SobrMate vs I Am Sober: Which App Wins in 2026?

I Am Sober is usually the first app that comes up when you search for a way to count your sober days. It has a 4.9 rating from about 187,000 reviews on iOS and a following built over years. SobrMate is newer and smaller, and it takes a slightly different approach in a few places.

This comparison looks at how the two apps deal with tracking, community, multiple addictions, and cost, so you can pick the one that fits how you actually want to approach recovery.

SobrMate and I Am Sober are both free, ad-free sobriety trackers with counters, a daily pledge, milestones, money saved, a journal, and communities organized by addiction. The differences are in the details. SobrMate tracks two habits free, has communities for 27 habits with paced posting, and sells its premium tier as a one-time lifetime purchase as well as a subscription. I Am Sober has a far larger community, an evening review, a withdrawal timeline, and trigger tracking, and its Sober Plus subscription adds private groups, app lock, cloud backup, and extra trackers. Choose I Am Sober for its size and depth, SobrMate for habit breadth beyond alcohol and a pay-once Premium option.

What I Am Sober Does Well

I Am Sober is built around a daily habit: every morning you make a pledge to stay sober for the day, and each evening you review your day. Your counter keeps climbing.

The features that have made it popular:

• A sobriety counter showing days, hours, and minutes
• A daily pledge with push reminders to anchor the habit, plus an evening review
• Milestone tracking with shareable cards at 30, 90, and 365 days
• Money and time saved, trigger tracking, a photo journal, and a withdrawal timeline
• Communities organized by addiction type and sobriety milestone

The free version covers all of that, with no ads. Sober Plus costs $9.99 a month or $29.99–$39.99 a year and adds private groups, app lock, cloud backup, and extra trackers.

What I Am Sober does best is ritual. The morning pledge gives your day a starting point, and watching a streak grow from 12 days to 90 is genuinely motivating when a craving hits. The community is also big, so posts rarely go unanswered.

If you want to track more than one addiction in I Am Sober, that’s part of Sober Plus.

What SobrMate Does Differently

SobrMate covers the same core tracking, then takes a slightly different approach in a few places.

The clearest difference is breadth. SobrMate has 27 communities organized by addiction type, from alcohol and smoking to vaping, gambling, gaming, social media, sugar, and procrastination, and you can track two habits free on their own counters (more with Premium).

Other features include:

• A daily pledge and a journal where you can log your mood
• Posting that’s paced to about once a week per community, so the feed stays meaningful
• Money and time saved on each counter
• Milestone badges for the markers that matter in your recovery
• Relapse logging that restarts a counter without erasing your history
• No ads, and no account needed to start

The free version covers all of the above. SobrMate’s premium tier, which is also called Sober Plus, adds unlimited counters, private support groups, detailed stats, home-screen widgets, and color themes. It can be bought as a weekly or yearly subscription, or once as a lifetime purchase ($29.99 at the time of writing).

SobrMate doesn’t try to be a social network or a coaching program. It’s a tracker with community attached, aimed at people quitting habits beyond alcohol, or two at once, who want to talk with others quitting the same thing.

SobrMate vs I Am Sober: Side-by-Side

SobrMate and I Am Sober solve the same problem in similar ways. Both are free, have no ads, build around a daily pledge, count money and time saved, and organize their communities by addiction. I Am Sober adds an evening review, a withdrawal timeline, trigger tracking, and a much larger community, and its Sober Plus subscription ($9.99 a month or $29.99–$39.99 a year) adds private groups, app lock, cloud backup, and extra trackers. SobrMate tracks two habits free, has communities for 27 habits with paced posting, and pairs its pledge with a mood journal; its premium tier adds unlimited counters, private groups, detailed stats, and widgets, and is available as a one-time lifetime purchase. In a direct feature comparison, I Am Sober wins on community size, track record, and the depth of its free features, while SobrMate wins on habit breadth beyond alcohol and on letting you pay once instead of subscribing.

