As part of my quest to determine the best habit tracking app, I used stickK to keep track of my habits for 1 week. Here is my review of the app.
stickK is a community based habit tracking app that helps one achieve behavioural goals. Available free for individuals on iOS, Android and web, the app is built to tap on behavioural science to achieve any behavioural goals one has in mind.
| Pros of stickK | Cons of stickK |
| – Community support – Monetary penalty – Can track unlimited habits and available completely free for individuals – Only allows next day reporting | – Monetary penalties may be ineffective to build good habits without accountability partner(s) – Using the app effectively can take time to learn – Loading time of the app |
Key Takeaway:
stickK is a free goal tracking app that can be used to track habits. The full potential of the app is unleashed with an accountability partner.
As the week moved along, I realised that there were unique features built into stickK that I can make use of to improve my habits.
What’s Great About stickK – How It Helped Me
Community Support
stickK allows me to add referees/accountability partners to help me increase the probability that I will hit my habit goals.
As with other habit tracking apps, stickK has a community that can be automatically generated based on the habits that I’m tracking.
But what is unique about stickK is that I get to create my community.
This is awesome and helps me better my habits because I can enlist people that care about my goals and success into my community in the form of referees and supporters.
Monetary penalty
With stickK, I can set a rule whereby for every time I fail to complete a habit, the app automatically deducts money from my credit card either to a charity, anti-charity or even to a friend.
Making the monetary penalty even more effective is how the app combines community support with monetary penalties.
I can see how useful this combination can be to help improve my habits.
Trusted friends can keep me accountable to my desired habit goals and monetary penalties can help me keep in mind that if I do not follow through, the consequence can really sting.
Can track unlimited habits and available completely free
Based on trying out various habit tracking apps, most free ones only allows me to track up to 3-5 habits for free.
But realistically, I have 8-9 habits that I want to track and improve. The fact that stickK is free for individuals and allows me to track unlimited habits is a major benefit to me.
Only allows next day reporting
For any habit that I am tracking today, I can only report the success/failure of the habit commitment the next day.
This way of reporting is great because there will be less chance of misreporting. It also makes for more accurate data collection so that I can be realistic about where I am with my habits commitment and the changes I might need to make to the routines in my life.
Further helping me to input accurate info is that once I’ve reported my status for the previous day, stickK doesn’t allow me to change the status.
What’s Not So Great About stickK
From using the app myself, I must say that the app is quite good, dare I say, even on par with some of the paid habit tracking apps that I’ve used before.
Nonetheless, there are still some minor things that are not so great about stickK that you may want to take note of.
Monetary penalties may be ineffective to build good habits without accountability partner(s)
For those who intend to make use of stickK’s monetary penalty feature to build better habits, I think it is unlikely for the monetary penalties to be an effective tool to build good habits without enlisting the help of any accountability partner(s) because one can just choose to delete the habit whenever I fail at one.
Using the app effectively can take time to learn
stickK is an app that took me 1-2 days to learn how to use properly. Even after almost a week of using it, I’m still discovering new features such as stickK flick which kind of mimics social media platform TikTok, except, the intention of stickK’s feature is to help people achieve their goals through community support.
As I continue using the app, who knows what other features I may discover.
Therefore, if you’re looking for a minimalistic habit tracking app, stickK is probably not the ideal app for you.
Loading time of the app
Every time I want to record a habit, I found that the app takes 3 – 5 seconds to load.
Considering that I’m tracking about 8 habits, that is about 40 seconds of wait time each time I want to record my habits. This wait time can get frustrating and should certainly be considered before you make this your habit tracking app.
How stickK Fared As A Free Habit Tracker
I measured how well stickK did as a free habit tracking app based on 5 criteria that I think will be important to any habit tracking app:
- The number of habits the app can track for free (If the app can only track 1 habit, it is unlikely to be useful to me because I want to track more than 1 habit. The more habits that the app can track, the better it is for a user.)
- Data recording capabilities of the app (It is difficult for me to improve if I cannot see where I am succeeding and failing with my habits. The more useful habit data that can be collected over time, the better it is for a user.)
- Platforms the app is available on (If I am on iOS and Mac, it would be ideal if an app I frequently use is on both platforms. Therefore, the more platforms that an app is on, the better it is for a user.)
- The versatility of the app (If I can track whether or not I woke up on time today, a yes/no habit. And I can track how many bottles of water I drank today, a number habit, then I think a habit tracking app can be considered as versatile.)
- How well the app can help to improve habits (Even if the app scores well on all other aspects, I would be unlikely to continue using it if it is designed in a way that doesn’t really help me to improve my habits.)
| Criteria | Score |
| The number of habits stickK can track for free: stickK can track unlimited habits for free. Scoring rubrics If the app can track 1-3 habits – 10 points If the app can track 4 or more habits – 20 points | 20 |
| Data recording capabilities: stickK can both automatically record habit history and allows for the recording of notes with each data point. Scoring rubrics If the app can view automatically recorded habit history – 10 points If the app allows manual recording of notes for each habit – 10 points If the app can view recorded habit history and record down notes for each habit – 20 points | 20 |
| Platforms stickK is available on: stickK is available on 3 platforms – iOS , Android and Web. Scoring rubrics If the app is available on 1-2 platforms – 10 points If the app is available on 3 or more platforms – 20 points | 20 |
| The versatility of stickK: stickK can only track simple yes/no habits. Scoring rubrics Does the app allow you to track all types of habits? If no – 10 points If yes – 20 points | 10 |
| How well does the app help improve habits (On the scale of 1 – 10): 5. I initially thought that stickK would be a really good app to track habits, but as I kept using the app, I found the loading time to record my habits to be frustrating. I also found it impossible to record the days where I’ve missed out on recording them. Scoring rubrics Subjective and based on personal opinion. Take it with a pinch of salt, if the app seems good to you, try it out yourself and decide for yourself. If 1-5 – 0 points If 6-10 – 20 points | 0 |
| Total Score | 70 |
