Productivity · Reviewed over 34 days

Best one-off purchase on this desk

Streaks review: a habit tracker that charges once and then leaves you alone

Name: Streaks review: a habit tracker that charges once and then leaves you alone
Item: Streaks
Rating: 4
Author: Dev Ramanathan

A one-off purchase in a category that has almost entirely moved to subscriptions, and it does the job without asking for anything else. The limit of twelve tracked habits is deliberate and correct.

By Dev Ramanathan · First looked at 1 May 2026 · Last opened 11 August 2026

Install it

A one-off purchase in a category that has almost entirely moved to subscriptions, and it does the job without asking for anything else. The limit of twelve tracked habits is deliberate and correct.

4.0out of 5 · after 34 days of paid use

What earned the money

You pay once. In 2026 that is close to a political statement
The twelve-habit limit is a design decision, not a paywall, and it improves the product
Apple Watch app is genuinely useful rather than a checkbox
No account, no login, no cloud service that can be discontinued

What did not

iOS and Apple Watch only — no Android at all
Twelve habits is a hard ceiling, and if you want thirty this is the wrong app
No web version, so there is no desk-based path in
The statistics are basic compared with subscription rivals

I have reviewed a lot of subscriptions on this desk and cancelled most of them. Streaks cost about five dollars once, and there is nothing to cancel.

The business model is the feature

No account. No login. No cloud service that can be discontinued when the company pivots. You buy it, it works, and it never asks you for anything again.

In 2026 that is close to a political statement, and after a year of reviewing apps that charge $79.99 annually for a database they did not curate, I found it genuinely restful.

The limit is the design

You can track twelve habits. That is a hard ceiling with no tier that removes it.

I expected to resent this and I ended up thinking it is the best decision in the product. Tracking thirty habits is how habit tracking fails — you end up managing the tracker instead of doing the things. Twelve forces a choice, and the choice is the useful part.

If you want unlimited habits, you want a different app, and I would gently suggest you also want a different approach.

What it does not do

Android. At all. This is iOS and Apple Watch only, and there is no web version either.

The statistics are also basic next to subscription rivals — streak counts and simple completion rates rather than analysis. For me that was sufficient. If you want charts, look elsewhere.

Where I landed

Still installed after a month, which almost nothing on this desk manages, and it will stay installed because it costs nothing to keep.

The Apple Watch app deserves a mention: marking a habit from the wrist removes exactly the friction that kills habit tracking, and it is a real implementation rather than a checkbox.

Who should install it

iPhone owners who want a habit tracker that will not become a subscription, and who can live inside twelve habits.

Who should not

Android users, who cannot. Anyone who wants deep analytics. Anyone who genuinely needs to track more than a dozen things, though I would ask why.

Also consider

App	Why it might suit you better
Apple Health	Already on your phone and free, if what you want is basic activity streaks rather than arbitrary habits.

Asked and answered

Is Streaks a subscription?

No, and that is the main reason to buy it. It is a one-off purchase of around $4.99 with no account, no login and no recurring charge. In a category that has almost entirely converted to subscriptions, that is unusual enough to be the headline feature.

Why does Streaks limit you to twelve habits?

Because tracking thirty habits is how habit tracking fails, and the limit is a design decision rather than a paywall — there is no tier that removes it. Having used it for a month, the constraint made the app better. If you want unlimited habits, you want a different app and probably a different approach.

Does Streaks work on Android?

No. It is iOS and Apple Watch only, with no Android version and no web version. If you are on Android this app simply is not available to you.

Dev Ramanathan

Reviewer · The App Reviewer

I install one app at a time and use it as my only tool for that job for at least two weeks before writing anything. I pay retail for every subscription I review and I cancel most of them. No sponsorships, no affiliate links, no review copies.