What users hate about habit tracker apps: 5,448 App Store reviews analyzed
We read 3,537 negative reviews of Fabulous, Done, GetHabit and Habitica. Half the complaints are about pricing, not habits. Here is what users ask for instead.
Habit trackers are one of the most crowded categories on the App Store, and one of the most criticized. We collected 5,448 recent reviews of four popular habit apps, read the 3,537 negative ones (1 to 3 stars) and counted 3,998 distinct complaints.
Key findings:
- Half of all complaints (50%) are about pricing, not about tracking habits: charges after cancelling, paywalls, bundles of apps users never asked for.
- The single most frequent complaint, being charged after cancelling, appears 330 times in the reviews of one app, Fabulous.
- Free tiers that stop at three habits push users away from Done, with 150 mentions.
- Users with ADHD describe cluttered, animated interfaces as a barrier: 130 mentions of screens that are too busy.
The apps we analyzed
| App | Rating | Ratings | Reviews collected | Negative reviews read | Main complaint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fabulous: Daily Habit Tracker | 4.42 | 89,233 | 2,500 | 1,601 | Pricing (65%) |
| Do Habits: Get It Done | 4.05 | 16,858 | 1,646 | 1,274 | Bugs (47%), pricing (40%) |
| GetHabit: Easy Habit Tracker | 4.35 | 6,621 | 319 | 272 | Pricing (64%) |
| Habitica: Gamified Taskmanager | 4.30 | 3,499 | 983 | 390 | Bugs (58%) |
Reviews come from the App Store in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and France, most recent first.
Complaints by family
| Family | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | 1,984 | 50% |
| Bugs | 1,042 | 26% |
| Usability | 589 | 15% |
| Missing features | 308 | 8% |
| Bloated app | 75 | 2% |
The 7 complaints that come back most
1. Charged after cancelling (330 mentions)
Fabulous users report charges that continue after they cancel the trial or the subscription, sometimes for months, sometimes after receiving a cancellation confirmation.
I cancelled my subscription over a year ago and they are still taking money out of my account.
2. Cancelling is a maze (220 mentions)
Hidden options, many screens, several logins. One user asks to "make it accessible for people with executive dysfunction to unsubscribe".
You have to click through nearly a dozen pages before you cancel.
3. Subscribed to apps they never chose (210 mentions)
Users signed up for one app and found themselves subscribed to sister apps and bundles.
I was signed up for no less than 10 apps costing about $100 per month.
4. A free tier capped at three habits (150 mentions)
Done lets free users track three habits, then asks for a subscription. For most users, three habits is not enough to judge an app.
It only lets you make 3 habits literally and the subscription is so overpriced it’s insane
5. A cluttered screen, especially hard with ADHD (130 mentions)
Pop-ups, animations and too many items on screen. For an app meant to build focus, users find it distracting.
the main screen is like looking for something in a junk drawer—absolutely chaos
6. Upgrade pop-ups on every launch (120 mentions)
Done shows offers with countdown timers that reset every 24 hours, even to paying users.
they make you dismiss an add EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. you open it now
7. Lifetime buyers asked to pay again (85 mentions)
Users who paid once for a lifetime upgrade of Done find it replaced by a subscription.
It’s not acceptable to sell a product for a fixed price and then years later decide to add on a subscription fee.
What this means if you build a habit app
The core feature, checking off a habit, is rarely the problem. Users leave because of how they are charged and how much stands between them and the checkbox. Two directions stand out from the data:
- A minimal routine checklist, built for people with ADHD: steps, timers, no animations to tap through, one clear price. It answers 1,305 complaints and scores 7/10 in our ranking.
- A fast habit tracker sold as a one-time purchase, with no cap on the number of habits. It answers 683 complaints across Done, GetHabit and Habitica.
The full report ranks seven app ideas for this niche, with their score, the complaints behind each one and the user quotes. To check the method behind these numbers, read how we find app ideas in negative reviews.
Method
- Sources: public App Store reviews, the most recent ones, up to 500 per app and per country (US, UK, Canada, Australia, France).
- Analysis: every 1–3★ review is read by an AI model (Claude, by Anthropic), which writes down each distinct complaint. Similar complaints are merged and counted. One review can contain several complaints.
- Bugs are counted but not turned into app ideas: they are the developer's to fix.
- Limit: reviews over-represent unhappy users. The counts measure how often a problem is raised, not how many users have it.
FAQ
What do users complain about most in habit tracker apps?
Pricing. Half of the 3,998 complaints we counted are about money: charges after cancelling, hard-to-find cancel buttons, paywalls and bundles of apps users didn't choose.
Is Fabulous worth paying for?
We don't rate apps. What the reviews show is that the most common complaint about Fabulous, by far, is about billing: 330 mentions of charges after cancelling and 220 of a hard cancellation process.
Why do people stop using habit tracker apps?
In negative reviews, users rarely say tracking habits didn't work. They mention free tiers limited to three habits, constant upgrade pop-ups and screens too cluttered to use every day.
Is there room for a new habit tracker app?
The data suggests yes, if the difference is clear: simple, fast, and honest about pricing. Complaints about money and clutter come back across all four apps we analyzed.