Best Dry January App for 2027 (Ranked and Compared)

Thirty-one days without alcohol sounds manageable until day 4 hits and your Friday routine kicks in like nothing changed. A dedicated dry january app doesn’t just count days. It makes your streak visible, which gives you something concrete to protect.

Research from Alcohol Change UK found that people who use its dedicated app are twice as likely to complete a full month alcohol-free compared to going it without any tracking tool. The right choice depends on one question: do you want a focused 31-day challenge tool, or something you’ll still open after January ends?

This guide covers three apps worth your time: Try Dry, SobrMate, and Sober Days. Each works differently, and you don’t need more than one.

The best dry january app for most people is either Try Dry or SobrMate. Try Dry is completely free, built by Alcohol Change UK, and purpose-built for the 31-day challenge with daily wellbeing tracking and 57 achievement badges. SobrMate is the better pick if you want to track more than alcohol or plan to keep the habit going past February.

What to Look for in a Dry January App

Dry January has grown into one of the largest public health campaigns of its kind. According to Alcohol Change UK, 17.5 million people in the UK planned to participate in January 2026, roughly one in three adults and the highest number on record. Research by de Visser (2019), commissioned by Alcohol Change UK with participants who completed the challenge, found that 86% saved money, 81% felt more in control of their drinking, 70% slept better, 66% had more energy, and 65% reported generally improved health over the month.

A follow-up study by de Visser and Nicholls (2020) found that 70% of daily app users showed significantly improved wellbeing and lower alcohol health risk scores six months after the challenge ended, not just during January itself. Alcohol Change UK’s own data shows that Try Dry app users are twice as likely to complete the month compared to people who attempt Dry January without any tracking tool. These outcomes depend on more than willpower: they show up consistently when people have visible progress and a streak worth protecting.

Three factors separate apps that actually help from ones you’ll delete by day 10. First, does it track more than days? Money saved, mood, sleep quality, and cravings give the month meaning beyond the number itself. Second, what’s free? Most people pick a Dry January app once a year, and a paywall on day 1 will get deleted quickly. Third, what happens on day 32? An app designed only for January leaves you without support the moment the challenge ends.

Try Dry: The Official Dry January App

Try Dry is built and maintained by Alcohol Change UK, the charity that launched the official Dry January campaign in 2012. It’s completely free with no premium tier, no ads, and no hidden charges.

The app tracks units, calories, and money saved from not drinking. It also monitors four wellbeing metrics each day: mood, energy, sleep quality, and craving intensity. You can set a full abstinence goal for the month or a custom goal, for example a weekly unit limit on specific days. An encrypted private notes section handles journaling, and 57 achievement badges unlock as you hit milestones and complete challenge missions.

Try Dry includes a “planned drinking” mode for people doing Damp January rather than full abstinence. The app runs on iOS and Android and is available in English, French, German, Norwegian, Italian, and Welsh.

The main limitation: it was designed around a calendar-month challenge. Once February arrives, the structure shifts and there’s less reason to keep opening it regularly.

Best for: people who want the official Dry January experience with daily wellbeing tracking across four metrics, and a completely free tool with no account required.

SobrMate: Best for Year-Round Habit Tracking

SobrMate tracks sobriety across 27 habit types: alcohol, vaping, energy drinks, cannabis, gaming, social media, shopping, and more. That scope makes it useful for people quitting more than just alcohol in January, or for anyone who wants an app they’ll still find useful come March.

The free tier includes up to 2 sobriety counters, each with its own day count, milestones, and money and time saved tracker. You could run an alcohol counter alongside a vaping or energy drink counter at the same time without paying anything. The app also has a daily pledge, a journal with an optional mood tracker, and a moderated community feed sorted by addiction type: you post in the communities that match the habits you’re tracking.

SobrMate keeps your full relapse history when you restart a counter. A slip doesn’t wipe out your previous progress. That design choice matters because recovery isn’t always a straight line, and an app that resets to zero at the first mistake often gets deleted at exactly the wrong moment.

