# Habitify alternatives for Mac, and where your habits happen

Habitify is built to follow you across every device, but many daily habits happen at one desk in front of one Mac, and there a menu bar checklist with no account can do the same job for a fraction of the price.

- URL: https://swiftfox.studio/blog/habitify-alternatives-for-mac
- Covers: https://swiftfox.studio/apps/keystone, https://swiftfox.studio/apps/aqumi, https://swiftfox.studio/apps/anchored
- Published: 2026-10-06
- Updated: 2026-10-06
- Publisher: Swiftfox Studio (https://swiftfox.studio)

## In short

- Habitify's free plan covers three habits. In the App Store, Pro is $8.99 a month, $49.99 a year or $119.99 once, and what you are really paying for is sync across phone, watch, Mac and web.
- Streaks is the best-known alternative in the Apple world: $5.99 once, no subscription, iCloud sync and Apple Health, with a Mac app that is a window rather than a menu bar item.
- Reminders and Shortcuts are free and already installed. They give you the nudge and the tick, but no streak and no history worth reading.
- If most of your habits happen at the same desk, a Mac-only tracker with no account, like Keystone in the menu bar, is not missing anything you would have used.

## What Habitify is actually good at

Habitify is one of the most complete habit trackers there is, and it got there
by being everywhere. The same list of habits runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch,
Mac, Android and the web, synced through a Habitify account, so a habit ticked on
the phone at the gym is already ticked on the laptop at the desk.

On top of that it does a lot. Habits can be filled in automatically from Apple
Health, Fitbit or Strava, reminders can fire when you arrive somewhere or right
after another habit, there are calendar integrations, a mood log, and a Zapier
and IFTTT connection for anyone who wants their habits in a spreadsheet
somewhere. A **Skip** on a single day keeps a streak alive, and **Off Mode**
pauses everything for a holiday.

The free plan covers **three habits**. Everything past that is paid, and the
price depends on where you buy it. In the App Store, Pro is $8.99 a month, $49.99
a year or $119.99 once, with a lighter Plus tier at $29.99 a year. Habitify's
own website sells Premium cheaper, at about $30 a year or $59.99 once.

If you want one habit list across a phone, a watch and a laptop, with your
health data feeding into it, Habitify is a good answer and probably the right
one. Nothing further down this page syncs to a phone, and that trade is what the
rest of it is about.

## Why people go looking anyway

**Three habits is a demo, not a plan.** Most people who start tracking want four
to eight things: water, a walk, reading, no phone in bed. The free tier tells you
whether you like the app; it is not somewhere you stay.

**A subscription for a checklist.** $49.99 a year is fair for everything Habitify
does, and still a lot for someone who only ticks boxes. The lifetime option
exists because people say exactly that.

**An account for something private.** Syncing needs a Habitify account, and the
account means your habits, your slips and your mood notes sit on someone else's
server. For "drink water" that hardly matters. For "no drinking" it might.

**The Mac is an afterthought.** Habitify's Mac app is a window you open. Habit
trackers are built around the phone because the phone is always on you, but a
lot of daily habits happen at a desk - the stretch between calls, the deep work
block, the glass of water - and there the phone is the extra step.

## The Mac field, including the free ones

**Streaks** is the best-known alternative in the Apple world and an Apple Design
Award winner. It costs $5.99 once on the App Store, with no subscription, and
runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac with iCloud sync. It reads Apple Health
too, so steps and workouts tick themselves off. Its Mac app is a window, not a
menu bar app, and it needs macOS 14.6 or later.

**Habitify's free plan** is still worth a look if three habits really are enough,
and if the account does not bother you.

**Reminders** is free and already installed. A recurring reminder per habit
gets you the nudge and the tick, but no streak, no history and no idea how the
month went.

**Shortcuts plus a spreadsheet** is the do-it-yourself version: a shortcut that
appends today's date and a habit name to a Numbers file. It costs nothing, takes
an afternoon and gives you exactly the charts you build yourself.

## A habit in the menu bar

![The Keystone popover under its menu bar ring, with today's progress, a week strip and habits grouped into morning and anytime](https://swiftfox.studio/keystone/listing/shot-1.jpg "Today's habits, grouped by when you do them, one click each.")

**[Keystone](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/keystone)** takes the opposite bet from Habitify: one Mac, no
account, and the habits in the menu bar instead of a window. A small ring there
fills as the day comes together and turns into a disc with a tick when
everything is done. Clicking it opens today's list, and one click on a habit logs
it. **Control Option Command K** opens the same list from anywhere.

A habit can be a plain tick, a count like eight glasses, a number of minutes, or
something you are staying away from, like sugar. It can run every day, on set
days, a few times a week or every few days. Each one can carry up to three
reminder times, and the notification has its own **Done**, **+1** and **Skip
today** buttons, so answering it never means opening anything.

