Moodnotes vs Serene
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Moodnotes
This app helps you track your mood, identify triggers, and improve your thinking habits using principles of cognitive behavior therapy. It offers tools for self-awareness, reducing anxiety, and developing healthier perspectives for increased well-being.
- Track mood and identify triggers
- Automatic face scanning for mood capture
- Journaling with photos and notes
- Self-awareness articles by experts
- Develop healthier thinking habits
- Reduce anxiety and enhance well-being
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Don’t let your mood affect your life. Take control over it! Meet Moodnotes - a super easy mood tracker & journaling app to capture your mood and help you improve your thinking habits. Moodnotes empowers you to track your mood over time, avoid common thinking traps, and develop perspectives associated with increased happiness and well-being. Created by design experts and clinical psychologists (creators of MoodKit), Moodnotes is grounded in the scientifically-supported content of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and positive psychology. Includes Apple Watch app and iCloud sync/backup. KEY FEATURES: Moodnotes helps you to: - Track your mood and identify what triggers it - Scan your face automatically using device camera - Keep your memories with photos or pictures - Read self-awareness articles written by mental health experts - Develop healthier thinking habits - Learn about “traps” in your thinking and how to avoid them - Reduce anxiety and enhance your sense of well-being - Bring new, helpful perspectives to situations - Increase your self-awareness Exclusively featured by Apple in the App Store Today tab story "All The Feels". MOODNOTES PREMIUM Become a Premium member to unlock the following features: - Make unlimited entries per day - Monitor your personal statistics and check your mood insights - Add notes to enrich your mood entries - Get access to “Notable insights” section to learn more about your mood - Find more full-text articles to understand yourself * Subscription payments will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of your purchase. * Subscriptions will automatically renew and payment will be charged to your iTunes account unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. The cost of the renewal depends on your Subscription Plan. Our standard Subscription Plans are: * 1-month Subscription * 1-year Subscription * Subscription with a free trial period will automatically renew to a paid subscription. You can cancel or manage your free trial's auto-renewal in your Account Settings after purchase. The cancellation will take effect 24-hours after the last day of the current subscription period and you will be downgraded to the free service. * Please note: any unused portion of a free trial period (if offered) will be forfeited when you purchase a premium subscription during the free trial period. If you have any questions or suggestions on how we can improve the application, please do not hesitate to contact us at moodnotes@bendingspoons.com Privacy Policy: https://support.bendingspoons.com/privacy.html?app=1019230398 Terms of Service: https://support.bendingspoons.com/tos.html?app=1019230398
Serene
This app helps manage stress and anxiety through mindfulness, journaling, and problem-solving techniques. It offers guided meditations, cognitive restructuring, nature sounds, and self-compassion exercises to improve mental wellness and on-task performance.
- Guided mindfulness meditations
- Cognitive restructuring techniques
- Meditative nature sounds
- Mindful journaling
- Action plan development
- Stress and anxiety reduction
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Serene is in all in one app for managing your life and mental wellness by practicing mindfulness using journaling, meditations and problem-solving techniques by developing action plans. Serene is a mobile app that promotes mental wellness though a combination of mindfulness meditations, cognitive self-compassion techniques, music therapy and mindful journaling. These techniques and strategies help in lowering stress, sadness and anxiety have been tested in an ethically-approved university study (at the University of Toronto) to assess their effectiveness in helping people. • Learn more about the science behind Serene: https://www.getserene.app/science.html Serene uses techniques popularized in therapies such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in an informal, yet organized fashion to help its users lower levels of stress, anxiety and sadness overall and increase on-task performance (thereby reducing distractibility). The app is multi-faceted in its approach, using 4 important techniques to help achieve it's goals: 1) Guided Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Meditations: Professionally recorded and research-backed meditation scripts to help you become more mindful and compassionate towards yourself. 2) Cognitive Restructuring: The core thought rebalancing technique that helps users re-assess their situations and thoughts and helps them develop new ways of thinking about it as well as develop action plans to tackle their life challenges head on. 3) Meditative Nature Sounds: We utilize techniques in music therapy and use natural, meditative soundscapes to help calm down the stress response and relax you. 4) Mindful Journaling: Journaling is used as a self-compassion tool to enhance the user's awareness of their progress so far and help develop their sense of self-efficacy further. SERENE PREMIUM Unlock Serene Premium and become a mindful master: • Unlimited cognitive restructuring tasks and journaling entries • Unlock all mindfulness meditations and nature soundscapes • Unlock advanced statistics, actionable insights, and much more! Serene offers auto-renewing subscriptions and one lifetime subscription: • $7.99 billed monthly • $47.99 billed annually • $129.99 for lifetime use • Terms & Conditions: https://www.getserene.app/terms.html After the free trial, the total amount for the subscription will be charged to your iTunes Account. The subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal at the total subscription price within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscriptions and auto-renewals may be managed or canceled via your iTunes Account settings. Any unused portion of free trial is forfeited after purchase. Special introductory offers only apply to first billing term. These prices are in US Dollars (USD). Pricing in other currencies and countries may vary and actual charges may be converted to your local currency depending on the country of residence. Download Serene now and start living more mindfully and improve your mental wellness. If you don't choose to upgrade to premium, you may still use Serene free forever.
Screenshots
Verdict
Moodnotes and Serene both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Serene's written reviews are positive against 65% of Moodnotes's. Moodnotes's advantage is ratings volume (11K vs 3) and update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 4 months). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Moodnotes sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and Serene sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Moodnotes against 4.7 for Serene. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Moodnotes has 11K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of Moodnotes's written reviews are positive against 100% of Serene's.
Moodnotes ships an update every 4 weeks, Serene every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Moodnotes | Serene |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (11K ratings) | 4.7 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 11K — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 146 MB | 92 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mosaic S.r.l. | Amrezo Inc. |
Customer experience
Moodnotes
Serene
Bugs and requests
Moodnotes
Reported bugs
2 issues- Notification issues on iOS updates
- Occasional data loss or syncing problems
Requested features
4 requests- Add custom feelings and activities
- More detailed data visualization
- Integration with other health apps
- Offline mode for journaling
Serene
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Moodnotes
- Moodnotes Pro$2.997 Days
- Moodnotes Pro - Free Trial7 Days trial$2.997 Days
- Moodnotes Premium 1 Month2 variants$9.991 Month
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- Moodnotes Premium 1 Month$14.991 Month
- Moodnotes Premium 1 Year7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Moodnotes Premium 1 Year7 Days trial$34.991 Year
- Moodnotes Premium 1 Year1 Month trial$39.991 Year
- Moodnotes Premium 1 Year$69.991 Year
- Moodnotes Premium 1 Year7 Days trial$69.991 Year
- Moodnotes Pro - Free Trial7 Days trial$69.991 Year
- Moodnotes Premium 1 Year7 Days trial$89.991 Year
Serene
- Serene Premium Monthly1 Month trial$2.491 Month
- Serene Premium Yearly1 Month trial$22.991 Year
- Serene Premium Lifetime$89.99









