HabitBull earned its place. It's been on stores since 2016, it's crossed 300,000+ downloads, and for years it was a solid, cross-platform way to track habits with calendars, graphs and streaks. If it still does what you need, there's no shame in staying.
The reason people search for a HabitBull alternative in 2026 is hard to ignore: the app has gone quiet. Its last meaningful update landed in early 2024, and the developer's website has been returning errors. An unmaintained habit tracker isn't broken, exactly — it just stops keeping up with new phones, new OS features, and the bar other apps have moved.
One honest caveat before anything else: init.Habits is iPhone-only today. A large share of HabitBull's users are on Android, and they can't move to init.Habits yet. This comparison is for the HabitBull user on an iPhone who wants something current. If that's you, init.Habits is a terminal-style tracker with earned streak freezes (shields), GitHub-style heatmaps, and 23 editor themes — here's the honest comparison, as of July 2026.
At a glance
| init.Habits | HabitBull | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone (synced web coming) | iPhone + Android |
| Development | active, ongoing | last major update ~early 2024 |
| Free tier | 10 habits, 2 routines, full stats | 5 habits |
| Paid habit cap | unlimited on Pro | up to 100 |
| Price | €3.99/mo, €24.99/yr, €34.99 lifetime | ~$4.99/mo, $19.99/yr |
| Streak protection | earned shields + vacation + sick mode | streaks, no earned freeze |
| Heatmap | GitHub-style, per habit | calendar + graphs |
| Tracking modes | checkbox, counter, number + unit, timer, Apple Health | checkbox, counter |
| Themes | 23 editor palettes + custom editor | basic |
| Design | modern iOS-native | 2016-era |
HabitBull is the older, broader, cheaper app that isn't being updated. init.Habits is the newer, iPhone-only, actively-built one. For an iPhone user, that's most of the decision.
What they share
The basics are the same: daily habits, streaks, reminders, and a calendar view of your history. Both keep it private with no social feed. HabitBull does more of it cross-platform; init.Habits does more of it, full stop — but only on iPhone. If your needs are simple and cross-platform, HabitBull's age matters less than you'd think.
1. Modern and maintained vs a veteran gone quiet
A habit tracker is a long-term tool — you want it to still be here, and still working, in three years. HabitBull's slowdown is the practical worry: no updates since early 2024 means no new iOS features, no fixes for edge cases on current phones, and no sign of what's next.
init.Habits is in active development, iPhone-native, and built for current hardware — widgets, live activities, the latest iOS conventions. That's the core reason to move: not that HabitBull was bad, but that a maintained app is the safer place to keep years of habit history.
2. What init.Habits adds: shields, a heatmap, more modes
Beyond being current, init.Habits does more with the daily habit. HabitBull's last version tracks checkboxes and counts, with calendars and graphs. init.Habits adds:
- Earned shields. Streak freezes you earn every 7 days and spend automatically on a miss, plus vacation and sick modes. HabitBull resets a streak on a missed day, and one reset often reads as failure.
- A GitHub-style heatmap per habit — a year of squares, not just a calendar grid.
- Five tracking modes — checkbox, counter, number-with-unit, a pomodoro timer, and habits that auto-complete from Apple Health.
- Routines — grouped habits with their own schedule, which HabitBull doesn't do.
3. The look and the free tier
HabitBull looks its age — functional, but plainly a decade old. init.Habits looks like a code editor: monospace type, aligned columns, and 23 editor palettes like Dracula, Nord and Gruvbox, plus a custom theme editor. 8 are free.
The free tiers differ too: 10 habits with full stats in init.Habits, 5 in HabitBull. If you're a free user, that's twice the room.
4. The Android question
This is where HabitBull genuinely wins, and it's not close: HabitBull runs on Android, and init.Habits doesn't. If your phone is Android, or your household is split, HabitBull (or another cross-platform app) is the realistic choice right now, stale or not. init.Habits' Android and web versions are planned, not shipped. No honest comparison can wave that away.
Where HabitBull wins
The honest list:
- Android. The decisive one — init.Habits is iPhone-first.
- A 100-habit paid cap for $19.99/year. Cheap, and roomy, if you track a lot.
- Cross-platform history. Your data already spans devices.
- Familiarity. If it still works for you, "it's what I know" is a real reason.
What you give up by staying: active maintenance, earned shields, the heatmap, timers, Apple Health, routines, and editor themes.
Switching from HabitBull
HabitBull can export a CSV, but there's no importer, so recreate rather than migrate:
- Rebuild your active habits in init.Habits — the free 10 slots cover most lists.
- Backfill the last week or two from memory or your CSV; past days are editable, so your grid isn't blank.
- Keep the CSV as an archive. Your long HabitBull history stays readable even after you move.
Migration is a good moment to cut the list down to the habits that still matter, instead of importing all 40.
FAQ
Is HabitBull still being updated?
Its last major update was in early 2024, and the app has looked dormant since. It still runs, but it isn't keeping pace with new iOS features — which is why iPhone users go looking for a maintained alternative.
Can I switch from HabitBull to init.Habits on Android?
Not yet. init.Habits is iPhone-only today, with Android and a web app planned. If you're on Android, you'll need a cross-platform tracker for now.
Does init.Habits import HabitBull data?
No direct importer. HabitBull exports a CSV you can keep as an archive; in init.Habits you recreate your habits (quick) and backfill recent days manually so streaks don't start at zero.
Is init.Habits' free tier bigger than HabitBull's?
Yes — 10 habits with full stats, the heatmap and shields, versus HabitBull's 5. HabitBull's advantage is on the paid side, where it allows up to 100 habits for $19.99/year.