HabitShare alternative: when seeing habits is not enough

What HabitShare does well

HabitShare is free and its App Store listing carries no in-app purchases at all. Not a trial, not a pro tier, not a paywalled friend limit. That is rarer than it sounds in this category, and it is the first thing anyone weighing a move should put on the scale.

Three more things it has over us. It is on iPhone and Android, so nobody in your group gets left out on the wrong phone; the Play listing was last updated on 4 December 2024. Its privacy control is finer than ours, and the listing states it plainly: For each friend, you control which of your habits they can see. By default, all habits are private. And it has years of use behind it - about 662 ratings at 4.6 on the US App Store, against our 1.

The listing describes what it is for in one line: HabitShare is a social habit tracker app that allows you to track habits with friends for extra accountability. If that is the job you need done, it does it, and you can stop reading here.

Where HabitShare stops

It stops at one friend at a time. HabitShare gives you friends, per-friend visibility, daily comments, messaging with gifs, streaks and charts. What it does not give you, anywhere in the listing, is a group: no groups, no group chat, no challenges, no shared streak, no leaderboard.

Its own reviewers keep describing the same missing thing. A 2 star review on the US App Store asks for exactly it: doesn't have options to group chat, send pictures - App Store review. A 3 star one titled Want to use WITH, not alongside, friends puts it sharper: Great to use alone. But, with friends, you can only see their habits, not engage. - App Store review.

The other thing to weigh is the date. The iPhone app is on version 2.1.99, last updated 27 January 2023. A stable app that nobody is changing is not automatically a bad app. But a 2 star reviewer reports notifications between friends have stopped working, so I am no longer notified when my friends check-in on a habit - App Store review, and nothing has shipped since to answer it.

What Rootmates does differently

Rootmates is built around the group rather than the pair. Your squad opens the Group tab and sees everyone's habits and how far through today each person is, all at once, without anyone toggling a per-friend setting first. You can tap a person to see their day up close, send a nudge, or leave kudos on a day they earned.

Every squad has a room: chat, photos, reactions, replies, and a pin for the message everyone needs to read. Closed days land in that conversation in order, next to what people were saying at the time. That is the send pictures and group chat the HabitShare reviewer was asking for, and it is the main reason to move.

Challenges are the time-boxed version: one habit, one crew, a set number of days, its own group and countdown, and an invite link you paste into a chat. It works for someone who has never installed the app. When it ends you get a recap with everyone's final count.

Squads also build a collective streak, so the number on screen is the team's and not only yours. For the days life takes, there are freezes: the wallet holds two, you spend one and the chain holds, and a spent freeze grows back after four fully-kept weeks in a row. Every check-off puts a root down, and your level runs from Seed and Sapling through Strong Tree and Ancient Tree to The Oak. Like HabitShare, there is no public feed and no follower count.

What does not move across

Your history. There is no import from HabitShare and no export to import from, so you retype your habits and start the streak again. That is a real cost and it is the main reason to stay put if your HabitShare chain is long.

• Android. Rootmates is on iPhone and in a browser. Android is coming, and HabitShare is on Android today. If half your group is on Android, this is the whole decision.
• Per-friend visibility. HabitShare lets you pick which habits each friend sees. A Rootmates squad sees your whole list. A challenge group is narrower - only the one challenge habit and your count in it.
• Track record. Rootmates was released on 10 September 2026 and has about 1 rating on the US App Store. HabitShare has about 662 at 4.6. We are not going to dress that up.
• Two things ours does not do yet. The listing says it: reminder notifications do not send yet, and daily progress photos are not included.

HabitShare and Rootmates, side by side

Last verified against the US App Store and Google Play listings on 17 September 2026. Rating counts move daily, which is why they are written with about.

Who should stay on HabitShare

Stay if any one of these is true. Someone in your group is on Android. You want a promise of no in-app purchases in writing on the store page. You use the per-friend privacy control and would not want a squad seeing the whole list. Or you have a long streak in it and the retyping is not worth it.

Move if the thing you keep wanting is the group - everybody's day on one screen, one room to talk in, a challenge with a countdown and a recap at the end. That is the line between the two apps, and it is the only one that matters. The group habit tracker page covers how squads work, and the round-up weighs both against seven other apps.

Questions