If you’ve been using HabitHeat for a while, you might have noticed that things have changed.
HabitHeat v2 is now live, and it’s not just an update. It’s a complete rebuild.
I want to explain why I rebuilt HabitHeat from scratch, what that means for you as an existing user, and where I want to take the project next.
This post is mainly for those of you who have already been using HabitHeat. New visitors are welcome too, of course, but this is really about transparency and context.
Why HabitHeat needed a rebuild
Short version: v1 became hard to work with.
Over time, the codebase grew in ways that made it:
- difficult to maintain
- slower than it should be
- limiting in terms of UX and future features
HabitHeat v1 dashboard. Built organically over time, functional but increasingly hard to extend and maintain.
The longer I worked on it, the clearer it became that every new feature or improvement was harder than it needed to be. Performance issues, UX compromises, and architectural decisions from the early days kept piling up.
At the same time, my own expectations changed.
I had a clearer vision of what HabitHeat should be, not just a habit tracker, but a tool that helps you actually understand your habits through data.
At some point, fixing v1 no longer made sense.
Rebuilding was the only honest option.
Why data can’t be migrated automatically
This is the part that sucks, for you and for me.
HabitHeat v2 uses a completely new data model. Habits are tracked differently, with different fields and a structure designed for better performance, cleaner analytics, and long-term flexibility.
Because of that, there’s no safe or simple way to migrate data automatically from v1 to v2.
I know this is frustrating.
I’m in the same position, I have over three years of meditation data in v1 that I now have to move manually.
Yes, I could have built an import/export tool. But if something goes wrong there, the result is usually worse than doing it carefully by hand. For something as personal as habit data, I didn’t want to risk silent errors.
Your data is not lost.
It’s still fully available in v1, and you can continue using it there or manually transfer what matters to you.
What v1 means going forward
HabitHeat v1 is now frozen.
- No new features
- No bug fixes
- No maintenance updates
It exists so you can:
- access your old data
- manually move habits to v2 at your own pace
v1 will remain available for an undefined amount of time, but all future development happens exclusively in v2.
If you’re curious about future updates and new changes, check out the changelog.
What’s different in HabitHeat v2
The focus of v2 is simple:
- cleaner habit tracking
- significantly better performance
- a much more consistent and calm UI
- better statistics and deeper insights
HabitHeat v2 dashboard. A calmer UI and a structure designed for performance, clarity, and long-term flexibility.
There’s no premium model right now. Everything in v2 is free. The goal is to make the core experience genuinely useful without friction.
That said, v2 is not “done”.
Currently, v2 supports:
- checkbox habits
- number-based habits
Some things from v1 are still missing, for example option-based tracking (like mood: good / okay / bad). These will come back, along with new tracking types, including time-based tracking with a stopwatch.
v2 is best described as:
a solid foundation and a work in progress.
And that’s intentional.
A bit of personal context
This is actually the third time I’ve rebuilt HabitHeat.
The project started under a different name, with a different use case. Each rebuild taught me something, and each one made the next easier. This time, for the first time, it really feels like the foundation is right.
HabitHeat is my first long-term project.
I’ve been working on it for over two years now, sometimes intensely, sometimes barely at all, but I never really let it go.
It’s my baby.
And v2 is the first version where I feel confident building forward without immediately thinking about the next rewrite.
Where HabitHeat is heading
My long-term goal with HabitHeat isn’t just personal tracking.
I want to use the (fully anonymized) data people generate to:
- identify patterns in habits
- understand what helps people stick to routines
- share meaningful, data-driven insights via blog posts or YouTube
Not in a surveillance way.
Not in a creepy way.
But in a way that genuinely helps people build habits, fall off, get back on track, and understand themselves a bit better.
Thank you
If you’ve used HabitHeat before, thank you.
If you’re trying v2 now, thank you even more.
I know the transition isn’t perfect.
But I believe this rebuild was necessary to make HabitHeat something that can actually grow into what it’s meant to be.
If you’re curious, give v2 a try here: app.habitheat.com
If not, v1 will still be there for you here: v1.habitheat.com
Either way, I really appreciate you being here.
Philip from HabitHeat.com