Puff Counter vs the Smoke Free app: which one fits you?
Two apps, two different jobs. Puff Counter counts vape puffs and, if you want it to, brings that count down to a quit date. Smoke Free is a stop smoking app: you set a quit date and it counts the days, the money and the cigarettes on the other side of it. Both are free to install on iPhone and Android, and both sell an optional upgrade. Past that, they overlap less than the app store category suggests.
Everything in the Smoke Free column was read on September 22, 2026 on smokefreeapp.com and on its App Store and Google Play listings. Where none of the three said, the cell says “Not stated” rather than “No”. An app can do things its listing never mentions.
Who the Smoke Free app suits
Smokers. The App Store title is Smoke Free - Quit Smoking Now, the Play description opens with quitting smoking using more than 40 techniques, and the site describes daily missions, a Quit Coach chatbot and human advisors you can subscribe to. Nothing on the site or either listing mentions vaping or e-cigarettes. If you are putting down cigarettes, that is an app built for your problem by people who have studied it.
It also carries something almost no consumer quit app has: published research on itself. The site counts six studies. One is a randomized controlled trial of the app, published in F1000Research in 2018 and free to read in PubMed Central, in which 28,112 smokers who downloaded the app were randomly given the full version or a version without its daily missions, and the full version produced higher self-reported abstinence at three months (1.6 percent against 0.9 percent of everyone randomized, 19.3 against 13.8 percent of those who answered the follow-up). Puff Counter has nothing like that. Saying so is not modesty, it is the state of the evidence.
Who Puff Counter suits
Vapers who want a number. A cigarette ends after ten to fifteen puffs, which is why smokers can count in packs; a vape has no end point, so most people have no idea how much they take. Puff Counter answers that with one tap in the app or on the small home screen widget, a calendar and hourly chart showing when your puffs happen, a live timer since the last one, and a nicotine estimate built from your own liquid strength and puff volume rather than an average. All of that is free, and it works without an account. You sign in only if you want cloud backup.
When you want the count to fall, the quit plan (Premium) sets a daily limit from your own average and lowers it step by step to your quit date, and the statistics view adds daily, weekly and monthly patterns. That is the structural difference: Smoke Free is organized around a quit date, while the Puff Counter plan runs before one, bringing the daily count down toward it. If you would rather stop at once, our guide to quitting vaping cold turkey covers what the trials found about that choice.
What the two apps share
Both are free to install, both charge for more, both run on iPhone and Android, and both are counters underneath: one counts what you are still doing, the other counts what you have stopped doing. Both depend on you logging honestly, and neither is medical care. If quitting nicotine is going badly, a doctor or a stop smoking service can offer things no app can.
What the stores charged on 22 September 2026
Prices vary by country and change; the store listing is the source of truth. On the US App Store that day, Puff Counter Premium showed $4.99 monthly, $14.99 yearly and $39.99 for lifetime access, and its US Play listing showed in-app purchases of $4.99 to $39.99. Smoke Free’s US App Store listing showed 10 in-app purchase items ranging from $0.99 to $209.99, and its US Play listing showed in-app purchases of $0.99 to $29.99.
The honest answer
If you smoke cigarettes, you are better served by a smoking cessation app. Smoke Free is a strong one, with a research record, human advisors and more than a decade of work behind it, and none of that is on offer here. If you vape and what you actually want is a puff count, a limit that comes down and a widget on your home screen, Smoke Free does not list any of it, and Puff Counter is built around all three. Plenty of people want both things at once, and there is no rule against two apps.
Not sure which problem you have yet? Start with how many puffs are in a cigarette to see how the two habits compare, or the quit vaping hub for the sourced guides.
This page is general information about vaping, smoking and quitting, not medical advice. If you are worried about your health or want help quitting, talk to a doctor or a stop-smoking service.
| Feature | Puff Counter | Smoke Free |
|---|---|---|
| What the app is | A vape puff counter with an optional quit plan | A stop smoking app built around a quit date |
| Who it targets | Vapers | Cigarette smokers; the site and both store listings are about smoking, not vaping |
| Counts puffs | Yes, one tap in the app or in the small widget | Not stated; it counts the cigarettes you have not smoked since your quit date |
| Daily limit or taper | Yes, Premium: a limit set from your own average, lowered step by step to your quit date | Not stated; the app is organized around the date you stopped. Its FAQ says the Pro Quit Coach chatbot delivers a 90-day programme with daily check-ins and missions that reduce in frequency after 30 days |
| Home screen widgets | Yes: small widget free, medium, large and iPhone lock screen widgets Premium | Not stated |
| Works without an account | Yes; you sign in only for cloud backup | Not stated; the FAQ describes linking an email as the way to save and restore data |
| Free tier | Counting, calendar, hourly chart, nicotine estimate, timer, small widget | Free download; the listing says time smoke free, savings, health, cravings and a certificate are free to use |
| Price on 22 September 2026 | Free app. US App Store: Premium $4.99 monthly, $14.99 yearly, $39.99 lifetime. US Play: in-app purchases $4.99 to $39.99. | Free download. US App Store: 10 in-app items from $0.99 to $209.99. US Play: in-app purchases $0.99 to $29.99. |
| Languages | 39 in the app itself, though its App Store listing names only English. | 7: English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Welsh |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad and Android | iPhone and Android; the App Store listing also states Apple Watch and Apple Vision |
| Published evidence | None. No trial of Puff Counter has been published | Yes. A randomized controlled trial of the app was published in F1000Research in 2018 and is free to read in PubMed Central |
| Human support | Email support only | Advisors on a monthly subscription, plus a one-off program with four advisor check-ins |
Try Puff Counter
Free on iPhone and Android.
Questions people also ask
What is the smoke free app?
Smoke Free is a stop smoking app for iPhone and Android, published by 23 Ltd in London. It shows your time since your last cigarette, the money saved, cigarettes not smoked and health milestones, and adds daily missions, a Quit Coach chatbot and paid access to trained advisors. Its site and store listings are about smoking, not vaping.
Is there a completely free quit smoking app?
Both of these are free to download. Puff Counter's counting, calendar, hourly chart, nicotine estimate, timer and small widget are free and work without an account. The Smoke Free listing says its core tracking, cravings diary and certificate are free to use, with Pro features and advisor access sold separately. Free help also comes from national services such as the NHS and smokefree.gov.
Which quit smoking app is best?
No trial has ranked the apps against each other, so there is no single best one. Choose by what you are quitting and what you will actually open every day: a smoking cessation app if you smoke cigarettes, a puff counter if you vape. Smoke Free is one of the few consumer quit apps with a published trial of the app itself.
Does the Smoke Free app work?
It has stronger evidence than most consumer quit apps. A 2018 randomized controlled trial in F1000Research gave the full app or a version without its daily missions to 28,112 people who had downloaded it, and the full version produced higher self-reported abstinence at three months. That is evidence for the app itself, not a guarantee for any one user, and Puff Counter has no published trial to set against it.