What makes a good goal tracking app

Most apps here track activity and call it progress. Three things separate the ones that track a real outcome, and the apps split differently on each one.

A goal you can measure. A real goal has a number you start from, a number you want, and a date to reach it by. Without that you can prove you showed up but never that you got closer, and progress collapses into activity. Griply, GoalsOnTrack and ClickUp store a start value, a target and a deadline; Strides stores a target and a date. The other seven store nothing you can measure against.

Habits and tasks that connect to the goal. A number nobody feeds sits still. What matters is whether your daily habits and tasks attach to the goal, so finishing the work moves the number. Griply is the only app that links both habits and tasks to the goal. GoalsOnTrack links tasks but not habits, and ClickUp feeds the goal from tasks and lists. Strides holds the goal but has nothing to attach, and TickTick and Todoist track the work with no goal for it to feed.

Visual progress you can watch move. A number you cannot see moving is a number you stop feeding. This is where visual progress tracking pays off: a chart of your logged value climbing toward the target is motivating in a way a checkbox never is. Griply charts what you log against a line running to your deadline. Strides does the same and adds a pace line showing the rate you need per day after a missed week, which Griply does not. GoalsOnTrack shows a percentage; everything else counts days, check marks or points.

How we tested and chose these apps

We started from the six most-cited "best goal tracking apps" roundups of 2026 and kept every app named by more than one of them. Then we downloaded and used all eleven ourselves. In each one we set up a real goal with a number and a deadline, added the habits and tasks meant to move it, and logged progress over several days to see how it held up: whether the goal carried a target and a date, whether the daily work connected to it, and how the app showed progress. We checked every price, platform and rating against each vendor's own page and the US App Store on 11 August 2026, and where an app cannot do something, we say so rather than guessing.

We kept the seven apps with nothing measurable instead of dropping them quietly, so the page can show which apps track an outcome and which track activity. Two apps named often enough to qualify were cut anyway: Trello, because its goal tracking is a board you build yourself and Notion already covers that job better, and Weekdone, because it is team OKR software with no personal plan.

The best goal tracking apps in 2026

Griply

Best for: People who want to work from goals they can measure and be sure their daily work is moving them.

Griply is a goal-first planner for personal goals. A goal holds where you are starting, where you want to get to, and the date you want to be there, and your tasks and habits sit under it inside a life area with a written vision.

Strengths:

• Griply goals hold a starting point, a target and a deadline

• Tasks and habits in Griply sit under a goal, inside a life area

• Griply lets you move, drop or add a single repetition of a habit

• Finishing a linked task can move a Griply goal on its own

Limitations:

• Griply's free plan stops at 2 goals and 2 habits

• Griply has no public Android app yet, only a closed beta

• Subgoals, the goal roadmap and Insights are Griply premium features

• Deleting a Griply goal is permanent, with no way to get it back

Pricing: Free (2 goals, 2 habits); Premium $4.99/month or $29.99/year; Lifetime $119.99 one-time
Platforms: iOS, Web, Mac, Windows
Rating: 4.6 on the App Store (US storefront, 192 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: Griply is for people who want a goal they can measure and want their daily work attached to it, with a life area and a written vision above. If you need Android today, or a free plan you can stay on long-term, this is not it yet.

See the goal planner and habit tracker.

GoalsOnTrack

Best for: People who want a goal workspace on the web and will pay for it before trying it.

GoalsOnTrack is one of the few products here built for goals rather than tasks. You fill in a goal using the SMART framework, break it into as many as five levels of subgoals, and attach tasks and supporting habits, and the software rolls progress up every level.

Strengths:

• GoalsOnTrack goals hold a starting value, a target and dates

• GoalsOnTrack nests subgoals five levels deep and rolls progress up

• GoalsOnTrack lets each goal pick how its percentage is worked out

• GoalsOnTrack sorts goals into categories you define yourself

Limitations:

• GoalsOnTrack keeps habits separate: doing one never moves the goal

• GoalsOnTrack's iOS app was last updated in April 2022

• GoalsOnTrack has no free tier and takes payment at signup

• GoalsOnTrack claims Android support, but we found no listing

Pricing: No free tier; $68/year on the web, or $9.99/month or $67.99/year through the iOS app; Teams from $40/month
Platforms: Web, iOS
Rating: 2.1 on the App Store (US storefront, 7 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: GoalsOnTrack has the most complete goal structure here after Griply, with real starting and target values and five levels of subgoals. Choose it only if you work on the web and can live with a mobile app that has not been updated since April 2022.