Here’s how they line up feature by feature:

Feature	SobrMate	I Am Sober
Sobriety counter	Yes (days/hours)	Yes (days/hours/minutes)
Multi-addiction tracking	2 free, unlimited with Premium	More addictions with Sober Plus
Daily pledge	Yes	Yes, plus evening review
Journal	Yes, with optional mood	Photo journal
Community	Communities by addiction type (27 habits)	Communities by addiction and milestone
Private groups	Premium	Sober Plus
Savings calculator	Yes (free)	Yes (free)
Milestone celebrations	Yes	Yes
Ads	None	None
Premium pricing	Weekly, yearly, or one-time lifetime	$9.99/mo or $29.99–$39.99/yr
Platforms	iOS, Android	iOS, Android

For most people the deciding lines are community size, which favors I Am Sober, and whether you’re quitting something beyond alcohol or would rather pay once than subscribe, which favors SobrMate.

Cost: Free vs Premium

I Am Sober is free with no ads, and the free tier is genuinely usable: the tracker, pledge, money and time saved, journal, milestones, and community are all included. Sober Plus costs $9.99 a month, $27.49 for six months, or $29.99–$39.99 a year, and adds private groups, app lock, cloud backup, and extra trackers.

SobrMate’s free version includes two counters, money and time saved, the pledge, the mood journal, milestones, and the communities, also with no ads. Its premium tier adds unlimited counters, private groups, detailed stats, and widgets, and it can be bought once as a lifetime purchase instead of paid every year. For someone in early recovery who doesn’t want another subscription, that’s a real difference.

If you want the wider field before deciding, our roundup of the best sobriety apps in 2026 breaks down a dozen options, and our list of I Am Sober alternatives goes deeper on what each one does differently.

Which One Fits Your Recovery?

It comes down to what you’re quitting, how much the community’s size matters, and how you’d rather pay if you upgrade.

I Am Sober is the better fit if:

• You’re focused on one substance or behavior and want a morning-and-evening ritual around it
• A large, active community is what keeps you posting and showing up
• You want extras like a withdrawal timeline and trigger tracking
• You don’t mind a subscription for private groups and extra trackers

SobrMate is the better fit if:

• You’re quitting something beyond alcohol, like vaping, gambling, gaming, or social media
• You want to track two habits without paying
• You’d rather buy Premium once than subscribe
• You like paced posting that keeps the community feed focused

If you’re recovering from more than one thing at once, our guide to polysubstance recovery covers why tracking each one separately helps.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the main difference between SobrMate and I Am Sober?

Both are free, ad-free trackers built around a daily pledge, money saved, and communities organized by addiction. SobrMate tracks two habits free, has communities for 27 habits with paced posting, and offers its premium tier as a one-time lifetime purchase. I Am Sober has a much larger community, an evening review and withdrawal timeline, and a Sober Plus subscription ($29.99–$39.99 a year) that adds private groups, app lock, cloud backup, and extra trackers.

Is SobrMate actually free?

Yes. SobrMate’s free version includes two counters with money and time saved, the daily pledge, a mood journal, milestone badges, and the addiction-type communities, with no ads. Unlimited counters, private support groups, detailed stats, and widgets are part of its optional premium tier.

Does I Am Sober track more than one addiction?

Yes, with Sober Plus. I Am Sober lets you set your goal to any substance or behavior, and tracking more addictions is part of its Sober Plus subscription. SobrMate tracks two habits free, with more on its premium tier.

Can I switch from I Am Sober to SobrMate without losing my progress?

There’s no direct data import between the two apps, but you can set your sober date in SobrMate to match your real start date, so your day count carries over even if your history doesn’t. From there your counter continues as normal.

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Both apps do their job. I Am Sober has the bigger community and a morning-and-evening ritual that works well if you’re focused on one goal. SobrMate gives you two free counters, communities for habits well beyond alcohol, and the option to buy Premium once instead of subscribing.

If you’re quitting something beyond alcohol, or two things at once, download SobrMate and start your first counter today.