Comparison

Things take time vs Merit

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

Head to head
About

Things take time

This app helps you track habits, routines, and personal metrics to visualize compounding progress over time. It displays multiple trackers simultaneously to reveal patterns and understand your growth. Designed for ease of use, it focuses on making tracking effortless and insightful.

Highlights
  • Track any habit, routine, or metric
  • View multiple trackers side-by-side
  • Visualize monthly progress at a glance
  • Intuitive and effortless tracking design
  • Detailed analytics for pattern recognition
  • Privacy-focused with on-device data storage
Features
Read full description

Good things take time. Real progress is built through small things done consistently — it won’t feel like much, until it does. Things take time is an app for tracking what matters, the small things, and seeing how they compound over time. KEY FEATURES • Track anything From habits and routines to personal metrics, notes, and daily actions — build trackers that fit your life, not the other way around. • See everything side by side Most apps show one tracker at a time, which hides the bigger picture. This one shows them all together so you can see patterns across your month. • Your month at a glance See how small things add up across your month, so you can stay consistent and notice real progress. • Built for ease of use Tracking should feel effortless. Everything is designed to be fast, simple, and intuitive. • Understand your patterns Detailed analytics for every tracker to help you uncover trends and better understand your progress over time. • Privacy first Your data stays on your device or in your iCloud. Nothing is collected, and nothing is tracked. Progress is often invisible in the moment. Things take time was built to make it visible — by showing how small things add up over time. Terms & Privacy: https://github.com/chesterhow/things-take-time/blob/main/terms-privacy.md

About

Merit

Features
Read full description

$5.99 once. No subscription, ever. Every other app in this category charges you weekly to stay off your phone. One of them wants $10 a week. That's $520 a year to not open Instagram, which is about where the cure starts costing more than the disease. Merit locks the apps you pick. Getting them back costs you something real: walking, moving, standing up, sleeping. HOW EARNING WORKS No "I did it" button. Merit reads your activity out of Apple Health and does the math itself. Nothing to fake. Apps that let you type in your own workout are inviting you to lie to yourself, and plenty of people take them up on it. 1,000 steps = 5 minutes 10 minutes of exercise = 10 minutes Each stand hour = 2 minutes 7 hours of sleep = 15 bonus minutes Spend the credit to open something you blocked. When the time runs out the block comes back by itself. STUDY MODE Blocking Instagram shouldn't take your calculator with it. Merit keeps an allowlist for the things you actually need, and it's free. Every competitor has reviews complaining about this exact problem, so putting it behind a paywall wasn't something I was willing to do. FREE Blocking, the allowlist, earning from your step count. This isn't a trial. It doesn't expire. $5.99 Three more ways to earn: exercise minutes, stand hours, sleep. Separate blocking profiles, because work and Saturday don't need the same rules. And a record of where your screen time actually came from. One payment. Whatever worked before you paid still works after. PRIVACY No account. The apps you pick are stored as opaque tokens that never leave your phone, so I couldn't tell you what you blocked even if you wanted me to. Health data is read-only. One thing does get sent: a few anonymous counters, like how often the app gets opened and how many blocks ran their course. They hang off a random ID. What you blocked is not in there, and could not be. Settings has a switch if you would rather it sent nothing.

Screenshots

Things take time4 screens
Merit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Things take time at weekly against Merit's every 3 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Things take time sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Merit sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Things take time ships an update weekly, Merit every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Things take time versus Merit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThings take timeMerit
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (8 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings8 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS18.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChester How岚烜 吴

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Things take time

Subscriptions1
  • Things take time + Monthly$2.991 Month
One-time1
  • Things take time + Lifetime$34.99
1 purchases

Merit

One-time1
  • Unlock Everything$5.99

Questions

Is Things take time free?
Things take time is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Merit free?
Merit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Things take time or Merit have ads?
Neither Things take time nor Merit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Things take time or Merit?
Things take time ships an update weekly, and Merit every 3 weeks. Most recently, Things take time was updated on October 19, 2026 and Merit on October 7, 2026.

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