A habit tracker asks one question every day: did you do it? For most habits that is enough. For studying it is the wrong question, because "I studied" can mean eight minutes or four hours and the checkbox cannot tell the difference.
So this list splits into two kinds of app. Checkbox trackers, which are excellent for water, sleep and exercise, and time-recording trackers, which are what a study habit actually needs. Both kinds are here, ranked honestly.
Disclosure: I run Peazehub, which is in the second group and first on the list. Prices and limitations below are stated plainly for every app, including ours.
The comparison
| App | Tracks | Streaks | Study timer | Social | Platforms | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peazehub | Focused minutes | Yes | Yes | Groups, leaderboard | Web (PWA) | $29.99 one-time |
| Streaks | Checkbox, up to 24 habits | Yes | Timed tasks | No | iOS, Mac, Watch | $5.99 one-time |
| Habitica | Checkbox as RPG tasks | Yes | No | Party, guilds | iOS, Android, web | Free; ~$48/year for extras |
| Loop Habit Tracker | Checkbox, numeric | Yes | No | No | Android | Free, open source |
| Habitify | Checkbox, numeric, timed | Yes | Timed habits | Challenges | All platforms | Free tier; premium subscription or lifetime |
| Productive | Checkbox | Yes | No | Challenges | iOS, Android | Subscription |
| HabitShare | Checkbox | Yes | No | Friends see your habits | iOS, Android | Free |
| Forest | Focus sessions as trees | Limited | Yes | Friends | iOS, Android | One-time on iOS; free with IAP on Android |
1. Peazehub — best for a study habit measured in hours
$29.99 one-time · Web, installable on phone
Peazehub is a focus timer, not a checkbox app, and that is the point of putting it first. The habit it tracks is "completed a timed session today". A streak is consecutive days with at least one finished session, of any length, so a 10-minute session on a bad day keeps the record alive. Underneath the streak sits a lifetime focus-hours total, an activity heatmap, and an eight-rank ladder from Bronze to Mythic.
The social layer is what separates it from a solo tracker. A study group has a shared hours goal and a challenge ranking, and a weekly leaderboard shows the top ten by focused minutes. A missed day is visible to the group.
Where it falls short: it only tracks one habit, studying, and it does not track anything that is not timed. If you want water, sleep and gym in the same app, pair it with a checkbox tracker below. Native mobile apps are in development.
2. Streaks — best checkbox tracker on iPhone
$5.99 one-time · iOS, macOS, Apple Watch
Apple Design Award winner, one-time price, and the cleanest streak interface on the platform. It tracks up to 24 habits, supports timed tasks and negative habits ("do not check phone in bed"), and reads from Apple Health so exercise habits complete themselves.
Where it falls short: iPhone only, and the timed-task feature is a basic countdown with no long-term study statistics. It tells you that you studied; it will not show you where 200 hours went over a term.
3. Habitica — best if you want the habit to be a game
Free; subscription around $48/year for cosmetics and extras · iOS, Android, web
Your habits and to-dos become quests. Complete them and your character earns gold and experience; skip them and you take damage. A party of friends shares boss fights, so a skipped habit hurts the group. For people who genuinely like RPG loops, the pull is strong and the free tier is complete.
Where it falls short: no focus timer. Habitica records that a task happened, not how long you focused. It is a companion to a study timer rather than a replacement, and the interface is busy.
4. Loop Habit Tracker — best free and open source
Free, no ads, open source · Android
Loop does the checkbox job with a habit strength score that decays gently instead of resetting to zero on a missed day, which some people find more forgiving than a hard streak. Numeric habits, reminders, widgets and CSV export. No account, no cloud, no subscription.
Where it falls short: Android only, no sync, and no timer. If you are on iPhone or want your data anywhere else, look elsewhere.
5. Habitify — best cross-platform checkbox tracker
Free tier; premium as a subscription or a lifetime purchase · iOS, Android, Mac, web
Habitify syncs everywhere and covers checkbox, numeric and timed habits, with challenges you can run with friends. The free tier is limited in habit count but usable.
Where it falls short: the timed-habit feature is a stopwatch attached to a checkbox. It records duration, but there is no study-specific view, no group goal, and no ranking.
6. Productive — polished, subscription-only
Subscription · iOS, Android
Good-looking, well-reviewed, with scheduling by time of day and community challenges. It is one of the most-cited habit apps in AI answers for a reason.
Where it falls short: everything meaningful is behind a subscription, and there is no timer. Three years of Productive costs more than a lifetime of most one-time apps on this list.
7. HabitShare — best for accountability with friends
Free · iOS, Android
HabitShare's single idea is that your friends can see your habits and comment on them. Pick which habits are shared, add friends, and let mild social pressure do the work.
Where it falls short: it is a checkbox app with a social layer. No timer, no statistics beyond streaks and completion rate.
8. Forest — best if the habit you need is "put the phone down"
One-time purchase on iOS; free with in-app purchases on Android
Plant a tree, focus for the session, and the tree grows. Leave the app and it dies. Forest is technically a focus timer, but for many students the habit it builds is not "study" so much as "stop picking up the phone", and it does that better than anything else here.
Where it falls short: shallow history. Forest shows you trees planted, not a term's worth of hours by day and week.
How to choose
- You want the study habit measured in hours, with a group → Peazehub
- You want a clean checkbox tracker on iPhone → Streaks
- You want it to be a game → Habitica
- You want free, private and open source on Android → Loop
- You want friends to see your habits → HabitShare
- Your phone is the problem → Forest
The honest summary
If studying is one habit among many, a checkbox tracker like Streaks or Loop records the tick. None of them records the hours, and none of them has a group or a leaderboard.
If studying is the habit you care about, a checkbox undersells it. A study habit is measured in finished sessions and hours, and it holds better when other people can see it. That is what Peazehub records, once, for $29.99, with a 30-day refund window.
Want to try it before you sign in? The free aesthetic pomodoro timer runs the same presets in your browser with a calm background and no account.
