What is OpenHabitTracker?

OpenHabitTracker is a free, open-source application that unifies notes, tasks, and habit tracking. It operates across multiple platforms with zero advertisements, tracking, accounts, or subscription fees. Your information remains on your own hardware and only synchronizes with a server you control through Docker. Capabilities include Markdown notes displayed directly in lists, tasks that support scheduled dates, durations, checklists, and timers, habits tracked by how overdue they are relative to their intervals rather than by streaks, two dozen themes with both dark and light variants, complete keyboard navigation and screen-reader compatibility, twenty language translations, import and export across several formats including Google Keep, and comprehensive statistics with visual charts. The synchronization server runs as a Blazor Server application inside Docker, listening on port 5050 by default, and is configured through environment variables for the administrator username, email, password, and JWT signing secret.

Should you self-host OpenHabitTracker?

OpenHabitTracker scores 52/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #9 of 31 in Health & Fitness. It has 304 GitHub stars.

It shipped 6 stable releases in the past year. The latest, 1.2.5, came out on 27 September 2026. New versions land roughly every 5 weeks.

Setup is moderate: expect some configuration beyond a single command. An official Docker image is available. It is GPL-3.0-licensed and written mostly in C.

Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is shabitica (43/100, 190 stars). OpenHabitTracker scores higher overall. See OpenHabitTracker vs shabitica side by side.

Features

Accessibility
Advanced search/filter/sort
Categories and priorities
Customizable UI
Habit Tracking
Import/Export
Markdown Notes
Multi-language
Notifications
REST API
Self-hosted sync
Statistics and charts
Task Management

How to install OpenHabitTracker

Install OpenHabitTracker with Docker

Environment variables

APPSETTINGS_USERNAME, APPSETTINGS_EMAIL, APPSETTINGS_PASSWORD, APPSETTINGS_JWT_SECRET, TZ

Open Docker Desktop and make sure it shows Engine running
Open a terminal in the folder containing your .env and docker-compose.yml
Run: docker-compose up -d
Open http://localhost:5050/login in a browser to confirm the server is running
Find this machine's IP address:
- Windows: ipconfig
- Mac / Linux: ifconfig

Run the self-hosted sync server on Docker Desktop (Windows/Mac)

Install OpenHabitTracker with Docker Compose

Environment variables

APPSETTINGS_USERNAME, APPSETTINGS_EMAIL, APPSETTINGS_PASSWORD, APPSETTINGS_JWT_SECRET, TZ

services: openhabittracker: image: jinjinov/openhabittracker:latest ports: - "5050:8080" environment: - AppSettings__UserName=${APPSETTINGS_USERNAME} - AppSettings__Email=${APPSETTINGS_EMAIL} - AppSettings__Password=${APPSETTINGS_PASSWORD} - AppSettings__JwtSecret=${APPSETTINGS_JWT_SECRET} - TZ=Europe/Berlin # replace with your timezone volumes: - ./.OpenHabitTracker:/app/.OpenHabitTracker

Self-hosted sync server for one user. Configure via .env file with username, email, password, JWT secret, and timezone.

Install OpenHabitTracker with Synology

Environment variables

APPSETTINGS_USERNAME, APPSETTINGS_EMAIL, APPSETTINGS_PASSWORD, APPSETTINGS_JWT_SECRET, TZ

Open Package Center and install Container Manager
Open Container Manager → Project → Create
Set the project name to openhabittracker
Paste the docker-compose.yml content, replacing ${APPSETTINGS_...} placeholders with your actual values
Click Next → Done — the container starts automatically
Find your NAS IP: Control Panel → Network → Network Interface

Run the self-hosted sync server on Synology NAS via Container Manager

Install OpenHabitTracker with Linux

Environment variables

APPSETTINGS_USERNAME, APPSETTINGS_EMAIL, APPSETTINGS_PASSWORD, APPSETTINGS_JWT_SECRET, TZ

SSH into your server
Install Docker: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y docker.io docker-compose
Open a terminal in the folder containing your .env and docker-compose.yml
Run: docker-compose up -d
Find the server IP: ifconfig

Run the self-hosted sync server on a Linux server