Beeminder vs Exist (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Beeminder grades higher than Exist: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Beeminder grades higher on features. Exist grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Beeminder
Goal tracker that charges you money when you fall behind
Exist
Personal analytics that joins fitness, mood and habit data
Which one is for you
Pick Beeminder if
- Fits if real money on the line is what gets you moving
- Works for people whose fitness tracker or other apps can report their numbers through the free integrations or the API
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if being charged for a bad week would sting, as derailing charges your pledge on every plan, free included
- Tight if you stay free, as goals are capped and the cap only rises when you pay for a derailment
- Pricey if you want unlimited goals ($8 a month), auto-ratchet and weekends off ($16) or goals with no pledge ($81)
- Not for you if you'd rather not learn Bright Red Lines, derailments and safety buffers before your first goal
- Watch out: the SMS bot works with US numbers only and needs Bee Plus, and there's no Mac or Windows app
Pick Exist if
- Fits if you already wear a tracker and want to see what affects your mood or sleep
- Works for people who like numbers more than streaks
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a simple daily habit checklist
- Tight if you need a free plan, because after 30 days it's $6.99 a month
- Watch out: business accounts are priced separately and the page shows no figure
- Watch out: it needs your other services connected to say anything useful
How we grade them
| 2.4GPABeeminderFair | 2.2GPAExistFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DUnlimited goals means Infinibee at $8 a month, where the middle of this category is $3.33. The controls you'd actually want, auto-ratchet, weekends off and custom goals, sit on Bee Plus at $16, and goals with no pledge at all are Beemium at $81. There's 14% off for paying yearly, which doesn't close that gap. | C$6.99 a month, or $62.90 a year (about $5.24 a month), against $5.99 where the dearer quarter of habit trackers starts. One plan with everything in it. |
| Free plan and trial | CCore is free and gets you unlimited data, pledge caps, scheduled breaks, every integration and the API. But the number of goals is capped, and the cap only rises when you pay for a derailment. And free here still takes your money the week you slip. | C30-day free trial, then paid. There's no free plan, and the trial's card rule isn't stated on the page. |
| Features | AAnything you can put a number on, plotted against a line you committed to, with dozens of services reporting for you: Fitbit, Garmin, Strava, Duolingo, Todoist, RescueTime. The other pledge apps here take your word for it. Beeminder's charge comes off data that arrives on its own. | CConnects Apple Health, Garmin, Oura, Strava, Todoist and more, with mood and manual tracking and correlations. It finds trends but isn't a habit checklist. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record, and there's a vocabulary waiting for you: Bright Red Lines, derailments, pledges, safety buffer, auto-ratchet. Once a device is wired up it reports by itself, but setting a rate you can live with is a judgement call on day one. | CNo store rating on record. You connect your services first, and the insights need some weeks of data. |
| Platforms and integrations | BFitbit, Garmin, Strava, Apple Health, Duolingo, Todoist, RescueTime, IFTTT and Zapier, with a public API, all on the free plan. But it's web and phones, with no Mac or Windows app, and the SMS bot is US numbers on Bee Plus and up. | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with a long list of connected services. No desktop app. |
| Best for | number goals with real money riding on them | finding patterns across your tracked data |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Beeminder and Exist. How we grade
Price against what you get
Beeminder starts at $8 a month and scores 3.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Exist starts at $5.24 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.3.
Beeminder scores higher, and starts $2.76 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other habit trackers on the chart, 2 score higher than Beeminder for less, and 18 score higher than Exist for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Beeminder also covers goals.
- Exist also covers mood tracking.
At a glance
| Beeminder | Exist | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $8 per month for Infinibee, billed monthly (14% off when paid yearly) | $6.99 per month, or $62.90 per year |
| Free plan | Core Beeminder: a limited number of goals with unlimited data, pledge caps, scheduled breaks, every app and all autodata integrations. Derailing still charges your pledge. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 30-day free trial, then $6.99 per month |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Beeminder | Hello Code |
| Price read from | beeminder.com | exist.io |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Beeminder
- Derailing a goal charges your pledge to Beeminder, on the free plan as well as on the paid ones.
