashboard, these six trackers each focus on one strength that Streaks leaves out.

HabitKit: best for year-in-pixels contribution grids

HabitKit (US App Store, iPhone, iPad, and Android) swaps Streaks' four pages of big circles for compact, GitHub-style tile heat maps that show months of consistency on a single dark-mode screen.

Tapping a habit lights up today's square, and if a habit requires multiple completions a day (such as four glasses of water), the tile darkens with each tap until you hit your daily target. You can also set goals to a specific number of days per week or month so a 3-day gym schedule keeps its streak intact on rest days. Like Streaks, HabitKit needs no account and shows no ads. Its free plan covers up to 4 habits, while HabitKit Pro costs $1.99/month, $11.99/year, or $29.99 once for unlimited habits, widgets, and export. It has no built-in timer.

Strides: best for target dates, rolling averages, and Apple Health

Strides (US App Store, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch) is the closest match for Streaks users who rely on Apple Health auto-completion and Apple Watch support but want more than 24 trackers and deeper math.

Where Streaks only asks whether you finished a task today, Strides lets you pick from four tracker formulas in one Today list: Habit (streak calendars), Target (reach a total number by a set date with a pace line), Average (rolling average per day, week, or month), and Project (percentage milestones). Strides is free to try with a small number of trackers, and Strides Plus ($4.99–$9.99/month, $29.99–$39.99/year, or $99.99–$149.99 once) unlocks unlimited trackers and iCloud sync. It does not include a live stopwatch or Pomodoro timer.

Habitify: best for syncing across iPhone, Android, Windows, and web

Habitify (US App Store) works outside the Apple ecosystem, including Android and a full browser dashboard for Windows or Linux desks. Habits sit inside Morning, Afternoon, and Evening folders, and "Off Mode" pauses your streaks during vacations without resetting your chain.

Watch the two-tier pricing before you switch: Habitify's free plan stops at 3 habits, Habitify Plus ($29.99/year on the App Store) removes the 3-habit cap, and Habitify Pro ($8.99/month, $49.99/year, or $59.99–$119.99 once) is required for built-in stopwatch and Pomodoro timers, Apple Health sync, and Off Mode.

everyday: best for a visual chain board with skip days

everyday (US App Store, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, Android, and web) turns your routine into a single table where each habit is a row and each day is a column. Marking a cell as Skip when you catch a cold or travel bridges the gap on your board so your streak doesn't drop to zero, and any habit can ignore weekends automatically. The free tier covers 3 habits, while everyday Premium costs $7.49/month, $29.99/year, or $49.99–$99.99 once. It does not track timers or numeric amounts.

Way of Life: best for green, red, and skip scoreboards

Way of Life (US App Store, iPhone, iPad, and Android) helps you spot why you miss a habit by swiping each day Green (done), Red (missed), or Skip, and attaching a quick note explaining what got in the way on red days. Those entries feed into weekly scoreboards that highlight weak spots, such as always skipping evening reading on Thursdays. It is free for 3 habits, with a $29.99 one-time Premium unlock, and has no built-in timer.

TickTick: best for keeping habits inside your to-do list and calendar

TickTick (US App Store) builds a Habit tab right into a full cross-platform task manager and calendar. You can track up to 5 habits and use its Focus timer on the free tier, or upgrade to TickTick Premium ($3.99/month or $35.99/year) for unlimited habits and calendar time-blocking. Keep in mind that TickTick's Pomodoro and stopwatch timers live in its Focus module rather than inside individual habits.

Common questions

What is the best free alternative to the Streaks app on iPhone?

timespent and HabitKit offer the strongest free plans on iPhone. timespent gives you unlimited Timed Activities, up to 5 count-up timers running at once, a Pomodoro Interval Timer, 1 Tally Activity, and 1 Habit Arc or Unscripted Arc at no cost. HabitKit lets you track up to 4 habits on year-long tile grids for free.

Why does Streaks limit you to 24 tasks?

Streaks arranges habits across 4 circular pages with up to 6 tasks per page (4 × 6 = 24 tasks total) so every icon stays large enough to tap on an iPhone screen or Apple Watch face. If you split routines into smaller steps or track more than 24 items, timespent, Strides, and HabitKit Pro remove that cap.

Which apps like Streaks offer a one-time purchase instead of a subscription?

Six of the seven picks sell a one-time lifetime unlock on the US App Store: HabitKit Pro ($29.99), Way of Life Premium ($29.99), timespent Boundless ($49.99), everyday Premium ($49.99–$99.99), Habitify Pro ($59.99–$119.99), and Strides Plus ($99.99–$149.99).

Can I sync Apple Health data with a Streaks alternative?

Yes. timespent imports your Apple Health workouts into Timed Activity sessions automatically on iPhone. If you also want steps, sleep, or mindfulness minutes to check off daily habits, Strides and Habitify Pro both sync those Apple Health metrics.