Planted Habits vs Finch: a garden or a pet? Take the quiz

Planted Habits is a habit tracker where every habit grows its own plant, built for people who want to tick off their habits, watch them grow and put the phone down. Finch is a self-care app where a virtual pet grows as you look after yourself, with mood check-ins, journalling and breathing exercises.

They are different kinds of app, so the useful question is which one fits your evening. Prices and app details here are as of October 2026.

Finch or Planted Habits: do you want a companion or a garden of habits?

Picture 9 p.m. on the sofa. The day is done, the lamp is on, and your phone is in your hand.

One version of you wants to tick off three habits, watch three plants grow a bit, and put the phone down. Another wants to say how the day felt and spend a minute with a friendly pet. Both are fair evenings.

Which one is you tonight? Take the quiz.

Which one are you? A five-question quiz

Answer with your gut. Count your A’s and your B’s.

1. When you open a habit app at night, you hope to find...

• A. A short list you can tick through in a minute.
• B. A friendly face that asks how your day went.

2. Your ideal check-in takes...

• A. About ten seconds a habit.
• B. A few minutes, and you do not mind if it wanders into a thought or two.

3. When you picture progress, you see...

• A. A row of plants, each at its own stage.
• B. A pet or character that changes with you.

4. Writing down how you feel is...

• A. Not what you want from a habit app.
• B. Something you would happily do daily.

5. You already know your habits, and you want...

• A. Schedules, reminders and a widget for the habits you already have.
• B. Room to add moods, gratitude and sleep routines too.

What your answers say

Mostly A: Planted Habits is probably your match. You want a focused habit tracker with a garden to look at and nothing else to manage.

Mostly B: Finch is probably your match. You want a companion and a wider self-care routine, and it was made for that.

An even split: Try both for a week. They do different jobs, so they do not get in each other’s way.

This quiz is just for fun. It is not a test of anything medical, and neither app is a treatment.

What do you get with Planted Habits?

If you scored mostly A, here is what is waiting for you.

• One plant for every habit. Check in and it grows through 8 stages, with new ones at 1, 3, 7, 10, 14, 21 and 28 check-ins. At full bloom you pick a mystery seed to begin again, and the finished plant moves into your album.
• Habits shaped to your week. Pick from 350+ ready-made habits in 20 categories, or write your own. Choose daily, weekdays, chosen days or a weekly goal, and use a tick or a count, like eight glasses of water.
• A missed day that waits. Your plant keeps every stage it has earned, because stages come from total check-ins, not days in a row. Rest days never break a streak. If you miss a day that was not marked as rest, the streak number restarts, but the plant is still there.
• Reminders and a widget. A time per habit with a 10 minute snooze, a kind note after a few quiet days, and a home-screen widget on iPhone and Android.
• Privacy. No ads and no account needed. Your habits stay on your phone, with a backup file or optional encrypted sync.
• A browser version with the same garden in a bigger layout.

Premium adds things like timer habits, Avoid habits and steps from Apple Health or Health Connect, for $4.99 a month, $34.99 a year or $79.99 once, as of October 2026. If you would like ideas for where to start, try our guides on a simple morning routine or small habit ideas for a calmer life.

How do Planted Habits and Finch compare side by side?

Where is Finch stronger?

Finch is made for a wider self-care routine. According to its App Store listing, you can start the morning with quick mood checks and end the day with moments of gratitude, and there are guided bullet journaling prompts, guided breathing, quick quizzes, mood tracking, sleep routines and insights. The idea, as its website puts it, is to take care of a virtual pet by taking care of yourself. If you want a companion character and one app for how you feel as well as what you do, that is Finch’s strength, and Planted Habits does none of those things.

Which should you choose?

Our view: if your goal is to keep habits going, and you would rather look at a garden than answer prompts, pick Planted Habits.

Neither end is better. It depends on whether you want a quiet list to tick or a companion for the whole day.

Choose Planted Habits if

• You only want habits, with no mood or journalling prompts.
• You like a separate plant for each habit and an album of the ones you have grown.
• You want schedules, counts, a home-screen widget and kind reminders.
• You want rest days that keep your streak in one piece.
• You want no ads and no account, with your habits kept on your phone.
• You want a browser version as well as the phone app.

Choose Finch if

• You want a virtual pet that you look after by looking after yourself.
• You want mood check-ins, gratitude, journalling and breathing in one app.

Fair comparison note: Finch is a product name or trademark of its owner. JPott Studios is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by it. What we say here comes from its own pages and public store listings, read in October 2026, and may have changed since, so please check the source before you decide. Lines marked “our view” are our opinion.