Gamified Skill Tracker: ProgressForge Levels Up Real Skills
In a role-playing game, every hour you grind shows up as a number that goes up. Learning tennis, Spanish or programming in real life gives you no such number, and that is often when people quit. ProgressForge adds the number back. You log the hours you put into a skill, earn XP, and watch the skill level up. This piece covers how the logs, quests and charts work, what the lifetime membership costs, and which other apps do the same job.
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Is there an app that tracks real-life skills with RPG levels and XP?
Yes. ProgressForge, a web app, lets you add the skills you are learning, log the hours you put in with a difficulty level, and earn XP that levels each skill up. Quests pay bonus XP, charts show your progress over time, and a public page shares your levels. It costs $46.99 once or $4.99 a month.
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Is there an app that tracks real-life skills with RPG levels and XP?
In short
Yes. ProgressForge treats each skill you practise as a character stat. Every log records the date, the hours you worked, a difficulty level from 1 to 100 and an optional note, and earns XP. The XP fills a bar toward the next level, and each skill keeps its own level, total hours and total experience.
A gamified skill tracker built on logs
You start by adding skills, each with an emoji: Cooking, Tennis, Writing, whatever you are working on. After a session you create a log. A log can be as short as 0.01 hours or as long as 24, and the difficulty you set scales the reward: in the developer's own screenshot, 4 hours of skiing at difficulty 10 earned 620 XP, while 15 minutes of cooking at difficulty 2 earned 30. Logs can be edited, copied or deleted later.
Quests for bonus XP
A quest is a goal you define, such as “Make 10 grain bowls” or “Get my first 10 customers”. You attach the skills it trains, and logs filed against the quest earn bonus XP. Completing the quest pays a further XP reward to each attached skill. The quest page shows its status, a quest level, the hours logged so far and every log that counted toward it.
Up to 50 skills: enough for a full character sheet of hobbies, sports and work skills.
No streaks: there are no daily check-ins to break. A quiet week only costs the XP you did not earn.
Manual by design: you type the hours in. There is no timer and no automatic tracking, so the levels are only as honest as your logs.
Charts and a public skill page
In short
Each skill has an analysis page with total hours, total XP, charts of hours and XP over time, hours per week and the XP still needed for the next level. Sharing turns on a public page that lists every skill with its level and a total level, for a bio link or a friend.
The public page needs no account to view. The developer's own shows ten skills, from programming at level 37 to table tennis at level 2, adding up to a total level of 138. Only levels appear there; your individual logs and notes stay private. The home page suggests putting the link in a Linktree or social profile.
Lifetime membership vs monthly
In short
Both plans unlock the same features: up to 50 skills, unlimited logs, unlimited quests and the public skill page. The Monthly Membership is $4.99 a month. The Lifetime Membership is $46.99 once. There is a free trial to start, and the developer refunds a purchase on request within 7 days.
Skill tracker lifetime purchase: the break-even
$46.99 once equals about 9.4 months of the $4.99 plan. Learning a skill usually takes longer than that, so if the levelling keeps you practising past the first season, the lifetime membership is the cheaper route. If you only want to test whether a game layer helps you, a month or two on the subscription costs less. The site shows both prices next to struck-through anchors of $9.99 and $99.99; the prices you actually pay are the lower ones.
Lifetime
$46.99 once
Monthly
$4.99
Break-even
~9.4 months
Skills
Up to 50
Runs in
Any browser
Refund
7 days
ProgressForge vs Habitica, Skillorum, lvluplife and ulives
In short
ProgressForge is not the only app that turns real effort into XP. Skillorum, free on iPhone, also converts timed hours into skill XP and has quests. Habitica is free and far bigger, but it scores habits and to-dos. ProgressForge's differences are a browser app, difficulty-weighted logs, multi-skill quests, a public skill page and a one-time price.
| App | Price | Buy once? | What earns XP | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ProgressForge this one this article | $4.99/mo after a free trial | Yes, $46.99 lifetime | Logged hours on a skill, weighted by difficulty | Web browser |
Habitica optional subscription | Free; $4.99/mo or $47.99/yr | No | Habits, dailies and to-dos | iPhone, Android, web |
Skillorum indie app | Free, no in-app purchases listed | Nothing to buy | Timed hours on a skill, plus quests | iPhone |
lvluplife subscription | $4.99/mo or $44.99/yr after 7-day trial | No | Completed habits, allocated to skills | iPhone |
ulives premium upgrade | Free; Premium $9.99 | Not stated | Tasks, habits and focus timers | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
A Habitica alternative for skills, not chores
If you want to gamify chores, dailies and a to-do list with a party of friends, Habitica is the stronger and cheaper choice: it is free, and its subscription is optional. If you are on iPhone and want a timer that turns sessions into skill XP at no cost, try Skillorum first. ProgressForge earns its place if you want to log practice from any browser, weight hard sessions above easy ones, tie several skills to one goal, show your levels on a public page, and pay once instead of every month.
