Shopping for a (Not Boring) Habits alternative means first admitting the obvious: (Not Boring) Habits is a joy to use, and any honest comparison has to open there. It won an Apple Design Award for a reason: the checkmark isn't a tap but a deliberate press-and-hold that sets off a small explosion of 3D animation, custom sound and haptics, so finishing a habit feels less like ticking a box and more like landing on the moon. It reframes itself as a habit builder — a guided, guilt-free climb toward making one habit stick, with no streaks to break and, in 2026, on-device AI that writes you a custom quest. If that delight is what gets you to show up, keep it.
People look for a (Not Boring) Habits alternative when they hit its edges, and they're specific edges. It's built to walk you through one habit at a time, so tracking a dozen at once fights the design. There's no cross-device sync — your data lives on a single device. The free tier is down to about one habit. And it's iOS-only, with the focus timer living in a separate Not Boring app rather than inside Habits.
init.Habits is a terminal-style habit tracker for iPhone that goes the other way: a multi-habit GitHub-style grid, earned streak freezes (shields), five tracking modes including a pomodoro timer and Apple Health sync, cross-device sync, and 23 editor themes. It trades animated delight for calm and data. Here's the honest comparison, as of July 2026, including where (Not Boring) Habits is simply the nicer thing to use.
At a glance
| init.Habits | (Not Boring) Habits | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | a multi-habit tracker | a guided single-habit builder |
| Design | monospace terminal, 23 themes | Apple Design Award delight — 3D, sound, haptics |
| Tracking model | streaks + a heatmap across many habits | an 8-level journey toward ~60 reps, no streaks |
| Free tier | 10 habits, full stats | around 1 habit |
| Cross-device sync | yes — anonymous or Sign in with Apple | no — data stays on one device |
| Platforms | iPhone (web coming, synced) | iPhone + iPad (no Mac, Watch, Android, web) |
| Focus timer | yes — pomodoro with live activity | a separate Not Boring app |
| Streak protection | earned shields + vacation + sick mode | no streaks to protect (by design) |
| Privacy | on-device, optional sync | no data collection, fully on-device |
| Price | Pro €24.99/yr, €34.99 lifetime | ~$14.99/yr, $59.99 lifetime, or a bundle |
Both apps are unusually thoughtful about design — they just point in opposite directions. (Not Boring) Habits wants using it to feel like a treat. init.Habits wants it to feel like a well-made tool that disappears. The right one depends on whether you want to be delighted or left alone with your data.
Delight versus calm
This is the real fork, so start here. (Not Boring) Habits is maximalist on purpose — its maker has said he wants "richness and texture and fun, not a white-walled museum." Every interaction is authored to feel good: the mountain you climb is rendered in 3D, the sounds are custom, the whole thing is a small daily celebration.
init.Habits is the white-walled museum, and proud of it. A monospace terminal, aligned columns, [✓] checkboxes, and 23 editor palettes recreated from real code editors — Dracula, Nord, Tokyo Night, Gruvbox. The reward isn't an animation; it's a clean grid filling in and a streak holding. Neither is better. If you've ever picked a code-editor theme with real care, you already know which of these two you'd rather look at.
One habit at a time, or many at once
(Not Boring) Habits is built around a single guided journey — an eight-level climb toward roughly 60 repetitions — close to the ~66-day median that habit-formation research points to — the point where a habit starts to feel automatic. It's a genuinely good model for installing one habit, and the narrative makes the slow part feel meaningful. Where it strains is breadth: when you're already maintaining a morning routine, a workout, water, reading and a focus block, a one-journey-at-a-time app makes you swipe through five separate climbs, and reviewers note the navigation gets awkward.
init.Habits assumes you're tracking several habits and shows them together — a list you tick in seconds, each with its own heatmap and streak, plus routines that bundle habits like "morning" into one unit. If your real goal is one habit, that's arguably more app than you need. If it's the usual tangle of six, the grid is the point.
