Time Caps vs PaperWords
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Time Caps
This app allows users to create a digital diary with various types of entries, including daily reflections, future messages, and voice notes. It offers features like mood-based coloring, serendipitous retrieval of past entries, and secure privacy protection. Users can also subscribe for enhanced functionalities and premium features.
- Daily mood-based journal entries
- Write messages to your future self
- Record voice notes for the future
- Serendipitous retrieval of past entries
- Secure passcode and biometric lock
- Daily reminders and widgets
- Offline functionality
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＊＊＊Featured on App Store＊＊＊ Features: ＊ Daily Caps: One day one cap, different colors for your different moods. ＊ Day Grid: Display journals in grids. Fill your lovely life with colorful daily caps. ＊ Time Fortune: Collect fortunes by writing daily caps. Share in your mood color. ＊ Future Caps: Write to your next birthday, to next Christmas, to the time after the exam/enrollment/entry, to the dear future you. ＊ Echo Caps: Send yourself a piece of voice from the present. ＊ Old Time: Shake your phone like a jar full of caps and meet your old days by serendipity. ＊ Workshop: Regain cap pieces every day to craft more future caps. ＊ Widgets: Meet your lovely widgets, glanceable anytime on your device. ＊ Account System: No more worry about accidentally removing the app or switching to a new phone. ＊ Privacy Protection: Secure your journals with passcode lock or Touch ID/Face ID. ＊ Daily Reminder: One day one cap! ＊ Offline Use: Everything works well under no network connection. ＊ Export & Share: Export your favorite caps to your albums or share them with your friends. ＊ Time Traveler Pro: Subscribe to unlock exclusive features, enhance Daily Caps, double regaining Pieces, and enjoy premium sync. Your lovely designer and developer (same person :D) is working hard to explore and create more cool and useful features. Thanks for your liking and support! If you like it, don’t forget to come back for rating, encouraging your developer and helping Time Caps become better. Ideas or feedback are always welcome. Please email us at: hi.pol.chen@gmail.com. Crafted with love by Pol Terms of Use: https://timecaps.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://timecaps.app/privacy
PaperWords
Capture thoughts and memories with a simulated paper writing experience. Decorate notes with patterns, stickers, and photos to make recordings more personal and ceremonial. Generate unique images for social media sharing.
- Simulated paper writing experience
- Decorate notes with patterns and stickers
- Attach photos to notes
- Generate personalized images for social media
- Multiple writing modes
- iCloud multi-device synchronization
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The feeling brought by simulated paper. Write a few lines of text on a small note. Decorate with favorite patterns. Let the text become warmer. Make recording more ceremonial. What you can do too: Attach the photo to a small note. Decorate with stickers again. The photos have also become better looking! #Function [+] Written records: you can use it to write journals, diaries, poems, etc. [+] It can generate personalized pictures, which you can use to post on social platforms. [+] Three modes can be selected: Single-line Mode, Paper-piece Mode, Paper-photo Mode. [+] Various decorations, background colors, character colors and fonts for you to choose. [+] iCloud realizes multi device synchronization, and diary data will never be lost (iOS13 and above system support). #Suggestions [+] Email: ghymail@foxmail.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Time Caps at 84% against PaperWords's 50%. Time Caps also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (153 vs 4). PaperWords's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Time Caps sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and PaperWords sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Time Caps holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Time Caps has 153 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 84% of Time Caps's written reviews are positive against 50% of PaperWords's.
Time Caps ships an update every 6 weeks, PaperWords every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 2, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Time Caps | PaperWords |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (153 ratings) — better | 4.5 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 83.7% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 153 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 33 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 灿海 陈 | 洪跃 管 |
Customer experience
Time Caps
PaperWords
Bugs and requests
Time Caps
Reported bugs
2 issues- 🐛 Interface issues with updates
- 🐛 Face ID issues reported
Requested features
9 requests- Ability to export previous posts
- Lower gem prices for capsules
- More options for describing the day
- Add template feature
- Support dark mode
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- Ability to add photos to daily journal entries
- Option to get one future cap a week
- Allow editing of old time caps without currency
- More descriptive options for daily mood
PaperWords
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Time Caps
- Time Traveler Pro (Monthly)$3.991 Month
- Time Traveler Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- 1200 Cap Pieces$0.99
- 2888 Cap Pieces$1.99
- 3600 Cap Pieces$2.99
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- 5000 Cap Pieces$3.99
PaperWords
- Unlimited Storage$0.99
- Single-line Mode$1.99
- Paper-photo Mode$2.99
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- PaperWords PRO$3.99
