HabitNow Daily Routine Planner reviews
What users love and hate · 500 reviews analyzed · ★ 4.7
A flexible habit-and-task tracker for disciplined solo users that wins on simplicity, customization and one-time pricing, but rests on one fragile mechanic — reminders that silently fail to fire for a slice of its users.
What users love
The habit / task / one-off split covers your whole life, not just habits
The core reason people stay: one app separates daily habits, recurring tasks and one-offs into distinct types, each finely tunable. It takes load off the user's head and replaces several apps at once.
every type of tasks can be added, like daily habit, daily tasks and individual tasks. everything.
Being able to organise my to-dos into daily tasks, recurring tasks, or habits is awesome. I like doing things my way, so the optional features are ideal.
My head feels less full and you can vostumize timers as well for the tasks!
One-time payment instead of a subscription — a strategic choice that sells premium for itself
The model's defining decision: premium is a one-time (lifetime) purchase, not a monthly subscription, and that is exactly what people cite as the reason they willingly pay. Against a market of intrusive ads and subscriptions, a cheap one-off fee removes the main objection and turns skeptics into buyers.
I also love that it has a one time payment rather than a yearly one.
In a current landscape of intrusive ads or forced monthly subscriptions, it's really refreshing to get a simple efficient service for a cheap price.
it doesnt make you want to get premium BUT THE PREMIUM IS SO CHEAP the one time purchase is so much cheaper than any other app
An unmissable full-screen alarm — the underrated killer feature
For those whose reminders do work, the full-screen alarm dialogue is what hooks them: it doesn't vanish into the notification shade but stays on screen until dismissed. For procrastinators that's the difference between 'forgot' and 'did it'.
the full screen/alarm notifications are impossible to miss!
I love the full screen alarm dialogue when the screen saver is on. That's important for me. I like that the alarm stays on the screen and doesn't just quickly disappear into notification shade where it can be forgotten.
I wanted an app that had a type of an alarm to help me complete my chores better.
A strength for quitting addictions — the app works as a 'break the habit' tool
A non-obvious but powerful segment: people use the tracker not just to build habits but to quit — smoking, vaping, sugar. Being able to run a 'habit you want to quit' and watch a clean streak gives an emotional payoff that drives heartfelt reviews.
It helped me quit smoking, vaping, sugar and other embarrassing addictions. This app played a huge role in helping me break bad habits and build better ones.
best to make your streak and being consistent to your habit that you want to quit or make
I would definitely recommend it if you are trying to break bad habits and acquire good habits.
Deep per-habit customization (different reminders per weekday) keeps demanding users
Advanced users are held by a rare depth of setup: different reminders for the same task by weekday, color tags, nested sub-tasks, measurable progress. It turns the app into a 'do it your way' tool rather than a rigid template.
being able to set different reminders for the same task based on day of the week
I can colour-code and create tabs, I can even add tasks within a task and measure progress.
I was surprised at how many little things I could tweak, and how it just works perfectly for the habits I create.
'A tool, not a toy' — the absence of gamification and AI as a deliberate stance
The segment fleeing gamified trackers (Habitica) and AI bloat values that HabitNow feels like an honest tool with no patronizing mechanics. Plain 'add a habit and check it off' with no points or avatars is exactly what these people come for.
The best habit tracker that feels like an actual tool and not a patronizing toy.
It's also not bogged down with AI features, which is a huge plus.
there's no mess just execution
What users hate
Background reminders silently fail — which guts the trackers whole reason to exist
A slice of users disable every battery-optimization setting exactly as told, yet still get no on-time alert unless the app sits in the foreground. A tracker that fails to remind becomes a dead icon: people miss deadlines and habits and leave, even after paying for premium.
Yet an alarm or notifications won't work at due time unless the app is running on foreground. I am a paid user, and this alone is discouraging. I have missed a lot of deadlines
reminders don't work even after disabling all battery optimization settings, which is a shame since it renders this app almost useless for me
the app keeps Google Play Service up all the time which results in battery drainage it is very frustrating
The widget doesn't sync with the app — checking one doesn't clear the other
The widget is loved for quick access, but it lives a separate life: ticking a task in the widget doesn't turn off the alarm, dismissing the alarm doesn't clear the widget, and with multiple reminders a day the widget gets stuck on the first one. The double bookkeeping breaks trust in the tracking itself.