![Keystone's desktop widgets in three sizes, with today's ring, habits you can tick and the last seven days per habit](https://swiftfox.studio/keystone/listing/shot-4.jpg "Small, medium and large widgets, ticked straight from the desktop.")

There are desktop widgets in three sizes you can tick from, and three Shortcuts
actions. History exports as a CSV for a spreadsheet or as a full backup that
imports on another Mac. The whole feature tour is in
[a habit tracker for Mac](https://swiftfox.studio/handbook/habit-tracker-for-mac).

## Streaks that forgive

Habitify protects a streak with a manual Skip, and Off Mode for longer breaks is
part of Premium. Keystone does the same thing by default and for free. A streak
only counts the days a habit was **due**: a day off the schedule, a day you
skipped on purpose and a day on a break are all neutral. Today is never counted
as missed before it is over, and a three-times-a-week habit keeps its streak in
weeks, so a quiet Monday is not a failure.

![One Keystone habit's detail page with its current and best streak, the last 30 days, a twenty-week map and a month calendar](https://swiftfox.studio/keystone/listing/shot-2.jpg "Current and best streak, thirty days, twenty weeks and a month you can correct.")

The price is **pay what you want** with a suggested $4.99, zero included, and the
license is permanent whatever you pay. It needs macOS 14 or later.

The limits are the mirror image of Habitify's strengths, and worth saying plainly.
There is no iPhone app and no sync, so a run logged nowhere is a run Keystone does
not know about. It does not read Apple Health, Fitbit or Strava. There is no
mood log and no automation beyond Shortcuts.

## Where the alternatives win

**Habitify** wins when habits happen away from the desk. Sync across every
platform, Apple Health and Strava filling things in, and reminders that fire when
you get home are things a Mac-only app cannot do.

**Streaks** wins on the Apple Watch and on price for the whole set of devices:
$5.99 once for a polished app with Health integration and sync. If you have an
iPhone and want no subscription, start there.

**Reminders** wins on already being there, and **a spreadsheet** wins if you like
building your own charts more than using someone else's.

## Side by side

| Tool | Where it lives | Account | Apple Health | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Habitify | iPhone, iPad, Watch, Mac, Android, web | Yes, to sync | Yes, paid | Free for 3 habits; Pro $8.99/mo, $49.99/yr or $119.99 once in the App Store |
| Streaks | iPhone, iPad, Watch, Mac | No, iCloud | Yes | $5.99 once |
| Reminders | Every Apple device | No | No | Free |
| Keystone | One Mac, in the menu bar | No | No | Pay what you want, $4.99 suggested |

The choice comes down to where your habits happen. If they happen out in the
world, pick the app on your phone and wrist. If most of them happen at the same
desk, the list belongs on the Mac, one click away.

Keystone sits next to two other menu bar apps that cover the habits people most
often track: [Aqumi](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/aqumi) for water, with a goal and one-tap logging,
and [Anchored](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/anchored) for the one task that matters today. More of the
shelf is in [the best menu bar apps for Mac](https://swiftfox.studio/blog/best-mac-menu-bar-apps).

_Prices and features checked on 6 October 2026._

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Habitify have a Mac app?

Yes. Habitify runs on Mac (macOS 11 or later) alongside iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android and the web, and all of them share one list through a Habitify account. On the Mac it is a window you open rather than something that lives in the menu bar.

### Is Habitify free?

Up to three habits. Beyond that you need a paid plan: in the App Store, Pro is $8.99 a month, $49.99 a year or $119.99 once, and a lighter Plus tier is $29.99 a year. Habitify's own website sells Premium for less, at about $30 a year or $59.99 once.

### Is there a habit tracker for Mac that needs no account?

Yes. Streaks needs no account of its own and syncs through iCloud. Keystone has no account and no cloud at all: habits stay on one Mac, and you move them with an exported backup. Reminders works too, if a recurring tick is all you need.

### Will I lose my streak on a day off?

That depends on the app. Habitify keeps a streak if you mark the day as skipped, and its Off Mode for longer breaks is part of Premium. Keystone only counts the days a habit was due, so a day off the schedule, a skipped day or a break is neutral without any extra step.

### Do I need my habits on my phone?

Only if they happen away from the Mac. Runs, gym sessions and anything logged on the go belong on a phone or a watch, and that is where Habitify and Streaks win. Water, stretching, deep work and reading at the desk are easier to log from the menu bar than from a phone in another room.

### What do these cost?

Reminders is free. Streaks is $5.99 once. Habitify is free for three habits, then $8.99 a month, $49.99 a year or $119.99 once in the App Store, or less on its website. Keystone is pay what you want with a suggested $4.99, zero included, and the license is permanent.