Comparison

HeatMap vs Chain

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 contribution grid to show your consistency. Offers multiple tracking methods, detailed statistics, and home screen widgets for easy logging. Works offline and syncs across devices.

Highlights
  • Daily streak visualization
  • Yes/No, Counter, and Timer tracking
  • Detailed habit statistics
  • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets
  • Siri Shortcuts integration
  • Offline functionality
  • Cross-device syncing
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 12 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional). 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

Chain

Features
Read full description

Chain is the habit tracker that takes five seconds a day and makes your progress impossible to ignore. Tick a habit off, watch the ring fill, and keep the chain going. Every habit gets a year of squares stitched like a quilt: colour where you did it, a hole where you didn't. NEW IN 1.3 • A challenge every month: one habit, one month, four days in five wins the badge. This month's challenge is open to everyone • Milestone moments at 7, 30, 100 and 365 days, with an image to share • Insights: this month against last, the habits that lift each other, your best time of day and when each chain hits its next milestone • Log Next Habit in Control Center, on the Lock Screen and on the Action button • A Best Chain widget that looks great in StandBy, and a Lock Screen line under the clock • Ask Siri "How's my chain?" TICK IT OFF FROM ANYWHERE • Home Screen widgets you can tap: tick a habit off without opening the app • Lock Screen ring, line and inline count • "Log Read in Chain" with Siri, or the Log a habit shortcut • A reminder with a Done button that stays quiet on days you've already done it HABITS THAT FIT REAL LIFE • Every day, certain weekdays, or a number of times a week • Amounts and targets: 8 glasses, 20 pages, 10,000 steps, filled in tap by tap • Apple Health ticks off steps, exercise, mindful minutes and workouts for you • Quit habits: count the days clean, log a slip, keep your best on record • Morning, afternoon and evening groups, so the day reads top to bottom MISSED A DAY? THE CHAIN CAN SURVIVE IT • Freezes skip a sick day without breaking the chain • Pause a habit for a holiday and pick it straight back up • Streak Repair patches a missed day in gold when the freezes run out SEE YOUR YEAR • Week grid to log or fix any day • The year quilt for every habit, with totals, best chain and completion • Stats on your best and worst weekdays, perfect days and longest chains • Notes on any day, and a shareable image of your chain PLANS • Free: three habits, the month's challenge (it doesn't count toward the three), the Next Up and Best Chain widgets, the Lock Screen ring, a daily check-in reminder, the last 90 days of the quilt, one freeze a month, quit counters, notes, Siri and Control Center • Chain Unlimited, one payment, yours for good: unlimited habits, every widget, a reminder per habit, amounts and Apple Health, three freezes a month and pauses, the whole quilt, iCloud backup and CSV export • Chain Plus, monthly or yearly: everything in Unlimited, plus three Streak Repairs at the start of every month, five freezes a month, every theme and celebration, the whole challenge library any time, and Insights. Yearly starts with a 1-week free trial for new subscribers • Small extras: Streak Repair and Freeze Pack, five colour themes with matching app icons, and the celebration pack • Bought Chain before it went free? Unlimited is already yours Chain Plus is an auto-renewing subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase (after the free trial, if you start one). It renews automatically at the same price unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel any time in your App Store account settings. Any unused part of a free trial ends when you subscribe. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://tensorust.com/apps/chain/privacy/ No account, no ads, no tracking. Your habits stay on your iPhone, and in your own iCloud if you turn backup on.

Screenshots

HeatMap4 screens
Chain4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: HeatMap at none against Chain's 10. On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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. Chain sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. HeatMap asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HeatMap ships an update every 2 weeks, Chain weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
HeatMap versus Chain: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHeatMapChain
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB3 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperLeonid ChirkovMatthew Busel

In-app purchases

None

HeatMap

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

Chain

Subscriptions2
  • Chain Plus, monthly$2.991 Month
  • Chain Plus, yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time8
  • Streak Repair$0.99
  • Bloom Theme$0.99
  • Gold Theme$0.99
Show 5 more
  • Tide Theme$0.99
  • Violet Theme$0.99
  • Celebration Pack$0.99
  • Freeze Pack$0.99
  • Chain Unlimited$4.99

Questions

Is HeatMap free?
HeatMap is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Chain free?
Chain is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do HeatMap or Chain have ads?
Neither HeatMap nor Chain shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HeatMap or Chain?
HeatMap ships an update every 2 weeks, and Chain weekly. Most recently, HeatMap was updated on November 5, 2026 and Chain on October 31, 2026.

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