There are no ads, and no account is required to get started. If you want cloud backup across devices, you can sign in with Apple or Google at any point.

Premium (“Sober Plus”) adds unlimited counters, private support groups, detailed stats, home-screen widgets, and all color themes. It’s available as a weekly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase; the lifetime price was $29.99 on the App Store as of September 2026 (check the current listing before purchasing, as pricing can change).

Best for: people tracking more than one habit during January, or anyone who wants to keep their streak going after the month ends.

Sober Days: Best for Visual Progress

Sober Days (by Assylbek Issatayev) takes a visual approach to habit tracking. The free tier gives you a customizable sobriety counter, a year-overview calendar that fills in as your dry days accumulate, daily motivational quotes, and a recovery timeline showing your full history.

An anonymous community journal lets you read and post short reflections from other users. A social sharing feature lets you export a milestone image if you want to mark a specific day publicly.

Premium adds home-screen widgets, multiple counters, achievement badges, and a savings tracker. Based on App Store in-app purchase listings fetched for this article, pricing starts at $0.99 per month with a lifetime option at $79.99. Verify current pricing in the App Store before purchasing.

The app holds a 4.7 out of 5 rating on the App Store from 161 ratings at the time of writing. Users most often highlight the year-overview calendar as the feature that makes staying sober feel cumulative: watching the grid fill in day by day is a stronger motivator than a lone number.

Best for: people who respond to visual progress tracking and want a clean, minimal interface without a subscription commitment.

How to Pick the Right App for Your January

If you want the official Dry January experience with daily wellbeing tracking and proven effectiveness research behind it, Try Dry is the clear choice. It’s free, it was built for exactly this challenge, and Alcohol Change UK’s research backs its effectiveness.

If you’re quitting more than alcohol, or want something that works just as well on February 15, SobrMate’s free 2-counter tier handles it without a subscription. The community organized by habit type also gives you a feed that’s relevant to what you’re actually tracking.

If you respond to visual streaks and want a minimal, design-forward interface, Sober Days delivers that with a lower barrier to premium than most competitors.

You can also track your sober days, estimated money saved, and next milestone using our free sobriety calculator, which works in any browser without downloading anything.

For strategies to get through all 31 days, see our Dry January tips guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a free Dry January app?

Try Dry by Alcohol Change UK is completely free with no premium tier, no ads, and no charges of any kind. SobrMate also has a strong free tier: up to 2 sobriety counters, a daily pledge, a journal with mood tracking, community access, and money and time saved calculations. Both run on iOS and Android.

What’s the difference between Try Dry and SobrMate for Dry January?

Try Dry is purpose-built for the Dry January challenge with four wellbeing metrics (mood, energy, sleep, cravings), 57 badges, and support from Alcohol Change UK. SobrMate covers 27 habit types, runs year-round, and lets you track 2 habits for free. Try Dry fits better for January only; SobrMate is the stronger pick if you plan to keep going after the month ends.

What happens if I slip up during Dry January?

SobrMate keeps your full history when you restart a counter, so a slip doesn’t erase your previous days. Try Dry also handles setbacks without forcing a hard reset. Both apps are designed around the reality that completing a challenge often involves at least one stumble along the way.

Can a Dry January app work for Damp January too?

Try Dry supports custom goals including unit limits and specific drink-free days, making it well-suited to Damp January. SobrMate’s counters work for full abstinence or significant reduction goals across any of the 27 habit categories it tracks.

Does using a Dry January app actually improve your chances?

According to Alcohol Change UK, Try Dry users are twice as likely to complete a month alcohol-free. A 2020 study by de Visser and Nicholls found that 70% of daily app users showed significantly improved wellbeing and lower alcohol health risk scores six months after the challenge ended, compared to their baseline.

Dry January gets easier when you have a streak to watch and a number to protect. Download SobrMate free on the App Store or Google Play. Set your Dry January counter today and start tracking your money saved from day one.