Arc vs Automatic
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Arc
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Most challenge apps ask you to pay before you've finished week one. Arc doesn't. The 30 Day Reset isn't a trial version. It's the whole thing, all thirty days, free, and it stays free. Pick a challenge, tick your tasks, watch a row of empty boxes fill in one a day. That's the app. No feed, no friends list, no leaderboard, and nothing in here calls you champ. FIVE WAYS TO START 30 Day Reset. Three habits you choose yourself. Free. 66 Day Habit Builder. Three to five habits, and sixty-six days because that's the number the research keeps landing on. 75 Day Classic. Two workouts, a diet, water, reading, a daily photo. 75 Day Gentle. Same seventy-five days with one workout and a bit of air. Custom. Your rules, 21 to 90 days. APPLE HEALTH DOES THE BORING PART Switch on auto-tracking for a task and Arc reads your steps, exercise minutes, outdoor workouts, water and mindful minutes, then ticks it off without being asked. It only ever reads. Nothing gets written back to Health, and none of it leaves your phone. Don't want to grant that? Those tasks stay manual and the rest of the app doesn't care. SEASONS Shared start dates run through the year: Fall Lock-In, Winter Arc, New Year Arc, Spring Reset, Summer Arc. Begin on one and its stamp goes on your finisher card. Starting tomorrow instead is also a perfectly good plan. STRICT MODE, OFF BY DEFAULT Turn it on and a missed day sends you back to Day 1. You get one grace day for the whole run, and once it's gone it's gone. The card at the end looks the same either way. THE FINISHER CARD Reach the end and Arc prints you a card: day count, completion rate, longest streak, and the sentence you wrote on day one about why you started. Square, story, or wide. Save it to Photos or send it straight out. Widgets put the day count and what's left on your home screen and lock screen. The medium one lets you tick things off without opening the app. WHAT ARC WON'T DO No account, so there is no email and no password to lose. Your data sits on your phone and in your own iCloud, and I can't see any of it. No ads. Progress photos stay in Arc on your phone. Nobody checks them, nobody looks at them. FREE, PERMANENTLY The 30 Day Reset in full. One custom challenge. The small widget. Your finished history. Apple Health auto-tracking. ARC PRO Every template, unlimited custom challenges, several running at once, all the widget sizes including the interactive one, and the finisher card in all three shapes. Pay by the month or the year, or buy it once and it's yours. Arc syncs through your own iCloud, so a new phone picks up where the old one stopped. Turn iCloud off and everything still works on the device. Privacy: https://arc.wuyuxai.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Automatic
Build lasting habits with a science-backed approach focusing on one small action over 66 days. Get personalized plans, daily lessons distilled from top books, and coaching to stay on track. Track progress and gain insights into your journey.
- 66-day habit formation arc
- Personalized habit plans
- Daily lessons from top books
- Audio playback for lessons
- Journaling with smart prompts
- Earned insights and reviews
- Multiple coaching voices
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One habit. Sixty-six days. Made automatic. Automatic is a habit app built on the science of how habits actually form: one tiny daily action, anchored to something you already do, grown over a 66-day arc until it runs on its own. Sunny — the little sun who lives inside the app — plans it with you, reads you the best books ever written on getting better, and notices when a hard day is coming. TELL HALO YOUR GOAL, IN YOUR OWN WORDS Type what you want to do, with your real numbers and where you're starting. Sunny builds a plan that keeps your exact figures, attaches it to one of your real daily anchors, and maps all 66 days — smaller than the goal at first, bigger than it by day 60. Adjust with a comment; Sunny changes only what you asked. TODAY, MADE OBVIOUS Every morning: today's version of your habit, one line of journaling, a short lesson, and a tiny foundation nudge for body and mind. Check it off and watch the day count climb. If your habit has pieces, tick them one at a time — a partial day still counts, and the app says so. GROW — 201 BOOKS, DISTILLED Atomic Habits, Deep Work, Can't Hurt Me, Why We Sleep, The Body Keeps the Score, Nonviolent Communication, The Psychology of Money, Sapiens, Do What Matters, and nearly two hundred more — habits, focus, mindset, discipline, fitness, food, money, relationships, creativity and calm. More than 1,700 lessons, each with its own drawn cover, an animated graphic, and a quote you can keep. One lesson a day is free; Essentials and Gold open the whole shelf. Every lesson is an original summary written in our own words, and quotes are paraphrased and marked "after" their author. Automatic is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the authors or publishers. Read them, or let Sunny read them to you in a natural studio voice — one book a day free, more on Essentials and Gold — on the lock screen, in the car, with the screen off. A quiet bell tells you when there is a quick question about what you just heard, and the book keeps playing either way. Search everything in plain language: "that quote about 1% better" finds it. A JOURNAL THAT KNOWS WHAT TODAY IS The prompt is built from your day, your habit, your cue, and the lesson on deck. Everything you write feeds Sunny's insights later. EARNED INSIGHTS Sunny's honest portrait of you at day 7. Your arc review at day 21. A letter at the halfway mark. Earned by showing up, and part of Gold. SUNNY, YOUR COACH Ask Sunny anything. He says good morning, cheers the wins, nudges you on the days you slip and hands you today's book — or turn him off. Choose who reads your books to you — a warm British storyteller or a soft American voice — hear each before you pick, and switch any time. Hard-day radar watches your weak window and shows up before you slip. TIMERS AND TROPHIES Timed steps and focus sessions count down on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, with an alarm when they end. Points and trophies are earned by showing up, never bought, and unlock profile styles. APPLE WATCH Check off from your wrist. WIDGETS Your streak — flame, count, and the last seven days — on your Home Screen. Your book and today's mission on the Lock Screen. A new quote every day. SOCIAL — COMING SOON The Social tab is a preview of what we're building next. It isn't open yet — tap "Notify me" and we'll tell you when it is. PLANS Start with a week of Gold, on us. Then keep it free (with ads), or choose Essentials or Gold. Free covers your first 66-day arc; a monthly plan covers three, and a yearly plan has no limit. Subscriptions renew through your Apple ID; cancel anytime in Settings. Terms: https://link.ordaforma.com/terms · Privacy: https://link.ordaforma.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Arc at none against Automatic's shown. Automatic's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 9 days). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Arc sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Automatic sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Arc ships an update every 9 days, Automatic every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Arc | Automatic |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple Watch | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 岚烜 吴 | Gage Emmerich |
In-app purchases
Arc
- Arc Pro$6.99
Automatic
- Automatic Essentials14 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Automatic Gold1 Month trial$14.991 Month
- Automatic — Essentials (Yearly)$99.991 Year
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- Automatic — Gold (Yearly)14 Days trial$149.991 Year









