A self-hosted habit tracker with native apps on every platform

One docker-compose file, and your phone, tablet and desktop all log into it

Self-hosted habit trackers are almost always web apps. You run a container, open a browser tab, and that tab is the product. That works until you want to tick a habit off on your phone in the kitchen, or on a laptop that happens to be offline.

OpenHabitTracker is a self-hosted habit tracker with native apps for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android that log into your own Docker container and sync to it. Notes and tasks live in the same app, and the whole thing also runs with no server at all if you never want one.

Self-hosting it

The image is on Docker Hub and the GitHub Container Registry, built for amd64 and arm64, so it runs on a NAS or a Raspberry Pi as well as on a server:

services:
  openhabittracker:
    image: jinjinov/openhabittracker:latest
    ports:
      - "5050:8080"
    environment:
      - AppSettings__UserName=${APPSETTINGS_USERNAME}
      - AppSettings__Email=${APPSETTINGS_EMAIL}
      - AppSettings__Password=${APPSETTINGS_PASSWORD}
      - AppSettings__JwtSecret=${APPSETTINGS_JWT_SECRET}
      - TZ=Europe/Berlin # replace with your timezone
    volumes:
      - ./.OpenHabitTracker:/app/.OpenHabitTracker

Data is a single SQLite file in the mounted volume - back it up by copying it
Log in at /login, read the logs at /watchdog
A REST API with an OpenAPI document and a Scalar UI sits at /scalar/v1, behind the same login
Set TZ to your own timezone - it decides when a day ends, which is not a detail for a habit tracker
Install the app on each device, point it at your server, log in, and it syncs

Ready-made templates exist for TrueNAS, Unraid, CapRover and Dokploy, so on those it is a couple of clicks rather than a compose file.

Compared with the other self-hosted habit trackers

The three closest projects are Beaver Habits, HabitTrove and HabitSync. Each of them does things this app does not do at all, so here is the whole picture rather than the flattering half:

	Beaver Habits	HabitTrove	HabitSync	OpenHabitTracker
Price	free	free	free	free
License	BSD-3-Clause	AGPL-3.0	BSD-3-Clause	GPL-3.0
Self-hosted with Docker	✅	✅	✅	✅
Habit tracking	✅	✅	✅	✅
Native desktop apps	❌ browser	❌ browser	❌ browser	✅ Windows, Linux, macOS
Native mobile apps	❌ PWA	❌ PWA	✅ Android	✅ Android and iOS
Usable with no server at all	❌	❌	❌	✅ local-only, no account
Notes	❌	❌	❌	✅ Markdown
Tasks with checklists	❌	❌	❌	✅
Notifications	via API integrations	❌	✅ Apprise, 80+ services	❌ overdue habits are highlighted instead
Shared habits, challenges	❌	❌	✅ friends and leaderboards	❌
Gamification	❌	✅ coins and rewards	✅ achievements	❌
Multiple users	✅	not documented	✅ with approval or SSO	❌ single user
Hosted option	✅ beaverhabits.com	❌	❌	✅ PWA, but without sync
Import and export	JSON	not documented	not documented	JSON, YAML, TSV, Markdown, Google Keep

Which one you actually want

HabitSync, if being reminded matters, or if you want to track habits together with other people. It is the only one of the four that will message you on Discord, Signal or email when something is due, and the only one with shared habits, challenges and leaderboards. Reminders are the biggest single thing OpenHabitTracker does not have.

HabitTrove, if the reward loop is what keeps you going - completions earn coins, and you spend them on a wishlist you wrote yourself.

Beaver Habits, if you want the lightest thing that tracks habits and nothing else, or if you would rather host nothing at all and use their hosted instance. Its integrations with Home Assistant, Apple Shortcuts and CalDAV are further along, too.

OpenHabitTracker, if you want real apps rather than browser tabs - Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android, all syncing to your own container - and if your habits belong next to your notes and tasks instead of in a separate tool. It is also the only one of the four that is completely usable with no server and no account, which makes it easy to try before deciding to host anything.

About streaks

Habit trackers usually run on streaks, and a broken streak is where people quit. This one measures how much of a habit's interval has elapsed instead: a habit you meant to do every 10 days that is 2 days late reads 120%, so the list sorts by how overdue things are rather than by how guilty you should feel. Streaks do exist since version 1.2.2, current and best - but they are off by default and live inside the habit detail, because someone asked for them, not because the app is built on them.