21DayForge

A no-nonsense, free, open-source 21-day challenge tracker for iOS and macOS.

Why I Built This

I was tired. Tired of every habit tracker out there locking basic features behind a paywall. Tired of $4.99/month subscriptions just to tick off a checkbox. Tired of bloated apps that do everything except the one thing I needed: help me stick to a habit for 21 days.

So I built 21DayForge for myself. And now it's free for you too. No subscriptions. No ads. No "premium tier". Just a clean, focused tool to forge habits that stick.

What It Does

• 21-Day Challenges - Create a challenge, commit for 21 days, track your progress
• One-Tap Daily Check-In - Mark today as done with a single tap from the Today view
• Streaks & Stats - See your current streak, longest streak, and overall progress
• Heatmap View - GitHub-style activity heatmap showing your consistency over time
• Freeze Days - Life happens. Use freeze days when you need a break without losing your streak
• Daily Shloka - A verse from the Bhagavad Gita to start your day with intention
• iCloud Sync - Your data syncs across all your Apple devices via CloudKit
• Dark Mode - Full support for light, dark, and system appearance
• iPad & Mac - Adaptive layout with sidebar navigation on larger screens

Screenshots

Requirements

• iOS 18.0+ / macOS 15.0+
• Xcode 16.0+
• An Apple ID (free)

Full Disclaimer :

• I am providing the App for free, Sorry I do not have the budget to host it on Apple Store for $99/year. Hence you may have to reinstall the app after every 7 days. I know its a pain, but these are the compromises we need to live with.

Installation

Since this app isn't on the App Store (I'm not paying Apple $99/year for the privilege), here's how to get it on your device:

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/chinmayrozekar/21DayForge.git

2. Open in Xcode

   cd 21DayForge
   open 21DayForge.xcodeproj

3. Set your team

   • Select the project in the navigator
   • Under Signing & Capabilities, change the Team to your Apple ID

4. Run on your device

   • Connect your iPhone via USB
   • Select it from the device picker in Xcode's toolbar
   • Press Cmd + R

5. Trust the developer (first time only)

   • On your iPhone: Settings > General > VPN & Device Management
   • Tap your developer profile and tap Trust

What about the 7-day signing limit?

With a free Apple ID, the provisioning profile expires every 7 days. Here's what that means in practice:

• Day 1–7: App works perfectly.
• Day 8: The app won't open (it crashes on launch). Plug your iPhone into your Mac, open Xcode, and press Cmd + R — takes about 30 seconds.
• Day 8–14: Works perfectly again.
• Day 15: Re-sign one more time.
• Day 15–21: Finish your challenge.

Your data is never lost. Re-installing from Xcode preserves all your challenges, streaks, and progress — iOS treats it as an update, not a fresh install. If you have iCloud sync enabled, your data is also backed up in CloudKit.

So yes, you'll need to re-sign twice during a 21-day challenge. A small price for not paying $99/year.

Tech Stack

• SwiftUI - Declarative UI
• SwiftData - Persistence with CloudKit sync
• Swift Concurrency - Modern async/await patterns
• Zero dependencies - No third-party packages

Project Structure

21DayForge/
├── Models/
│   ├── Challenge.swift          # Core data model (SwiftData)
│   ├── NotificationManager.swift # Daily reminder notifications
│   └── ShlokaData.swift         # Bhagavad Gita verses
├── Views/
│   ├── TodayView.swift          # Daily overview & quick check-in
│   ├── ChallengeListView.swift  # All challenges list
│   ├── ChallengeDetailView.swift # 21-day grid & progress
│   ├── StatsView.swift          # Streaks & statistics
│   ├── HeatmapView.swift        # GitHub-style activity heatmap
│   ├── NewChallengeView.swift   # Create a challenge
│   ├── EditChallengeView.swift  # Edit a challenge
│   ├── SettingsView.swift       # App settings
│   └── OnboardingView.swift     # First-launch experience
├── ContentView.swift            # Root navigation (TabView / Sidebar)
└── _1DayForgeApp.swift          # App entry point

Roadmap

• Android port (in the pipeline)
• Apple Watch companion app
• Widgets for Home Screen
• Export/import challenge data
• Custom challenge durations (7, 14, 30, 60, 90 days)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Whether it's a bug fix, new feature, or the Android port — open an issue or submit a PR.

If you're interested in building the Android version, I'd especially love to hear from you.

License

MIT License - do whatever you want with it. Just don't charge people a subscription for a checkbox app.

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Built with frustration and SwiftUI by Chinmay Rozekar