- The free Core plan tracks a limited number of goals; the limit rises each time you pay for a derailment.
- Goals with no pledges and the option to send half of a pledge to charity are limited to Beemium at $81 per month.
- The SMS bot works with US numbers only and needs Bee Plus or Beemium.
Exist
- There is no free plan; after the 30-day trial it costs $6.99 a month.
- Its pricing is for individual accounts only, so teams need to ask about a business account.
- The page does not show a price for business accounts, which are priced separately.
Key features
Beeminder
- Bright Red Line graphs
- Every goal gets a graph with a Bright Red Line showing the rate you committed to. The steepness can be adjusted as you go, and you can walk away from a goal with one week's notice.
- Pledges on every goal
- Crossing the line charges your pledge, which then rises through a fixed schedule from $5 to $2,430 unless you cap it. The FAQ says the first attempt is free.
- Autodata integrations
- Dozens of integrations report data automatically, including Fitbit, Garmin, Strava, Apple Health, Duolingo, Todoist and RescueTime. All are included in the free plan.
- Several ways to report
- Enter numbers on the web dashboard, in the iOS or Android app, by replying to the bot's emails or in Slack. An SMS bot for US numbers comes with Bee Plus.
- API, IFTTT and Zapier
- A public API and connections to IFTTT and Zapier allow custom automation, and are part of the free Core plan.
- Breaks and safety buffer
- Breaks can be scheduled and pledges capped on any plan. After a derailment the goal restarts with a week of safety buffer by default.
Exist
- Connected services
- Syncs data from services such as Apple Health, Health Connect, Garmin, Oura, Withings, Strava, RescueTime, Toggl and Todoist.
- Manual tracking
- Create your own data points as a quantity, time period, 1 to 9 scale, percentage or time of day, or tag a day with an event.
- Correlations
- Looks for relationships between your tracked items and lets you run experiments to confirm or rule out a hunch about your behavior.
- Mood tracking
- Records how you feel each day, including by email, and compares it with your other data to show which behaviors line up with good days.
- Insights and summaries
- Gives daily insights, long-term trends and averages, plus a weekly summary email.
Plans
Beeminder
Core Beeminder$0
A limited number of goals with unlimited data, pledge caps, scheduled breaks, every app and integration, and API access. Derailments charge your pledge.
Infinibee$8
per month, billed monthly
Unlimited goals, exotic goal types and a subscription that stops renewing by itself if you stop using Beeminder.
Bee Plus$16
per month, billed monthly
Everything in Infinibee, plus auto-ratchet, custom goals, weekends off, the graph editor and an SMS bot for US numbers.
Beemium$81
per month, billed monthly
Everything in Bee Plus, plus goals with no pledges, pledge short-circuiting, a 50% charity option and chat access to the developers.
Exist
Exist subscription$6.99
per month, billed monthly ($62.90 billed annually)
One plan with every feature. Prices are for individual accounts; business accounts are priced separately.
Ways to pay less
Beeminder
- Annual discount
14% off when paying yearly
The pricing page's discount slider gives 14% off premium plans paid yearly, and the discount grows with longer payment intervals, up to two years.
- Education
Student and senior discounts on request
The premium FAQ says Beeminder has student and senior discounts and asks those who may qualify to get in touch. It does not state the amounts.
- Other savings
Discounts for jobseekers and non-OECD residents
The same FAQ lists discounts for jobseekers and for people living in non-OECD countries, also arranged by contacting support.
Exist
- Annual discount
25% off with yearly billing
Exist's home page lists $62.90 per year, which it states is 25% off the monthly price.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Beeminder or Exist?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Exist is cheaper to start with: $5.24 a month when paid by the year, against $8 a month for Beeminder. Beeminder starts at $8 per month for Infinibee, billed monthly (14% off when paid yearly), and Exist starts at $6.99 per month, or $62.90 per year.
Which has a free plan, Beeminder or Exist?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Beeminder has a free plan. Exist does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.