ClickUp

Best for: People who want to track personal goals inside the software they already use for work.

ClickUp is a work platform that replaces a stack of tools, and goals are one feature inside it. A goal holds one or more targets, each with a value to start from, a value to reach and a unit, and you can point tasks and entire lists at a target so finishing the work moves the number.

Strengths:

• A ClickUp target holds where you start, where you finish and the unit

• Tasks, subtasks and whole lists can feed a ClickUp target automatically

• A task linked to a ClickUp goal shows a badge naming that goal

• ClickUp goals are usable on the free plan, capped at 100

Limitations:

• ClickUp has no habits: no repeats, no streaks, no daily check-ins

• Grouping ClickUp goals into folders needs the Business plan

• ClickUp charges per seat, so one person pays a team price

• ClickUp does not publish how it combines several targets into one percentage

Pricing: Free Forever; Unlimited $10/user/month or $7/user/month billed yearly; Business $19/user/month or $12/user/month billed yearly
Platforms: Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Apple Watch
Rating: 4.7 on the App Store (US storefront, 9,364 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: If your work already lives in ClickUp, its goals hold real numbers and your tasks feed them, so there is little reason to add a second app. Look elsewhere if you want habits, or if paying a per-seat price to track your own goals sits badly.

Strides

Best for: Apple users tracking numbers they log themselves, who want to know the pace they need.

Strides is a tracking dashboard for Apple devices with four different tracker types rather than one. Its Target tracker holds a value to reach and a date to reach it by, and a colour-coded pace line tells you the rate you need per day rather than breaking a streak when you miss.

Strengths:

• Strides Target trackers hold a value to reach and a date

• Strides recalculates the rate you need after a missed period

• Strides has four tracker types rather than one binary format

• Strides ships on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch and Vision

Limitations:

• Strides has no task or habit object, so nothing can feed a goal

• Strides has no way to group trackers, only tags for filtering

• Strides is Apple only, with no Android and no web

• The free tier stops at three trackers

Pricing: Free (3 trackers); Strides Plus $4.99/month or $39.99/year; Lifetime $79.99 one-time
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch
Rating: 4.8 on the App Store (US storefront, 19,106 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: Strides is the best app here for numbers you log yourself, and its pace line is the most useful answer to a missed week anywhere on this list. Skip it if you want tasks or habits feeding the goal, because there is nothing to attach them to.

TickTick

Best for: People who want tasks and habits in one app with a calendar that is actually built in.

TickTick is a task manager with a habit module attached. Its calendar is native rather than a sync from elsewhere, its task structure runs five levels deep, and habits live in a separate module you switch on.

Strengths:

• TickTick's calendar is built in rather than synced from elsewhere

• TickTick nests subtasks five levels deep, each a full task

• TickTick has a Pomodoro timer with focus statistics

• TickTick runs on more platforms than anything else here except Todoist

Limitations:

• TickTick has no goal: a habit holds a daily amount and no total

• Nothing in TickTick links a task to a habit or an outcome

• TickTick habits cannot be dragged, so a repetition cannot be moved

• TickTick's $35.99 yearly price is a limited-time offer against a $49.99 list price

Pricing: Free; Premium $49.99/year list price, currently offered at $35.99/year, or $3.99/month through the app
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, Apple Watch
Rating: 4.9 on the App Store (US storefront, 45,000 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: TickTick is an excellent task manager with the best built-in calendar here, and its habit module is a real feature rather than a token one. It is the wrong pick if you want an outcome to track, because nothing in it rolls up to one.

Todoist

Best for: People whose real problem is that tasks never get written down at all.

Todoist is a task manager built around capture speed. Its natural-language input reads a date out of a sentence as you type it, it separates the day you plan to work on something from the day it is due, and it runs on more platforms than anything else on this list.

