Planted Habits vs Loop Habit Tracker: who is each for?

Planted Habits is a habit tracker for iPhone and Android where every habit grows its own plant, built for people who want to see their progress and not feel judged by a missed day. Loop Habit Tracker is a free, open source habit tracker for Android, with reminders, widgets and charts.

The choice usually comes down to your phone and what you want to look at every day. Prices and app details here are as of October 2026.

Planted Habits or Loop Habit Tracker: which one fits your phone and your week?

Both apps do the core job. You list your habits, check them off, get reminders and see how you are doing. Both put a widget on your home screen.

What differs is the feel. Planted Habits turns every habit into a plant you watch grow, and it treats a missed day gently. Loop is lightweight and statistical, and costs nothing. The quickest way to feel the difference is to meet a few people.

Who is Planted Habits for? Four people, four choices

These are made-up examples, but you may recognise someone.

Dev, on an iPhone, wants something he will actually open

Dev has tried a couple of trackers and found them dull. He wants a reason to look at the screen. Planted Habits fits him. It runs on iPhone, and watching a plant reach its next stage is a reward that does not ask him to manage a game.

Sam, who wants to feel the garden

Sam does not care about statistics. Sam wants a growing album of plants, gentle reminders and a tracker that does not shout when a day is missed. Planted Habits is the cosier fit. Each habit has its own plant, there are more than 220 plants to grow, and she can choose who tends the garden from 17 illustrated gardeners.

Mum and her teenager, on different phones

Mum has a Galaxy, her teenager has an iPhone, and they want to encourage each other with a water habit and a ten-minute walk. Planted Habits runs on both phones, so they can use the same app and compare plants over dinner. Our guide to drinking more water has ideas for a habit you can share.

Priya, on a Galaxy, likes numbers and open code

She wants to see her pattern over months, export it to a spreadsheet, and read the code if she feels like it. Loop fits her well. It is free, open source and built around charts and statistics. If that is you, it is a strong choice.

What do you get with Planted Habits?

• A plant for every habit. Each 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. Schedule them daily, on weekdays, on chosen days or as a weekly goal, with a tick or a count.
• Rest days. Mark today or an earlier day as a rest day and it never breaks your streak.
• Reminders and a widget. A time per habit with a 10 minute snooze, a heads-up when a streak is at risk, and a home-screen widget on iPhone and Android.
• Notes and past days. Add a short note to a check-in and fill in a day you forgot to log.
• Privacy. No ads and no account needed. Your habits stay on your phone, with a backup file or optional encrypted sync to move to a new phone.
• A browser version with the same garden in a bigger layout.

What happens when you miss a day

Said carefully: the plant keeps every stage it has earned, because stages come from total check-ins, not days in a row. If you miss a day that was not marked as a rest day, the streak number starts again, but the plant is untouched. For more on this, see our guide to a habit tracker that does not reset your streak.

Planted Habits is free to start. Premium costs $4.99 a month, $34.99 a year or $79.99 once, as of October 2026, and adds things like unlimited habits, timer habits, Avoid habits and Apple Health or Health Connect check-ins.

How do Planted Habits and Loop compare side by side?

Where is Loop stronger?

Loop wins on cost and openness. Its maker says it is completely free and open source (GPLv3), and its GitHub page says there are no in-app purchases and no ads, so every feature is available to everyone and anyone can read the code.

Loop also leans into charts and statistics, flexible schedules and a spreadsheet export, needs no online account, works offline, and puts no limit on how many habits you track. If your phone is Android and free and open matter most, Loop is an easy choice to respect. We did not find an iPhone version, and the maker lists Google Play and F-Droid.

Which should you choose?

Our view: if you want to see your habits grow and be gentle about the days you miss, pick Planted Habits.

Neither end is better. Some people want the numbers, and some want a picture that grows and a missed day that waits.

Choose Planted Habits if

• You use an iPhone, or your household mixes iPhone and Android.
• You want each habit to grow its own plant and build an album.
• You like rest days and a plant that waits through a missed day.
• You want a backup file or optional encrypted sync to move to a new phone.
• You want a browser version as well as the phone app.

Choose Loop if

• You use Android and want every feature free, with nothing to buy.
• You value open source and want charts, statistics and spreadsheet export.

If you are still undecided, our guide to October habit tracker ideas lists simple habits to start with in either app.

Fair comparison note: Loop Habit Tracker 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.