Streaks, and the choice not to have them
(Not Boring) Habits deliberately has no streaks. The philosophy is kind: a habit takes ~60 reps, missing a day doesn't matter, and your progress is saved like a video game so you resume where you left off. For people who bounce off streak apps entirely, that's the right call, and it's a real reason to prefer it.
init.Habits keeps streaks, because for a lot of people that chain is the motivation — but it removes the cruelty. Every week of showing up earns a shield; a missed day spends one automatically instead of resetting the count, and vacation or sick mode covers longer breaks. So it's the middle path between "streaks that punish you" and "no streaks at all": the streak stays, the all-or-nothing goes. Which you want comes down to whether a streak motivates you or stresses you.
Sync and platform
Here init.Habits has a clear, practical edge. (Not Boring) Habits keeps your data on a single device with no account and no cross-device sync — lovely for privacy, frustrating the moment you pick up your iPad and your history isn't there. It's also iOS-family only: no Mac, Watch, Android or web.
init.Habits works fully offline with no account too, but you can turn on cloud sync (Pro): anonymous by default, Sign in with Apple if you want a cross-device identity, iCloud backup, and a synced web app on the way. Everyone, free or Pro, can export their whole dataset as JSON. You keep the privacy option and get sync when you want it.
Where (Not Boring) Habits wins
An honest list, because it's a special app:
- Best-in-class delight and craft. Apple Design Award-winning animation, sound and haptics. Few habit apps are as purely enjoyable to touch.
- Guilt-free psychology. No streaks to break; miss days freely and pick up where you left off. Kinder for people who spiral after one slip.
- Total, absolute privacy. No account, no data collection, everything on-device — including the AI that writes custom quests. init.Habits is privacy-respecting, but on-device-only is a stronger guarantee.
- A guided journey for one habit. The narrative eight-level climb makes installing a single habit feel like an adventure rather than a chore.
- Focused simplicity. No modes, no dashboards — just the one beautiful thing.
What you give up for those wins: multi-habit breadth, a central heatmap and real stats, a built-in focus timer, earned streak protection, Apple Health, and cross-device sync.
Switching from (Not Boring) Habits
There's no import — the two apps model habits very differently. The move is quick anyway:
- Recreate your habits in init.Habits (the free tier's 10 slots are plenty, and you're no longer limited to one at a time).
- Backfill the last week or two from memory; any past day is editable, so the grid doesn't start blank.
- Keep (Not Boring) Habits around if you love it for one flagship habit — nothing says you can't run the delightful climb for your hardest habit and the grid for everything else.
If part of what you loved was a quiet, uncluttered surface, what makes a tracker genuinely minimal is the same instinct init.Habits is built on — it just expresses it as a terminal instead of a celebration.
FAQ
Is init.Habits a good (Not Boring) Habits alternative?
It's a good alternative if you've outgrown tracking one habit at a time or you need your data on more than one device. init.Habits gives you a multi-habit grid, streaks with earned protection, a focus timer, Apple Health and cross-device sync in a calm terminal interface. What it can't match is the sheer animated delight of (Not Boring) Habits — if that joy is why you open the app, you'll miss it.
Does init.Habits have animations and design like (Not Boring) Habits?
No, and deliberately so. (Not Boring) Habits is built around celebratory 3D animation, sound and haptics; init.Habits is a quiet, monospace terminal with 23 editor themes. It's design-forward in the opposite direction — calm and readable rather than playful. If you want the app to feel like a treat, (Not Boring) Habits wins; if you want it to get out of your way, init.Habits does.
Does (Not Boring) Habits sync across devices?
No — your data stays on a single device, with no account, which is great for privacy but means your history doesn't follow you to another device. init.Habits works offline too but adds optional cloud sync (anonymous or Sign in with Apple), iCloud backup and a coming web app, and lets anyone export their data as JSON.
Which is cheaper?
Both are freemium, and both keep a lifetime option. (Not Boring) Habits is roughly $14.99/year for Habits alone, $59.99 lifetime, or a bundle that includes its other apps; the free tier is about one habit. init.Habits is free for 10 habits with full stats, and Pro is €3.99/month, €24.99/year or €34.99 lifetime. Prices are current as of July 2026.