Strengths:

• Todoist reads a date out of a sentence as you type it

• Todoist separates the day you work on a task from its deadline

• Todoist runs on more platforms than anything else here, from Linux to Wear OS

• Todoist nests projects, sections and subtasks several levels deep

Limitations:

• Todoist withdrew its goals feature in July 2026, deleting users' goals

• Todoist has no start dates, so there is no baseline to measure from

• Todoist's Karma counts tasks finished rather than progress made

• Todoist's free plan stops at five projects and one week of history

Pricing: Free (5 personal projects); Pro $7/month or $60/year; Business $10/user/month or $96/user/year
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, Apple Watch, Wear OS
Rating: 4.8 on the App Store (US storefront, 128,000 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: Todoist is the fastest way to get a thought out of your head and onto a list, across more devices than anything else here. It is not a goal tracker, it withdrew the feature that briefly made it one, and it makes no claim otherwise.

Notion

Best for: People who want to design their own system exactly and will keep it running.

Notion is a page editor with databases underneath. For goal tracking that means you can model goals, subgoals, habits and reviews however you like, with one set of data feeding many views, and a large template library so you rarely start from a blank page.

Strengths:

• Notion's databases, relations and rollups are free for one person

• A Notion number can show as a bar and be divided by a target

• Notion rolls sums and averages from one database into another

• Notion has a large template library aimed at personal goals

Limitations:

• Notion has no goal: every goal is a row you design yourself

• No Notion chart can show progress toward a target value

• Notion charts cannot plot a rollup, the one field that aggregates work

• Notion rollups cannot be nested, so work cannot climb two levels

Pricing: Free for individuals; Plus $12/member/month or $120/member/year; Business $24/member/month or $240/member/year
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Windows
Rating: 4.8 on the App Store (US storefront, 89,783 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: Notion can model any goal system you can describe, and for someone who enjoys building one that is the whole appeal. Avoid it if you want to start tracking this week, because its charts cannot measure toward a target and the upkeep is yours.

Habitica

Best for: People who stop opening apps out of boredom and need the loop to be fun.

Habitica turns habits, dailies and to-dos into a retro role playing game. You earn experience, level a character, and join a party that fights bosses together, and a missed daily damages every party member.

Strengths:

• Habitica's entire task system is free, with only cosmetics paid

• A missed daily in Habitica damages every party member's avatar

• Habitica is open source, with its full server code published

• Habitica's repeat options are unusually expressive

Limitations:

• Habitica has no goal object anywhere in the product

• Habitica keeps no in-app progress chart, only a separate web tool and data export

• Losing all health in Habitica costs a level, your gold and equipment

Pricing: Free (all core features); Premium $4.99/month or $47.99/year
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
Rating: 4.2 on the App Store (US storefront, 3,090 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: Habitica is the pick when boredom is what kills your apps, and everything that matters in it is free. It has no goal object and no in-app progress chart, so pair it with something else if you need to measure an outcome.

Way of Life

Best for: People who want the simplest possible daily yes or no, where a rest day counts.

Way of Life is a habit tracker where you mark each day Yes, No or Skip, and the Skip records a deliberate rest day so it does not count against you. Each habit keeps a journal and trend charts running over weeks, months or years.

Strengths:

• Way of Life can mark a day off without it counting against you

• Way of Life keeps journal notes beside long-run trend charts

• Way of Life exports to CSV and backs up to your own cloud

• Way of Life made themes and backup free rather than gating them

Limitations:

• Way of Life has no goal and no task object at all

• Way of Life's Android app is a far older, much thinner product

• Way of Life has no iPad app, no web and no Windows

• Way of Life's developer says sync is still being rebuilt

Pricing: Free (3 items); Premium $4.99/month, or a one-time unlock at $14.99 or $29.99
Platforms: iPhone, Mac, Apple Vision, Android
Rating: 4.8 on the App Store (US storefront, 5,200 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: Way of Life does one thing, asks one question a day, and lets a rest day count as a decision rather than a failure. Choose something else if you use Android or an iPad, or if you want any of it to add up to a goal.

Streaks

Best for: Apple users who want their habits ticked off automatically from health data, for one payment.

Streaks is an Apple-only habit tracker built around an unbroken chain of daily completions. You track up to 24 tasks across four pages of six, and a health task marks itself complete once the Health app records the number you asked for.

