Beaver Habit Tracker
$9.00 / month with a 7-day free trial and a $1.00 sign-up fee
Self-hosted habit tracking, minus the “Goals” gamification — just check the box, build the streak, own your data.
A managed instance of Beaver Habit Tracker on ElfHosted — a deliberately minimal habit tracker with no goal-setting wizardry, no upsell screens, and no analytics shipped to anyone but you. Tick habits off daily, watch streaks build, install as a PWA on iOS/Android. AGPL-3.0, your data stays in your storage.
Habit trackers don't need to be apps with subscriptions, behavioural-science copy, and 47 bell-curve dashboards. Beaver is the opposite — check the box, build the streak.
What is Beaver Habit Tracker?
Beaver Habit Tracker is a deliberately minimal self-hosted habit tracker. Daily check-ins, streak counters, a clean calendar view — and that's most of it. No "Goals" feature (the developer's stance: goals are stress, habits are practice), no built-in nudge mechanics, no analytics exported to anyone. Built on Python NiceGUI; runs as a small web app you can install as a PWA on any phone.
It's the right pick if commercial habit-tracking apps feel bloated, if you don't want your daily routine reduced to a behavioural-design dashboard, and if you'd rather own the data than rent the experience.
Features
- ✅ Daily check-ins, simple as that — tick a habit, move on. No "rate your motivation 1-10" friction.
- 🔥 Streak counters & calendar view — see consecutive days at a glance; a calendar heatmap shows the rhythm.
- 📱 PWA install on iOS & Android — installs to your phone home screen with the same UI as a native app, but it's just your browser.
- 🌙 Dark mode — easy on the eyes for morning and bedtime check-ins.
- 👥 Multi-user — share an instance with family/partner; each user has their own habit list.
- 🚫 No "Goals" — by design. Beaver's philosophy: a goal is a brittle target; a habit is a daily practice. The tool reflects the philosophy.
- 🔓 FOSS & AGPL-3.0 — no paid tier, no telemetry, no behavioural-data harvesting.
Beaver vs. the Habit-App Market
Most habit apps (Habitica, Streaks, Way of Life, Productive) trade simplicity for gamification, paid tiers, or behavioural science layers. Beaver picks a lane:
- vs. Habitica: no RPG mechanics, no avatar levelling, no quest pressure. Just check-ins.
- vs. Streaks (iOS): Streaks is excellent but iOS-only and locked to one device tree. Beaver runs in any browser, syncs across all your devices via your own server.
- vs. Productive / Habitify: no subscription, no premium tier, no upsell. The whole feature set is the free feature set.
- vs. spreadsheets: Beaver gives you the calendar heatmap, streak counter, and PWA install that a Google Sheet won't.
If you want gamification, social pressure, or coaching content built in, Beaver is the wrong tool. If you want to know whether you brushed your teeth before bed every night this week without an app trying to upsell you, it's exactly right.
Why Run Beaver on ElfHosted?
Beaver is small enough to self-host on a Raspberry Pi — but most users would rather not babysit a Python app. ElfHosted handles the boring parts:
- Hosted on your own ElfHosted subdomain over HTTPS — required for PWA install on iOS/Android.
- Persistent storage on ElfHosted's backend; no losing your streak data when a Pi SD card dies.
- Updates handled automatically; the upstream project ships fixes regularly.
- SSO via your ElfHosted account — no separate password to remember.
- Multi-user supported by default — bring partner, family, kids.
Technical Specifications
- 🛠️ Software: Beaver Habit Tracker (FOSS, AGPL-3.0)
- 🐍 Stack: Python (NiceGUI framework)
- 📱 Mobile: Progressive Web App (PWA) — installs as a home-screen icon on iOS & Android with offline view of recent state
- 👥 Multi-user: yes — separate habit lists per user account
- 🔑 Subscription: $9/month — no upstream paid sub required (Beaver is fully free; ElfHosted handles hosting)
- 🌐 Access: HTTPS on your own ElfHosted subdomain (required for PWA install)
- 🔄 Updates: handled by ElfHosted
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I run Beaver Habit Tracker without self-hosting it?
Add it to your ElfHosted subscription — this product is a managed Beaver instance with HTTPS, persistent storage, updates handled, and SSO via your ElfHosted account. No Docker, no reverse proxy, no PWA-on-self-signed-cert headaches.
Why no "Goals" feature?
By upstream design. The maintainer's view: goals create pass/fail psychology that undermines the habit; the value is in the daily practice itself, not in measuring against a target. If a goal-based tracker is what you want, Beaver isn't it.
Can my partner / family share the same instance?
Yes — Beaver supports multiple users per instance. Each user has their own habit list and streaks. One subscription covers the household.
Does the PWA work offline?
Partially — recent state is cached so you can see your habits, but check-ins sync when you're back online. Most useful for the rare "tracking on a flight" use case; daily use is online-first.
Can I import data from another habit tracker?
Beaver doesn't ship a generic import wizard. You can manually re-create habits at any time; existing streak history from another app doesn't transfer.
Is this just a fancy spreadsheet?
Functionally close, but the calendar heatmap, streak counter, and PWA install make it nicer to use daily. If you'd genuinely rather use a spreadsheet, that's a valid choice — Beaver is for people who want slightly more friction-free check-ins without the bloat of commercial apps.
Beaver Habit Tracker is the opposite of a "habit app" — no gamification, no goal-setting, no upsell. Just check the box, build the streak, own the data. Hosted on ElfHosted with HTTPS, PWA-ready, and multi-user out of the box.
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