FailFee vs. habit trackers
Most habit trackers ask you to grade your own honesty and hope a streak is enough. FailFee is membership plus a real cost on missing the deadline. Here's the mechanism, side by side.
| Checkbox habit tracker | FailFee | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of missing a day | None. A streak resets and you start again. | A real $5–$100 Stripe hold is captured as a fee. |
| How completion is checked | Self-reported — you tap a checkbox. | A photo checked against the description you wrote, plus review for ambiguous cases. |
| Deadline pressure | Open-ended; you can restart a streak any time. | A hard deadline of at most 5 days 12 hours. No extensions. |
| What happens after you commit | You can skip, snooze, or delete the habit any time. | No canceling once the hold is authorized — the contract is live. |
| Ongoing cost | Often a subscription, whether you use it or not. | Membership to use the builder, plus the $5–$100 stake you set per contract. |
Habit trackers are still useful for building routine on things you already do reliably. FailFee is for the specific commitment you keep breaking, where a checkbox hasn't worked and you need a real cost on the other side of the deadline.