Strengths:

• Streaks reads Apple Health and ticks a task off by itself

• Streaks costs one payment of $5.99, with nothing recurring

• One Streaks purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Watch, Mac and Vision Pro

• Streaks forgives one missed day before a chain breaks

Limitations:

• Streaks has no end date, so nothing on the list ever finishes

• A Streaks goal is a daily amount, with no running total

• Streaks stops at 24 tasks, and a full page rejects new ones

• Streaks is Apple only, and a task title stops at 18 characters

Pricing: $5.99 one-time, with no subscription and no in-app purchases
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac
Rating: 4.8 on the App Store (US storefront, 27,344 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: Streaks is the best value here at $5.99 once, and nothing else ticks habits off from your health data as widely. It is not a goal tracker, because nothing in it carries an end date and nothing ever finishes.

Coach.me

Best for: People who want a real human coach, not just another tracker.

Coach.me is a free habit tracker with a coaching marketplace attached. You track habits, set how many times a week you intend to do them, and get encouragement from a community following the same habit, and you can hire a coach through the same account.

Strengths:

• Coach.me tracks unlimited habits free on iPhone, Android and web

• Coach.me is the only app here that sells access to a human coach

• Coach.me lets you set a weekly frequency rather than forcing daily

• Coach.me shipped an update in April 2026 and lists active coaches

Limitations:

• Coach.me has no goal: a habit and a goal are one object

• Coach.me streaks only count consecutive days, ignoring weekly targets

• Coach.me cannot rename a habit or reset one, by its own documentation

• Coach.me has the weakest rating here, from the smallest sample

Pricing: Free (unlimited habit tracking); Habit Coaching $25/week or $87/month; Leadership Coaching $150/month
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
Rating: 3.5 on the App Store (US storefront, 171 ratings, August 2026)

Bottom line: Coach.me is worth it for the coach rather than the tracker, and since the tracker is free the coach is the only thing you pay for. Look elsewhere if you want a measurable goal, because a habit and a goal are one object here.

How to choose

Start with what failed last time, because that is what the next app has to survive.

• If your tasks get done but the goal never moves, pick Griply. Your tasks and habits sit under a goal you can measure, so the list you work through is the reason the number changes.

• If you keep rebuilding a goal tracker in a spreadsheet or a Notion template, pick Griply. The structure is already there, so your time goes into logging progress instead of maintaining the system.

• If you miss a day and your whole schedule stops making sense, pick Griply. You can move one repetition of a habit, drop it, or add an extra, without rewriting the schedule.

• If you track numbers and do not want a task list at all, pick Strides. It holds the goal and tells you the pace you need, and never asks you to keep a to-do list.

• If you already run your work in ClickUp, keep your goals there. The targets hold real numbers and your tasks feed them, as long as you do not need habits.

• If you need it on Android today, Griply is not an option yet. TickTick is the closest thing here with tasks and habits together, and Habitica is the pick if it has to be free.

• If what you want is a person rather than an app, pick Coach.me. Nothing here replaces a human, and Coach.me is the one that sells you an actual one.

Why most goals are abandoned by March

The usual explanation is motivation, and it is usually wrong. The goal and the work sit in different places, so nothing you do on a Tuesday ever reports back to the thing you decided in January.

Three gaps do the damage, and most apps on this page leave at least one of them open.

The goal has no number. If a goal is a sentence rather than a value with a date on it, there is nothing to be behind on. Being behind is the signal that makes people act, and a sentence cannot produce it. Seven of the eleven apps here store no goal at all, so their users never get that signal.

The work points nowhere. A task list records what you did and a habit chain records that you turned up. Neither tells you whether the number moved. TickTick and Todoist are both good at holding the work and have nothing for it to feed, which is why people who use them well still end a quarter unsure whether anything changed.

The goal answers to nothing. A goal sitting in a flat list beside nine others can be dropped without cost, because nothing above it notices. This is the gap most goal apps do not try to close at all, and it is the reason a life area with a written vision above the goal changes what happens in a bad week.

Griply closes all three, which is the argument this page makes and the reason we built it. ClickUp closes them too and asks a per-seat price for the third. GoalsOnTrack closes all three and has not updated its mobile app since 2022. Those are the real trade-offs. The other eight leave at least one gap wide open, which is fine as long as you know which one.

This page is for people who already know what they want and need an app that holds them to it. Griply is the one on this list where the habit you do today connects to the goal you set in January.

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