Is Habitica better than Finch?

Only if a penalty gets you moving, or you want To Do's with due dates and a version that runs in a browser. If missed days make you give up, Finch is the better start, because the worst it takes is a streak you can repair.

Yes. Finch's help centre says its core features are free and always will be: the birb, goals, reflections, good vibes and seasonal events. Finch Plus costs US$9.99 a month or US$69.99 a year and adds extra prompts, timer lengths and shop items.

Yes. The tasks and the game cost nothing. The optional subscription costs US$4.99 a month or US$47.99 a year, as of October 2026, and buys a monthly gear set, Mystic Hourglasses and the right to buy Gems with Gold.

What happens if you miss a day in Habitica?

Each Daily you didn't tick costs health points. If your health hits zero, you lose a level, that level's stat point, all of your Gold and a piece of equipment. Pause Damage in Settings stops the loss while you're away.

Does Finch punish you for missing a day?

Only your streak. Finch counts a streak day when you open the app, and a missed day can be repaired with Rainbow Stones or a free Streak Repair Saver. Pause Mode freezes the streak if you know you'll be away.

Habitica vs Finch (2026): missed days, prices, the pick

The short answer

Habitica vs Finch comes down to what a missed day costs. Start with Finch if you want gentle: the core app is free on iPhone and Android, and a skipped day only breaks a streak you can repair. Pick Habitica if a penalty gets you moving, or if you want a to-do list you can open in a browser too.

Both apps pay you for the same thing, a tick next to a habit. They part ways on the days you don't tick. Finch turns your goals into energy for a small bird it calls a birb, which goes off on adventures and comes home with stories. Habitica turns them into Gold and Experience for a pixel-art hero, and turns the ones you skip into damage.

Find your row:

If you	Pick	Why
Quit apps after a bad week	Finch	A miss costs a streak
Need a penalty to start	Habitica	Missed Dailies cost health
Want mood checks and breathing	Finch	In the free app
Want dated to-dos as well	Habitica	Habits, Dailies, To Do's
Sit at a laptop all day	Habitica	It runs in a browser
Read in another language	Habitica	17 more languages

How we compared them

We read Finch's help centre, its App Store and Google Play pages, and Habitica's FAQ, features page, Group Plans page and App Store listing on 30 October 2026. Every fact here comes from those pages. We didn't test either app for weeks, so there are no star ratings or scores here, only what each company publishes about its own app. Prices are US list prices before tax, as of October 2026.

We put the same six questions to both apps:

What happens on a day you don't do it?
What's free, and what does a paid year cost?
Which devices?
How long from download to your first tick?
Can a friend, a partner or the people you live with join in on the same habits?
Change phones, and does your progress come with you?

Finch: best for gentle habits on a bad week

In Finch you add goals such as "Take a walk" or "Drink water", choose how often each one repeats, and tick them off. Each tick earns energy, and energy sends your birb on an adventure. Rainbow Stones, earned from quests, event days and milestones, buy outfits and furniture in the shops, as Finch's Energy vs. Rainbow Stones page explains.

You don't start from a blank page. Finch's New User Guide says new users begin with a few goals already set, plus breathing exercises, reflections and focus timers in the Activities menu. The Google Play listing adds quick mood checks, mood trends and quizzes.

Two small settings help on messy days. You can mark a goal done for an earlier day from the history page. And Waking Hours moves the daily reset off midnight: set a 7:00 wake-up and Finch's day turns over near 5:00, so a late night still counts as today.

The free app is the real app. Finch's Benefits of Finch Plus page says the core features are free and always will be: the birb, goals, reflections, good vibes for friends and seasonal events. Plus adds more reflection prompts and every length of timer and breathing exercise, along with a discounted shop item each day. Finch Plus pricing is US$9.99 a month or US$69.99 a year.

You'll need iOS 15.6 or later on an iPhone or iPad, or an Android phone. The Finch website links to those two stores and nothing else. The app is English only.

Pick it if a ruined streak has made you delete an app before, or you want mood checks and breathing beside your habits. Skip it if you need a to-do list with due dates, want to tick things off on a computer, or would rather read the app in a language other than English.

