7 Best Strides App Alternatives
Strides is great-but it’s Apple-only, and not everyone needs all that complexity. Here’s what else is out there.
Habit Tracking
Let’s be honest. Most of us start tracking habits with the best of intentions, and then life gets in the way. We skip a day, the streak breaks, and suddenly the app feels like a burden instead of a tool.
Strides has been a fan favorite for iPhone users for years-it’s flexible, data-rich, and lets you track habits, targets, averages, and long-term projects from one clean dashboard. But it’s iOS-only, it can feel overwhelming for beginners, and some people just want something a little different.
If you’ve been asking yourself whether there’s something bette
r out there for you, this post is for you. I’ve put together seven of the best Strides alternatives, covering everything from gamified habit-builders to dead-simple open-source options.
Why people look for Strides alternatives: Android users are left out entirely, the premium unlock can be pricey at up to $79.99 lifetime, and the sheer number of tracker types can feel like overkill for someone who just wants to drink more water and go to bed earlier.
● Habitify – The polished cross-platform pick
● Habitica – For people who need to gamify everything
● Loop Habit Tracker – The free, open-source Android champion
● Streaks – The slick iOS alternative
● Productive – For routine-builders who love structure
● HabitNow –The best free option for Android
● Fabulous – For science-backed behaviour change
The 7 best Strides alternatives
● Alternative 01
Habitify: iOS 4.4 · Android 4.2. “The one that actually looks good on every device.”
If Strides’s iOS exclusivity is your main frustration, Habitify is probably your answer. It works on iOS, Android, macOS, and the web-and it keeps a consistent experience across all of them, which is rarer than you’d think.
What’s clever about Habitify is that it thinks about habits the way real people live them. You can track how long you meditate each session, not just whether you did it. You can group habits into folders by broader goal-so “Morning Routine” might contain your journaling, stretching, and hydration habits all in one place. There’s also a notes feature, so you can jot down what was going on mentally when you were building (or struggling with) a particular habit. The design is excellent-clean enough to feel light, detailed enough to be genuinely useful.
● Alternative 02
Habitica: iOS & Android · Free”Your habits, but make it a dungeon crawler.”
Some people need data charts to stay motivated. Others need to watch their pixel avatar die if they skip leg day. Habitica is built for the second group-and it works surprisingly well.
The app turns your real-life goals into a retro-style role-playing game. Complete a habit, earn experience points and gold. Skip it, and your character takes damage. You can team up with friends for group quests, which sounds absurd until you realize that not wanting to let your friends down is actually one of the most powerful accountability mechanisms there is. It handles daily tasks and to-dos alongside habits, so you get a full productivity loop baked into one place. The RPG layer can get complex, but for the right person-especially someone who’s struggled to stick with “boring” tracker apps-Habitica can be genuinely transformative. Pricing: Free · Optional subscription for cosmetic in-game items
● Alternative 03
Loop Habit Tracker: Android · Free & Open Source “No ads. No subscription. No nonsense.”
If you’re on Android and want something completely free, private, and no-strings-attached, Loop is the answer. It’s open source, ad-free, and packed with analytics that would make a data nerd happy.
The interface is minimalist without feeling stripped. Each habit has a strength score-a visual indicator of how consistent you’ve been over time-which is a smarter way to measure progress than a simple streak counter. Streak breaks hurt less when you can see that your overall habit strength is still strong. Loop also generates clean, detailed charts, and you can export your data in CSV format anytime. There’s no cloud account, no subscription reminder, no upsell. It just works. The only real downside is that it’s Android-only, so iOS users will need to look elsewhere. Pricing: Completely free · Open source
● Alternative 04
Streaks: iOS · Paid “Apple’s design philosophy applied to habit tracking.”
Streaks is the most Apple-feeling app on this list-and that’s entirely a compliment. It integrates with Apple Health, supports Siri Shortcuts, has gorgeous home screen widgets, and syncs seamlessly across your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
The core design is elegantly simple: track up to twelve tasks a day, don’t break the chain. It shows your current and best streaks with detailed statistics, and the Apple Health integration means habits like “walk 8,000 steps” or “meditate for 10 minutes” can be tracked automatically without you having to tap anything. It’s for iOS diehards who want the best-looking, best-integrated option available, and don’t mind paying upfront for a polished experience. If Strides feels too complicated for what you actually need, Streaks is a beautiful step down in complexity. Pricing: Paid one-time purchase on the App Store
● Alternative 05
Productive: iOS 4.6 · Android 4.2 “For people who want structure with a side of inspiration.”
Productive hits a sweet spot between Strides’s analytical depth and the simplicity of a basic streak tracker. It’s available on both iOS and Android, looks genuinely beautiful, and has some thoughtful touches that make it especially good for people new to habit tracking.
The standout feature is its curated habit library-pre-built habit packs around morning routines, better sleep, focus, and more. Instead of staring at a blank page and wondering what to track, you can browse habits that actual people find useful and add them in seconds. The weekly and monthly progress views are clean and satisfying to look at, and Siri Shortcuts on iOS let you check off habits with your voice. One thing to note: Google Assistant support isn’t available yet, so that perk is iOS-only. Pricing: Free limited tier · Subscription for full access
● Alternative 06
HabitNow: Android · Mostly Free. “Everything you need, basically for free.”
HabitNow proves that free doesn’t have to mean limited. This Android app offers most of the premium features you’d pay for elsewhere-detailed statistics, customisation options, home screen widgets, and even a basic to-do list-at no cost. There are ads, but they’re minimal and easy to ignore.
In the main habits tab, you can see your current streak, your completion rate, and last week’s performance at a glance. Tap through to the calendar or statistics view for a longer-term breakdown of how you’ve been doing. It’s not the most glamorous app in the world-the design feels utilitarian compared to Productive or Habitify-but if you want a comprehensive, no-commitment Android tracker that doesn’t require a monthly subscription, HabitNow is genuinely hard to beat. Premium unlocks unlimited habits for a one-time fee that’s often on sale. Pricing: Free · Premium from ~$11.99 (often discounted)
● Alternative 07
Fabulous: iOS & Android · Freemium. “The habit app that actually coaches you through it.”
Fabulous is different from everything else on this list. Rather than asking you to log habits manually, it guides you through building rituals-structured routines around morning, focus, and evening wind-down-using behavioural science research from Duke University’s Behavioral Economics Lab.
Think of it less as a tracker and more as a digital coach that nudges you gently toward the kind of life you want to build. The guided journeys walk you through programs for better sleep, more focus, and healthier eating over several weeks. It’s motivational, warm, and thoughtfully designed.
The downside? It works best when you follow its programs, so if you want to free-form track your own custom habits without much guidance, you’ll probably prefer one of the other apps. But if you’ve struggled with habit-building apps because you never quite knew where to start, Fabulous may be exactly the kind of hand-holding you needed.
