How this page works. This is a hub for gamified self-discipline tools: every app that turns habits, focus, or commitments into a game. Each category below gets an introduction and its tools; the ones worth a full read link to their own article. Facts (prices, licences, last-update dates) were verified in August 2026 and will drift — the per-tool pages get updated first.
Gamified self-discipline tools come in four kinds, and the split is about what the app counts: things done, minutes focused, or what you lose when you fail. Pick the category that matches how you actually slip, then pick within it.
1 — Habit trackers
You log things you did (or didn't), and the game reacts: XP, levels, gear, a pet that thrives or suffers. This is the original and largest category, and it splits by how hard it punishes a skip. Habitica damages you and your party; LifeUp and Do It Now let you set every reward and penalty yourself; Finch, the biggest app of all by ratings, punishes nothing on principle. Reviews across the board say the mechanic wears off in four to six weeks unless the reward or penalty is one you genuinely feel — so choose by temperament, not by feature list.
- Habitica — the finished RPG: HP, party boss damage, guilds. Open source (GPL-3.0). Free; sub $4.99/mo.
- LifeUp 人升 — you design the economy: real-reward shop, configurable penalties. Android, pay once.
- MainQuest — Habitica for people who bounced off Habitica: pet, HP, accountability pacts.
- TaskHero — co-op quests and guilds; misses hurt your companions.
- Do It Now — D&D stat sheet for your life; skills decay, overdue tasks auto-fail. Android only.
- Finch — a bird you care for; zero punishment by design. The gentlest, and the most popular.
- Habbie — many pets; misses create cleanup chores.
- 像素习惯 HabiCat — pixel RPG where a monthly boss takes damage from your check-ins.
- HabitTrove — self-hosted (AGPL, Docker); habits earn coins for a wishlist you wrote. No character, no game beyond the shop.
- SuperBetter — quest framing for resilience, built by a game designer to recover from her own concussion.
2 — Focus timers
You start a session and put the phone down; something grows, hatches, or gets caught while you stay away, and dies if you quit early. Punishment only lasts as long as the session — walk away for a week and nothing withers — which makes this the easiest category to return to. The Chinese market lives almost entirely here: 番茄ToDo and live 自习室 apps reward minutes of focus, rank you against a study room, and lock your other apps.
- Forest — the classic tree; co-planting rooms; plants real trees. Freemium since Dec 2025.
- Flora — Forest with optional real-money stakes and co-focus. iOS.
- Focumon — catch monsters by paying attention; live rooms and 6-player parties. Free, web/PWA.
- Study Bunny — the timer that makes you want to start; coins for a bunny.
- Focus Quest — focus minutes become RPG progression.
- 番茄ToDo — study rooms, rankings, strict mode that locks apps. Chinese students' default.
3 — Commitment devices
You fail, it takes something real from you: money, or your apps. Nothing here is comfortable and that is the point — Beeminder's reviews are full of people who were charged when they deserved to be and hated it. This is the category for people who only respond to consequences. Chinese WeChat mini-programs run the same idea as 契约打卡 deposits: miss a check-in, forfeit the deposit to the people who didn't.
- Beeminder — the strongest commitment device in software: a pledge ladder from $5 to $2,430, with an API. Free while on track.
- QuestPhone — locks your actual apps until the quest is done. Open source (GPL), Android, still experimental.
- stickK — same idea as Beeminder with a half-abandoned product behind it. Avoid.
4 — To-do add-ons
A score bolted onto a normal task manager. You get to keep the to-do app you already use, at the cost of a game so thin it rarely changes behaviour. Worth knowing about, rarely worth choosing for the gamification alone.
- Todoist Karma — a score and streaks inside Todoist; mild penalty after 5+ overdue days.
- Amazing Marvin — opt-in points redeemable for real rewards. $8/mo, no free tier.
- Also: Obsidian Gamified Tasks and gamify-el (Emacs) — good if you already live in those editors.
