If you’ve gone looking for a habit tracker that respects your privacy, three names keep coming up: Loop, Streaks, and Offline Habit. They share a philosophy — your data should stay yours — but they make very different trade-offs on platform, sync, and price. Here’s an honest look at how they compare, including where each one wins and where it falls short.
The short version
| Loop Habit Tracker | Streaks | Offline Habit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Android only | iOS only | iOS + Android |
| Price | Free (donation) | ~$5 one-time | Free; $2.99/mo optional |
| Account required | No | No | No |
| Works fully offline | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cross-device sync | No | No | Optional, end-to-end encrypted |
| Open source | Yes (GPL) | No | No |
| Export | Yes | Limited | CSV + JSON |
| Streak style | Habit score | Streak | Shame-free streak |
All three are genuinely private and genuinely offline. The decision usually comes down to which phone you carry and whether you need your habits on more than one device.
Loop Habit Tracker — the open-source benchmark
Loop (technically “uHabits”) is the privacy community’s darling, and deservedly so. It’s open source, completely free, fully offline, and famous for a single promise: your data never leaves your phone. There’s no account, no cloud, no ads. It also has a clever habit-score system that softens the all-or-nothing feel of a hard streak reset.
Where it wins: transparency (you can read the code), zero cost, a thoughtful scoring model, and a large, trusting user base.
Where it falls short: it’s Android only — there’s no official iOS version — and because everything is pure-local, there’s no built-in way to sync or back up to another device. Lose or wipe your phone and the history goes with it. The marketing and onboarding are also fairly utilitarian.
If you’re on Android, never switch devices, and want open-source purity, Loop is hard to beat.
Streaks — the polished iOS one-timer
Streaks is the opposite end of the spectrum: a beautifully designed, iOS-only app you buy once (around $5) with no subscription. It stores data locally, integrates nicely with Apple Health, and feels premium.
Where it wins: design polish, a one-time price with no recurring fee, and tight Apple-ecosystem integration.
Where it falls short: iOS only (no Android), and its syncing is limited to Apple’s own ecosystem — there’s no private, cross-platform option, and if you ever move to Android your history doesn’t come with you. It’s also a paid-up-front app, which some people prefer and others don’t.
If you’re all-in on Apple and want a polished one-time purchase, Streaks is a great pick.
Offline Habit — cross-platform, with optional encrypted sync
Offline Habit sits in the gap the other two leave open. It’s on both iOS and Android, it’s free with unlimited habits and no account, and it’s offline-first like the others. The difference is what happens when you do want a backup or a second device: it offers optional, end-to-end encrypted sync for $2.99/month. Your data is encrypted on the phone before it leaves, with a key only your own devices hold — so you get a backup and cross-device history without handing anyone your habits in plaintext. It also keeps streaks deliberately shame-free: a missed day resets the number quietly, with no guilt notifications.
Where it wins: the only one of the three that’s cross-platform and offers private cross-device sync; free core; shame-free design; exports to both CSV and JSON.
Where it falls short: it’s not open source like Loop, and the encrypted sync is a paid extra (the core app is free and complete without it). It’s also the newest of the three — launching soon on both stores.
If you want one habit tracker that works whether you’re on iPhone or Android, and you’d like the option of a private backup, that’s exactly the niche Offline Habit was built for.
How to choose
- Android, free, open-source, single device → Loop.
- iPhone, polished, one-time purchase, single device → Streaks.
- Both platforms, free, optional private sync / backup → Offline Habit.
There’s no universally “best” private habit tracker — only the best one for your phone and your need for a backup. The good news is that all three start from the same respectable place: your habits are yours, and they work offline.
Frequently asked questions
Is Loop Habit Tracker available on iPhone? No. Loop (uHabits) is Android-only and open source; there’s no official iOS version. If you’re on iPhone and want a similarly private tracker, Streaks (iOS-only) or Offline Habit (iOS + Android) are the closest equivalents.
What’s the most private habit tracker that syncs across devices? Most pure-privacy apps (like Loop) achieve privacy by not syncing at all. The exception is end-to-end encrypted sync, where your data is encrypted on your device before upload and only your devices can read it. Offline Habit offers this as an optional feature, which makes it well suited to people who want both privacy and a cross-device backup.
Do any of these habit trackers need an account? No — Loop, Streaks, and Offline Habit all let you start tracking with no account. Offline Habit only involves an account if you choose to turn on its optional encrypted sync, and even then your habit data stays encrypted with a key only your devices hold.
Which habit tracker works on both iPhone and Android? Of these three, only Offline Habit is cross-platform (iOS and Android). Loop is Android-only and Streaks is iOS-only, so if you switch phones or use both, a cross-platform app keeps your habits and history in one place.