A free alternative when your habit tracker caps you
You did not go looking for a new habit tracker. You tried to add one more habit and a subscription screen appeared. This page sets out where the limits sit in the trackers people most often hit one in, how to get your history out of the app you are leaving, and what a tracker with no cap looks like — including what it cannot do, so the switch is not a surprise.
Where each one stops you
Productive. The free version tracks 5 habits; more than 5 needs its paid Premium subscription. Five is the number most people hit, because a normal morning fills it.
Way of Life. The free tier caps at 3 habits, which is the tightest of the common limits.
HabitBull. Free up to 5 habits; the paid version raises the ceiling to 100.
DoHabits. Not a habit cap but a model change: the one-off paid upgrade was replaced with an annual subscription, so people expecting to buy it once found a recurring plan.
None of these are bad apps. The cap is a pricing decision, not a technical limit — a sixth checkbox costs an app nothing the first five did not.
Get your history out first
Do this before you start somewhere new, so the months you have logged come with you.
Look for export in the app's settings, usually under a "data" or "backup" heading, and ask for CSV. Save the file somewhere you can find it from the browser you will use next — a cloud drive is easiest.
Loop Habit Tracker, which many people land on first, exports from Settings under the Database section with "Export as CSV". That gives a ZIP archive containing comma-separated files for the habits. Keep it as a ZIP; it can be imported as it comes.
If an app has no export at all, that is worth knowing: it means leaving will always cost you the history, and the sooner you go the less there is to lose.
Moving in
Open tickbook and go to "Your data, in and out" on the front page. Choose your file — a ZIP from Loop, a CSV with a date column and one column per habit, or a tickbook JSON export. Habits whose names match what you already have are merged rather than duplicated, so importing twice is safe.
Then keep going. There is no cap, so add the sixth habit that started this. Each one shows its streak, and the grid fills in a square for every day you tick something.
What you are giving up by switching
Be clear about this before you move.
No sync between devices. Your habits live in the browser you use, so a phone and a laptop are two separate lists. Moving between them is an export and an import.
No push notifications. Reminders are a repeating calendar event you download and open once, which then fires from your own calendar on every device. On an iPhone this is actually the more reliable route, since a website cannot send a push notification there at all unless you have added it to your Home Screen.
And data in a browser can be cleared. Export occasionally. If those three are dealbreakers, a paid tracker with sync is genuinely the right purchase — the point here is to pay for sync if you want it, not for the right to add a sixth checkbox.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import from Productive or Way of Life?
If the app can export a CSV with a date column and one column per habit, yes. Export from its settings, then choose that file under "Your data, in and out". A ZIP from Loop Habit Tracker works as it comes.
Will importing twice duplicate my habits?
No. Habits are matched by name and their ticked days are merged, so a second import tops up the first instead of copying it.
Is there a catch to the free version?
There is no paid version for it to be limited against. The real trade-offs are no sync between devices and no push notifications, both of which are consequences of there being no account.
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