Free habit trackers with unlimited habits: limits checked

A free habit tracker with unlimited habits is harder to find than the App Store makes it look. Almost every habit app is free to download, and almost every one sells an upgrade. What the listing rarely says is where the free tier stops. We read the App Store listing and the developer's own site for 25 iPhone habit trackers, checked on October 1, 2026, and wrote down every limit we could verify, and where we could not.

Disclosure: we make Orbit, one of the 25 apps below. It is in the table under the same rules as everyone else, and the first section is about the other 24.

The short answer

• Three apps state a number for their free tier. Habitify: 3 habits. HabitKit: 4 habits. Routinery: 2 routines.
• Five more say unlimited habits is something you pay for (Productive, Fabulous, Strides, Way of Life, HabitMinder) but do not say how many the free tier allows.
• Three say the core app is free without naming a cap: Habitica ("can be fully enjoyed for free"), Finch ("core self-care features are free") and everyday ("free forever").
• Streaks is not free: $5.99 upfront, up to 24 tasks, no in-app purchases listed.
• HabitShare lists no purchases at all; its last update on the App Store is dated January 27, 2023.
• The other eleven say nothing about a free limit on the listing or the site we checked. That does not mean there is no limit. It means you find out after you install.

The audit table

"Not stated" means we looked at the App Store listing and the developer's site on October 1, 2026 and found no number. In-app prices are the range Apple shows on the US listing; they include intro offers and duplicates, so treat them as a range, not a price list.

Why the cap matters more than the price

Most people searching for a free habit tracker are not trying to avoid paying forever. They are trying to avoid starting a routine, building three weeks of history, and then hitting a wall on habit number five. The wall is where people quit, and the history stays behind.

A cap of three or four habits is a reasonable trial for someone with a short list. It is a problem for anyone whose routine already has water, a walk, sleep and something for the mind. So the question to ask is not "is it free?" but "is my list shorter than the free number?"

What "unlimited" can still hide

An app that does not cap habits can cap something else. In the listings we read, paid tiers also unlock:

• Reminders. HabitKit's Pro adds "up to three reminders per habit"; Habitify's paid plan adds "smart reminders".
• Widgets. HabitKit lists home screen widgets under Pro.
• Export and backup. HabitKit lists import and export under Pro. Way of Life lists CSV and Excel export. Routinery says it has no export button and offers its data through an AI connection instead.
• Ads. Routinery says its free plan shows ads. HabitKit, HabitMinder and (Not Boring) Habits say they have none.
• Tracking. Eight of the 24 other apps declare "Data Used to Track You" on their App Store privacy label: Me+, Productive, Fabulous, Routinery, Grit, Dear Me, HelloHabit and Habit Rabbit. That label is the developer's own declaration and Apple does not verify it.

What the paid tiers do better

Paid tiers are not a trick. Several are cheap and buy real things. HabitKit's lifetime option is listed from $14.99, Habit Tracker (Inner Grow) lists a $9.89 lifetime purchase, and Streaks costs $5.99 once with no subscription at all. Habitify's paid plan adds Apple Health integrations and timers, and Streaks runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. If you want a habit app on your watch today, Orbit cannot help: it is iPhone only.

Habitica deserves its own line: its listing says the whole app "can be fully enjoyed for free", subscriptions are optional, and it runs on the web and Android as well as iPhone, according to Habitica's own help pages.

Where Orbit fits, honestly

We make Orbit. It is free on the App Store with no in-app purchases in version 1.0, it has no ads, and its App Store release date is October 6, 2026. There is no cap on how many times you log. Your routine lives in three to seven pillars (sleep, movement, food and so on), and each pillar can hold up to five named goals. If you want 30 separate habits each with its own streak, Orbit is shaped differently and Streaks or Habitify will suit you better.

Two things to know before you choose it: Orbit had no App Store ratings when we checked on October 1, 2026, because it was not yet released, and a free product can add paid features later. If Orbit ever adds a paid tier, its App Store listing will show the purchases before this page is updated.

How to find any app's cap in two minutes

1. Read the listing to the end. Caps, when stated, hide in the last paragraph or in "Subscription information".
2. Scroll to In-App Purchases on the listing. If every item says Premium or Plus, something is behind it.
3. Install, skip any trial offer, and add one more habit than the number you need.
4. Check whether reminders, widgets and export work without paying, if you care about them.
5. Check the privacy label for "Data Used to Track You".

Method and limits

We read 25 US App Store listings and, where one exists, the developer's site, on October 1, 2026. We used Apple's public lookup data for prices and ratings. We did not install or test the apps. A "not stated" cell is a finding about the listing, not about the app. Prices vary by country and by offer. We will re-check this table monthly and note what changed.