Comparison

HeatMap vs Dots

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

HeatMap

Visualize your progress with a daily streak tracker that uses a GitHub-style contribution grid. Log habits with simple taps, counters, or timers, and gain insights from detailed statistics. Integrates with home screen widgets and Siri Shortcuts for seamless tracking.

Highlights
  • GitHub-style contribution grid visualization
  • Yes/No, Counter, and Timer tracking modes
  • Detailed statistics and trend analysis
  • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets
  • Siri Shortcuts integration
  • Offline functionality with optional sync
  • Multiple color palettes and themes
Features
Read full description

Every day you keep a habit turns one square green. Skip a week and you see the gap. That is the whole idea: a year of your life on one screen, honest and impossible to argue with. HeatMap is a habit tracker built around the GitHub-style contribution grid. Open it, tap once, done. No cluttered dashboard, no ads, no guilt-tripping notifications. THREE WAYS TO TRACK - Yes / No — did you go to the gym today? - Counter — pages read, glasses of water, cups of coffee. - Timer — start it and log real minutes of practice, study or meditation. Set a daily target, or a gentler one like "4 times a week", and the grid follows your rule instead of shaming you for a rest day. STATISTICS THAT ACTUALLY TELL YOU SOMETHING - Current streak, personal record, total days - Your most productive weekday, and weekdays vs weekends - Six-month trend, month-over-month change and a year-end projection - Your longest gaps, so you can see where a habit usually breaks Tap any number to open the full chart behind it. RIGHT ON YOUR HOME SCREEN - Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets showing your live heatmap - A Control Center button to log a habit without opening the app - Siri Shortcuts: "Hey Siri, mark meditation" WORKS OFFLINE, SYNCS WHEN YOU WANT Start tracking immediately — no account, no email, no onboarding quiz. Everything is stored on your device and keeps working on a plane or underground. Sign in later and your existing habits move with you to iPhone, iPad and the web, in both directions, with nothing lost. MADE TO BE LOOKED AT EVERY DAY Twelve hand-picked colour palettes, icons for every kind of habit, full light and dark themes, and a calm interface that gets out of your way. Available in English, Russian, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Japanese. GOOD FOR Gym and workouts, running, reading, meditation, language learning, drinking water, journaling, practising an instrument, quitting smoking, cutting screen time, side projects, deep work, medication, skincare. FREE, WITH NO CATCH Track habits with every colour palette and the complete set of statistics — free. No ads, no paywall standing in front of your own charts, no trial that quietly starts charging you. Built by one developer who tracks his own habits with it. Every message gets read, and a lot of what is in the app came from user requests. Tell us what is missing.

About

Dots

This is a free habit tracker focused on simplicity and visual progress. It offers clean design and customizable home screen widgets to help users build consistency and stay motivated with their daily routines.

Highlights
  • Free habit tracking
  • Customizable home screen widgets
  • Visual progress tracking with dots
  • Clean and focused design
  • Weekly and monthly heatmaps
Features
Read full description

Dots. is a habit tracker and daily routine planner designed for simplicity, clarity, and consistency. Build better habits with a clean, simple tracker and beautifully designed home screen widgets that make your progress instantly visible. Turn small daily actions into lasting routines — a lightweight habit tracker and productivity widget, all in one simple app. [Why Dots?] • Simple Habit Tracker Start tracking your daily habits with an intuitive, distraction-free habit tracker built around ease of use. • Beautiful Home Screen Widgets Add a minimal widget to your Home Screen and track habits at a glance. Monthly and weekly heatmap widgets make progress clear and motivating. • Visual Habit Tracking Every action becomes a dot. Watch your streaks grow with a simple visual tracker that highlights consistency. • Clean & Focused Design A simple habit tracker with no clutter — just the tools you need to build better routines. • Gentle Motivation A calm, simple tracking experience designed to support long-term habits without pressure. • Stats & Yearly Recap Your whole year at a glance — a heatmap of every habit, monthly charts, your records, and a recap you can share. [Dots Pro] Dots lets you track 3 habits for free. Dots Pro lifts the limit — monthly, yearly with the first month free, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled and can be managed or cancelled in the App Store at any time. Everything else stays free for everyone: widgets, the Apple Watch app, reminders, recaps, icons and colours. People who were already using Dots keep unlimited habits, for good. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

HeatMap4 screens
Dots4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: HeatMap at none against Dots's 3. Dots's advantage is ratings volume (226 vs 2) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Dots sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. HeatMap asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for HeatMap against 4.9 for Dots. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Dots has 226 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of HeatMap's written reviews are positive against 98% of Dots's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HeatMap ships an update every 2 weeks, Dots every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
HeatMap versus Dots: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHeatMapDots
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better4.9 (226 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better98.2% of reviews
Number of ratings2226 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLeonid ChirkovJuyong Bak

Customer experience

HeatMap

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Dots

All ratings224 ratings
Positive99.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.4%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive98.2%
Neutral1.8%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

HeatMap

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Dots

Subscriptions2
  • Dots Pro — Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Dots Pro — Yearly1 Month trial$11.991 Year
One-time1
  • Dots Pro — Lifetime$24.99

Questions

Is HeatMap free?
HeatMap is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Dots free?
Dots is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HeatMap or Dots?
HeatMap is rated higher. HeatMap averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Dots averages 4.9 from 226 ratings.
Do HeatMap or Dots have ads?
Neither HeatMap nor Dots shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HeatMap or Dots?
HeatMap ships an update every 2 weeks, and Dots every 5 days. Most recently, HeatMap was updated on October 17, 2026 and Dots on October 25, 2026.

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