Tools & tracking
Nomo vs Door 24: free clocks or a rolling record?
Nomo is free, has no ads according to its developer, tracks unlimited habits, and was built by one person in recovery who says plainly that he did not want to charge for it. If a clean private clock is what you need, Nomo is hard to argue with and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Door 24 is for the part Nomo does not attempt: what you do in the hour, and what you have to show afterwards.
Nomo is the one competitor where the honest comparison starts with a concession: it is free, it always has been, and the person who makes it has said publicly that he does not want your money.
Nomo vs Door 24: the short answer
Nomo is an unlimited, private, free sobriety clock with a 1 to 1 accountability partner system. Door 24 is a structured programme around a rolling score, five minute quests and documented Proofs.
If you want a clock, take the free one. If the clock has not been enough, that is the case for Door 24, and it is the only case worth making here.
What Nomo does well
It is genuinely free, and unusually principled about it. Their site says the developer intentionally does not charge, and explains why: many people will not download an app that has in app purchases at all. That is a real insight about the moment somebody decides to quit.
Unlimited clocks. No cap on any official page. Door 24 stops at ten. For most people ten is more than enough, but unlimited is unlimited.
Privacy first. Clocks are private by default, which is the correct default and not every app in this category chose it.
The partner system is direct. Encrypted 1 to 1 chat with somebody on the same path, plus public walls if you want a wider room. In August 2026 it showed roughly 4.8 stars from about 16,000 App Store ratings and 4.9 on Google Play, which for a solo project is remarkable.
Where Door 24 is built differently
The hour, not just the count
Nomo counts, and it counts well. What it does not do is tell you what to do at 6pm on the Friday the count is about to break. Their nearest feature is Refocus, a set of mini games for distraction.
Door 24's Daily Quests are five minute real world actions rather than something to tap at. Right Now for the urge that is happening this minute. Get Out for the days when the answer is a door. You come out the other side having done something, and the thing you did becomes part of the record.
A number that absorbs a bad day
Nomo's help centre is clear about the mechanic: after a slip you set a new sobriety date, and partners are notified that you reset. Whether previous streak history survives is not documented anywhere we could find, so we are not going to characterise it.
What we can say is what Door 24 does instead. There is no date to reset. The Growth Score is a 42 day rolling average of consistency, so a hard day moves a line and the month underneath it stays. For somebody who has reset a clock more than twice, that is the entire difference between the two apps.
Evidence you can look at
Nomo has a journal. Door 24 has Proofs of Progress, which is a different idea: the photo, video, voice note or line of text is the unit of progress, dated automatically and stacked into something you can point at rather than something you have to read back.
A crew rather than a partner
Nomo pairs you with one person and gives you public walls. A Door 24 Crew sits between those: a small private group with one shared daily pledge, so silence is visible to several people rather than one, without becoming a feed.
Side by side
Checked August 2026 against each company's own public materials.
| Nomo | Door 24 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, donation funded | Free to start, optional plan |
| Habits tracked | Unlimited | Up to 10 |
| After a slip | Set a new date, partners notified | Rolling average bends, Proofs stay |
| Progress measure | Day clocks and milestones | 42 day rolling average |
| Action for a craving | Refocus mini games | Daily Quests, about five minutes |
| Media capture | Not documented | Photo, video, voice, journal |
| Accountability | 1 to 1 partners, public walls | Small private Crew, daily pledge |
| Structured programme | None | Daily Quests |
| Money saved | Yes | Freedom Ledger, money and hours |
Who should pick which
Pick Nomo if price is the deciding factor, you want more than ten clocks, you want the simplest possible private counter, or you specifically want to support an independent developer in recovery. All four are good reasons and none of them are wrong.
Pick Door 24 if you have already had a clock and resetting it is the thing that keeps knocking you down, or if you want structure in the hour rather than a number at the end of it. Start free on iOS and Android.
Where our bias sits
We build Door 24, and we are comparing a paid product to a free one, which should make you read this more carefully rather than less. Every claim about Nomo comes from saynomo.com, its help centre, its App Store listing and its Google Play listing, checked in August 2026. We flagged the ads discrepancy above rather than picking whichever version suited us.
If the reset is what brought you here, read why streaks backfire and what to do after a relapse.
Sources
- Nomo, saynomo.com, checked August 2026.
- Nomo help centre articles on resetting and deleting a clock, checked August 2026.
- Nomo, App Store and Google Play listings, checked August 2026.
Frequently asked
Is Nomo really free?
Yes. The App Store lists it as free with no in app purchases, and the developer states on the site that he intentionally does not charge and relies on donations and other work. One thing to note: the site says there are no ads, while the Google Play listing carries a Contains ads badge. We could not resolve that conflict from their own materials, so we are reporting both.
How many habits can Nomo track?
Unlimited. Their App Store listing says you can create as many clocks as you need for any hurts, habits or hang ups, and no cap appears on any official page. Door 24 tracks up to ten. If you need more than ten clocks and nothing else, Nomo wins that outright.
What happens in Nomo after a slip?
You reset the clock to a new sobriety date rather than deleting it, and if you share the clock with accountability partners they are notified that you reset. Whether prior streak history is retained after a reset is not documented in their help centre, so we will not claim it either way. In Door 24 nothing resets: the Growth Score is a 42 day rolling average and captured Proofs stay on the timeline.
Does Nomo have quests or lessons?
No course or quest system is described in their materials. The closest is Refocus, a set of mini games meant to take your mind off a craving, plus a simple journal. Door 24's Daily Quests are five minute real world actions rather than in app games.