Habitica: best for stakes and a full to-do list

Habitica, from HabitRPG, Inc, is an open-source game built on your task list. Its FAQ splits tasks three ways. Habits are things you do any number of times, with a plus button for good ones and a minus for the ones you're cutting back. Dailies repeat on a schedule, such as once a day, three times a week or four times a month. To Do's are one-offs, and they can carry a due date.

Ticks pay. You earn Gold and Experience, and Gold buys gear from a shop of swords and armour with hundreds of pieces in it, so there's always something to save for. At level 10 you choose a class or opt out. Each class has its own skills, and a Rogue can cast Stealth to dodge the damage from missed Dailies, which is the closest Habitica comes to a get-out-of-jail card.

The App Store listing adds reminders and widgets, and your list syncs across devices. Habitica runs in a browser at habitica.com and on iPhone, iPad and Android, in English and 17 more languages, from Bulgarian to Ukrainian.

Habitica's FAQ is plain about one gap: there's no chart of how you've done over time. On the website you can export your task data from the Site Data tab in Settings, and you build your own chart from there.

You pay nothing for any of that. The optional subscription costs US$4.99 a month, US$14.99 for three months, US$29.99 for six or US$47.99 a year. Subscribers get a gear set every month, Mystic Hourglasses to spend on older sets, and the right to buy Gems with Gold.

Pick it if the thought of losing Gold gets you out of bed, you like a deep game, or you want habits and dated to-dos in one list. Skip it if a red list after a bad week makes you avoid the app, or you want a mood check and a breathing exercise beside your habits.

What a missed day costs

In Habitica, each Daily you don't tick by the end of your day costs health points, and so does each tap on a negative Habit, while an overdue To Do costs you nothing at all. When your health hits zero, the FAQ says you lose one level, that level's stat point, all of your Gold and a piece of equipment, which you can buy back. A Health Potion restores 15 HP for 25 Gold, and every level up refills you to full.

There are brakes. Pause Damage in Settings stops the loss for missed Dailies while you're on holiday or ill, and a Daily set to repeat every 0 days rests until you change it back. The catch comes on a quest, where Pause Damage still lets your Party's missed Dailies hurt you.

In Finch, the streak counts each day you open the app, and opening it is enough. Miss a day and you can repair the streak with Rainbow Stones. Every three adventures earns a free Streak Repair Saver, and you can hold two at once. Pause Mode freezes the streak for the number of days you choose and hides your goals, while the First Aid Kit stays open.

Here's the cost of one bad day in each:

	Finch	Habitica
What counts	Opening the app	Each Daily ticked
A missed day	Streak breaks	Health points lost
At worst	Streak back to zero	A level, Gold, gear
The fix	Stones or a free repair	A potion, a level up
Time off	Pause Mode	Pause Damage

So think back to the last time you fell behind on something you'd promised yourself. If a deadline got you moving, Habitica's damage will too. If you avoided the thing until it went away, a health bar sliding toward zero is one more thing to avoid, and Finch is the safer start.

Side by side

	Finch	Habitica
Free plan	Core app, free	Full game, free
Paid, monthly	US$9.99	US$4.99
Paid, yearly	US$69.99	US$47.99
Tasks	Goals, daily or weekly	Habits, Dailies, To Do's
Extras	Mood checks, breathing	Quests, classes, gear
Devices	iPhone, iPad, Android	Web, iPhone, iPad, Android
Languages	English	English and 17 more
Friends	Goal Buddies, good vibes	Parties, Challenges

Finch wins the low-energy week, and it heads our best self care apps for that reason: it asks less of you and takes less away. Habitica gives you more structure, works on a computer, and costs US$22 a year less than Finch Plus.