Who ProgressForge suits, and who should skip it
In short
It suits people learning several skills at once who grew up on RPGs, like to see hours add up into levels, and are happy to log by hand after each session. Skip it if you want a phone app, a built-in timer, habit streaks, reminders or automatic time tracking.
ProgressForge is a one-person project by Will Ness, who built it to swap phone and social media time for real practice. Its terms date from November 2024, and you need an account with a name and email, since your logs are stored on its servers. The home page says 92% of people give up on learning a new skill but cites no study, so treat that figure as motivation rather than data.
Before you buy lifetime
Use the free trial to log a week of real sessions, and check that the XP and levels actually make you want to practise. Prices were verified on 28 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is the ProgressForge lifetime membership worth it?
If you will use it for more than about nine and a half months, yes. Lifetime costs $46.99 once and monthly costs $4.99, so the one-time price equals about 9.4 months of the subscription. Both tiers unlock exactly the same features: up to 50 skills, unlimited logs and quests, and the public skill page. Start with the free trial, and note that the developer refunds purchases on request within 7 days.
Can I share my skill levels with other people?
Yes. The Sharing page turns on a public skill page that lists each of your skills with its current level, plus a total level across all of them. Anyone with the link can see it without an account, so it works as a link in a social bio or a Linktree. Your individual logs and notes are not shown there, only the levels.
Is there a ProgressForge app for iPhone or Android?
No. ProgressForge is a web app that runs in the browser, so you use it from a desktop or a phone browser after signing in. There is no native iPhone, Android or Mac app, no offline mode and no home screen widget.
How does ProgressForge calculate XP?
Each log records the hours you worked (from 0.01 to 24) and a difficulty level you choose from 1 to 100. Harder and longer sessions earn more XP, and logging work toward an active quest adds bonus XP, as does completing the quest. The numbers are self-reported, so the levels are only as honest as your logs.
Does ProgressForge have a timer or habit streaks?
No. You type in the hours after a session; there is no built-in stopwatch, no automatic time tracking and no integrations. There are also no streaks or daily check-ins, so a missed week costs you nothing except the XP you did not earn.
Is ProgressForge the only app that turns practice hours into XP?
No. Skillorum, a free iPhone app, also turns timed hours into XP for custom skills and has quests and charts. Habitica is free and far bigger, but it scores habits and to-dos rather than hours on a skill. ProgressForge’s differences are that it runs in any browser, weights each log by difficulty, ties several skills to one quest, has a public skill page, and offers a one-time price.
Sources
- 1
Product page: skills, XP, progress charts, quests with bonus XP, shareable levels; pricing ($4.99 a month or $46.99 once, same features); FAQ with the 7-day refund.
- 2
ProgressForge: the developer’s public skill page
A live example of the public page: each skill with its level and a total level.
- 3
ProgressForge affiliate program
Describes the app as a skill tracker inspired by classic RPG levelling, with one-time purchase, lifetime access.
- 4
ProgressForge terms of service
Account data collected (name, email, skills and time); terms effective 23 November 2024.
- 5
Free; subscriptions $4.99 for 1 month, $14.99 for 3, $29.99 for 6, $47.99 for 12; habits, dailies, to-dos, avatar and parties.
- 6
Free iPhone app, no in-app purchases listed; a timer turns hours into XP for custom skills, with quests and XP charts.
- 7
Habits earn XP for custom skills and six attributes; 7-day trial, then $4.99 a month or $44.99 a year.
- 8
Tasks and habits earn XP and coins for custom skills and attributes; free, with a $9.99 ulives Premium in-app purchase.
- 9
MakeUseOf: gamified apps to boost productivity
A typical roundup of gamified apps: habits, tasks and fitness, with nothing that logs hours on one skill.
ProgressForge
Gamified skill tracker with classic RPG leveling
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Web
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