Alive but not gamified enough to count: Habitify, Streaks, Way of Life, Exist, TickTick, 潮汐 Tide, 小日常. Adjacent: Fortune City (expense tracking as city-building), Zombies Run, Pocket Plants, and Minecraft as a gamification layer. Dead: EpicWin, Fitocracy, Task Hammer, Level Up Life.
Comparison table
Only apps that are alive and actually gamified. Kind is the category above. Prices at time of writing.
| App | Kind | Lever | Punishes skipping | Social | Platforms | Price | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Habitica | Habit tracker | Progression + Stakes | Yes — HP, party damage | Parties, guilds, boss quests | Web, iOS, Android | Free; sub $4.99/mo | GPL-3.0 (art CC-BY-NC-SA) |
| LifeUp 人升 | Habit tracker | Progression + real-reward shop | Yes, configurable | Light (teams) | Android; iOS via ulives | ~€4.99 once (CN: free + Pro) | No (closed since 2019) |
| Do It Now | Habit tracker | Progression (D&D stats) | Yes — skills decay, overdue auto-fails | No | Android | Free w/ ads; $45.99 lifetime | No |
| MainQuest | Habit tracker | Progression + pet + Stakes | Yes — HP, hero lock | Parties, accountability pacts | Web, Android (iOS claimed) | Free; Pro $4.99/mo | Unknown |
| TaskHero | Habit tracker | Progression + Stakes | Yes, configurable; misses hurt companions | Co-op quests, guilds | iOS, Android | Free; PlusPass $4.99 | No |
| Forest | Focus timer | Nurture | Only within a session (tree dies) | Co-planting rooms | iOS, Android, browser | Freemium since Dec 2025; Plus $39.99/yr | No |
| Flora | Focus timer | Nurture + optional Stakes | Yes, incl. optional real money | Co-focus | iOS | Free; Care $1.99–9.99/yr | No |
| Focumon | Focus timer | Nurture (monsters) + co-focus | Partial (stamina) | Live rooms, 6-player parties | Web/PWA + Chrome | Free; Pro Pass | No |
| Finch | Habit tracker | Nurture (bird) | No — by design | Light friend codes | iOS, Android | Free; Plus ~$5.99–9.99/mo | No |
| Study Bunny | Focus timer | Nurture + coins | No | No | iOS, Android | Free w/ ads; $14.99 no-ads | No |
| Focus Quest | Focus timer | Progression from focus time | Partial (early quit) | Unknown | iOS, Mac, Android | Freemium; $28.99/yr | No |
| Habbie | Habit tracker | Nurture (many pets) | Yes — misses create cleanup chores | No | iOS, Watch | Free; Plus $34.99/yr | No |
| 像素习惯 HabiCat | Habit tracker | Progression (pixel RPG) | Yes — monthly Boss takes damage | Leaderboards | iOS/macOS/watchOS, Android | Free; ¥42/yr, lifetime ¥46–138 | No |
| 番茄ToDo | Focus timer | Time-on-task + study rooms | Strict mode locks apps | Study rooms, rankings | iOS, Android | Free; ~¥12/quarter | No |
| Beeminder | Commitment device | Stakes (money) | Yes — $5 → $2,430 | Forum only | Web, iOS, Android, API | Free on track; premium $8+/mo | Clients only |
| QuestPhone | Commitment device | Stakes (phone lock) | Yes — apps stay locked | No | Android | Free | GPL-3.0 (experimental) |
| HabitTrove | Habit tracker | Coins → real-reward wishlist | No | Household only | Self-host (Docker), PWA | Free | AGPL-3.0 |
| Amazing Marvin | To-do add-on | Opt-in points → real rewards | No | No | All desktop + mobile | $8/mo, no free tier | No |
| SuperBetter | Habit tracker | Quest framing for resilience | No | Allies, squads | iOS, Android, web | Free; Hero $24.99/yr | No |
| Todoist Karma | To-do add-on | Score inside a normal to-do app | Mild (5+ days overdue) | No | Everywhere Todoist is | Included | No |
