Way of Life asks yes or no. Hokd asks what happened.
Way of Life's central idea is a simple and honest one: pick a habit, mark each day, and watch the chains build. It is fast, it is clear, and it works, as long as the thing you are tracking really is binary. Most solo work is not, and that is the only claim this page makes.
A day is not a checkbox
“Did you work on the business today?” is a question with no useful answer. Yes — but on what, for how long, and did it move anything? A green square records that something happened and throws away everything about it. Hokd keeps the sentence: what you did, in one line, tagged with the kind of work it was.
Not all green days are equal
In any binary tracker a two-hour deep-work block and a five-minute inbox sweep record identically. Hokd weights them instead. Each stage belongs to one of five modes (Focus, Make, Courage, Learn, Admin), and hard, focused work climbs faster than routine maintenance. After a month the shape of the climb tells you something a wall of green never could.
The part that comes after logging
Marking days is one half of the job. Hokd adds a Sunday weekly anchor (three steps, once a week), plus reflection themes in your own words and playbooks with version history, so the scripts you repeat can be compared round to round. A chain records. Hokd records and then shows you the pattern.
This page compares two approaches, not two feature lists. Way of Life is made by its own developers and is described here only by its central mechanic; for current features, platforms and pricing, see their site. Hokd is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to them.
The honest answers.
Is hokd a habit tracker?
No. Habit trackers count the days you missed and reset your streak to zero. hokd is the opposite: you log only what you actually did, it adds altitude on a climb that never goes down, and it never holds a missed day against you.
Do I need an account?
No. There are no accounts, no logins and no tracking. Your data lives on your device and — if you turn it on — syncs through your own private iCloud. Hokd never sees it.
How is my data handled?
Local-first. On iPhone and Mac everything stays on-device, and AI runs on-device through Apple Intelligence — nothing leaves your phone. On Android, AI input is sent to the Hokd backend for the response and is not stored.
What does it cost?
hokd has a generous free tier: logging, reflection and playbooks are free, forever. Pro unlocks the AI layer (syntheses, pattern analysis, playbook reviews) and a few extras — as a subscription or a one-time purchase.
Which devices are supported?
iPhone and iPad (iOS 17+), Mac (macOS 14+) and Android (7+). iPhone, iPad and Mac sync via iCloud.
Who is hokd for?
Solopreneurs, freelancers, solo consultants, indie founders and authors — anyone who works without a boss and has to keep going without external pressure.
Trade the checkbox for a sentence.
Free, no account, for iPhone, Mac and Android.