The widget and the app don't sync. For instance, checking off a task in the widget doesn't turn off the alarm. Turning off the alarm doesn't check off or remove the event in the widget.
When multiple reminders are set for a single habit for a single day, the widget & the app shows only the first scheduled time
the widget is on android is completely broken, will change to 5 stars again when fixed
The timer stops the moment the screen goes off — making the feature nearly useless
The built-in timer/stopwatch for tasks doesn't keep running when the screen turns off or the user leaves the app. To time anything you must keep the app open in the foreground — which contradicts the whole point of 'do the activity, not stare at your phone'.
the app can't continue with the timer or stop watch once the phone's screen goes off or when temporarily switched out of the app. it makes that function a bit useless since the app must be the one currently opened in order for it to work.
you should add an extra feature so that we can use timer in our task and track them it will be very helpful for students
No desktop or cross-platform version — a ceiling for users who work at a computer
The top reason people don't fully switch or leave for a rival: no PC, Mac, browser or watch access. Users will pay more for a task manager just for cross-device sync and Health Connect links — the lack of connectivity caps the app at 'phone only'.
I keep going back to habitify even though I do not like the UI or widget because of 3 MAIN reasons... #1. Watch Widget. #2. Access on PC and Mac for cross platform tracking #3. connection to health connect
The only reason I can't use this for everything is the lack of connectivity (e.g. browser, different devices).
Please come out with a desktop version as well, that's all that's missing
No auto-sync — manual backup on a new phone pushes users to rivals
Data doesn't sync automatically: switching devices means manually exporting and importing a backup. Users name this exact friction as their reason to consider leaving — and for a habit app, losing your history means losing all your motivation.
find manually backing up and importing saved data when switching devices is tiring. If my devices synced automatically, I would give it 5 stars, so I may end up switching to a different task/habit tracker app.
can't backup through VPN
i would like to know how to update my new mail ID in this app as my old account is deleted
Stats lag behind Loop — power users leave for deeper analytics
The stats and data-visualization section trails rivals like Loop, and that's cited as a defection reason even by paying fans. Serious tracking wants heatmaps, a daily 'how many habits done' summary and an at-a-glance streak overview — without them the engine runs but the insight is thin.
stats and data visualization are not yet on par with Loop. To be blunt, the stats section needs a major overhaul to remain competitive.
No quick glance to see streaks, scores etc...
heatmap addition would be great for each month to get an overall monthly idea
Alarms fire even for tasks already completed early — devaluing the signal
Complete a task early and the reminder/alarm still fires at the scheduled time. A redundant alert for something already done trains users to ignore notifications — the very thing the tracker's value depends on.
if we complete a habit/task in advance, the notification or alarm should ideally stop and not appear again. Currently, notifications are still coming even for completed tasks/habits.
Only odd thing is that the reminders go off even if the task is already completed, at least for me.
in this case there could be an option task complete on this day (in case of it will be completed before the set date)
Onboarding curve: the flexibility turns into confusion at the start
The flip side of rich customization is that newcomers get lost: it's unclear whether things are set up right, how to switch the timer from AM to PM, and many settings are buried several menus deep. Those who push through fall in love, but the learning curve filters out some users before their first streak.
first time I am confuse and it takes many time to understand aslo dint no I am using right Way or not
but it's weird to use. I don't know how to adjust the timer from AM to PM
It's highly modifiable (although you have to dig several menus deep for some of the settings)
No overall daily summary or sharing — gaps for families and couples
Missing an at-a-glance 'how many things done today' summary (2/3, 3/3) on the home screen and the ability to share a list with a partner. Without an overall daily view and collaboration, the app stays a strictly solo tool, missing 'family/couple/study together' use cases.
track how many altogether habits not tasks has been completed that day.. whether it is 2/3 or 3/3
if I was able to share a list/collaborate with another person on the app so I could get my partner synced up with me.
an ability for a 3rd party program to check off or add to the list?