What a year costs

Both are free to start, and both free plans do the main job:

Plan	A year	What it adds
Finch, free	US$0	Birb, goals, reflections
Finch Plus, yearly	US$69.99	More prompts and timers
Finch Plus, monthly	US$119.88	The same, at US$9.99
Habitica, free	US$0	The whole game
Habitica, yearly	US$47.99	Monthly gear, Gems
Habitica, monthly	US$59.88	The same, at US$4.99

Finch lets you try Plus in two ways, and they work differently. After three days in the app you get a Finch Plus preview that ends on its own and never charges you. The 7-day free trial in Finch's FAQs turns into a paid plan unless you cancel it. The same FAQs say there's no family plan, and that a monthly Guardian raffle gives away free Plus to people who can't afford it.

Read the checkout screen before you tap. Finch's App Store listing shows Finch Plus at several prices between US$5.99 and US$69.99, and Habitica notes there that prices vary by location.

Sharing chores at home? Habitica's Group Plans cost US$9 a month plus US$3 for each additional member, billed monthly. That buys a shared task board and a group chat, and every member gets the subscriber perks. Missed shared Dailies don't damage anyone; they only change colour on the board.

Friends and accountability

Habitica is built for groups. A Party holds up to 30 people, and during a boss quest a Daily one of you skips damages everyone, so your friends notice. Challenges drop a shared task list into yours and award Gems to the winner, and Guilds gather players around an interest.

Finch keeps it smaller and kinder. From the Friends tab you send good vibes. Goal Buddies puts you and a friend on the same daily goal, and you both get reminders and encouragement. Accountability Buddies shares one of your goals so a friend can follow it and cheer from the sidelines.

For more pressure than a quest boss, put money or a real person on the line.

Your phone, your progress

Habitica syncs your account across the website and both apps, so a lost phone costs you nothing but the phone. Finch's FAQs say its data stays on the phone unless you have an account. You create one by verifying your phone number, and from then on a backup runs once every 24 hours while you use the app. Do that on day one, before your birb has a wardrobe worth losing.

Setup takes longer in Habitica. Finch hands you starter goals and sends your birb on its first adventure within minutes. Habitica asks you to build a hero, then write your own Habits, Dailies and To Do's. Start it with two or three Dailies. Every extra Daily is one more way to lose health on a busy day.

Which one fits you

You've quit habit apps after a bad week: Finch. The worst a missed day takes is a streak, and you can repair it.
A real penalty gets you moving: Habitica. Losing health and Gold is a cost you'll feel the next morning.
You want dated to-dos in the same place as your habits: Habitica, with To Do's next to Habits and Dailies.
You spend the day at a computer: Habitica, which runs in a browser.
You'd like to check your mood or breathe for a minute beside your habits: Finch.
You read most comfortably in a language other than English: Habitica.
You want a household chore board: Habitica's Group Plan. For one shared habit with a friend, Finch's Goal Buddies.

Whichever you pick, start small and tie each new habit to something you already do. Habit stacking shows how to hook a new habit onto an old one, and how to build a habit covers the first few weeks.

Rather have a nudge than a health bar? ActivityTracker's Health foundations routine pack puts In bed by 11 on your list for 10:45 each night, and if the time comes and it isn't done, the assistant nudges you.

See how routines nudge you

Try both for a week

Reviews tell you how other people feel. A week tells you how you feel, and it costs nothing:

Pick three habits for this week, such as a walk, a glass of water at breakfast and reading before bed.
Add them to both apps on Monday: as Dailies in Habitica and as daily goals in Finch.
Tick them off in both, every day.
Leave one day blank on purpose, midweek.
Next morning, open both and notice which one you wanted to open.
On Sunday, keep the app you opened without a reminder, and delete the other.

Made-up example: On Monday, Jo puts a 20-minute walk, water before lectures and reading before bed into both apps.

Three days in, her birb has been on three adventures, which earns her a free Streak Repair Saver, and Habitica has paid her enough Gold for a sword.

Friday runs late with a lab report, and she doesn't open either app. On Saturday morning Habitica greets her with three missed Dailies and a shorter health bar, and she spends 25 Gold on a potion. Finch shows a broken streak, and she fixes it with the saver.

By Sunday she has opened Finch every morning without thinking, and Habitica mostly when she felt guilty. She keeps Finch and pays US$0. If exam season needs a sharper push, she knows where Habitica is.