Comparison

Time Caps vs Lightmark

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Read full description

***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

About

Lightmark

This app encourages honest self-reflection by allowing users to record thoughts, emotions, and memories without the ability to edit entries after submission. It supports text, voice, photos, and videos, offering a multi-sensory journaling experience. A unique visual timeline helps users see their journey over time.

Highlights
  • Uneditable entries
  • Text, voice, photo, and video recording
  • Tag system for organization
  • Annual 'Lightmap' visualization
  • Daily timeline archive
  • Minimalist interface
Features
Read full description

Some diaries are written just for yourself. Some moments are meant to be recorded as they truly are. No need for perfection, no need to revise. Writing who you are at that moment is an honest act of existence. Lightmark is a diary app that does not allow editing after writing. It blends a sense of time with emotional expression, gently guiding you to meet yourself. 【 Philosophy · Faithful to the Present 】 Lightmark’s writing approach is inspired by the psychological concepts of “non-judgmental writing” and “immediate recording.” Once submitted, your words cannot be changed—not to limit you, but as a gentle exercise: * Accept your emotions instead of adjusting them; * Capture your thoughts as they were, not rewritten by later understanding; * Let go of “right or wrong” and “perfection,” leaving only your true self. Every Lightmark entry is an echo through time and space. 【 Recording Methods · Multi-Sensory 】 Your feelings aren’t only expressed in words. Lightmark supports multiple sensory recording options, letting you capture emotions naturally: * Text Diary: Quietly write and record inner moments; * Voice Diary: No need to organize language, just speak; * Photo Capture: One image records the world you see; * Video Clips: The authentic sound of life, the most vivid memories; * Tag System: Seamlessly insert tags anywhere in text, freely create multi-level structures (e.g., #emotion/happy, #life/family) to lightly organize your diary. Whether it’s a midnight monologue, a morning ray of light, or a fleeting tear, you can collect it your way. 【 Annual Lightmap · See Your Journey 】 Lightmark’s unique “Lightmap” forms your year in a dot matrix. Each day you write sends ripples across the map. * The more you write, the brighter that day’s light point shines; * You can add marks for special days (Unlock this feature by purchasing the full version.). The Lightmap doesn’t tell you which days you “missed” writing and won’t push you to check in. Instead, it gently shows which days were quiet or full of emotion. It’s the path you’ve walked with yourself—a commemorative map left by time. 【 Timeline Diary · Your Life Chronicle 】 Lightmark uses a “one page per day” design, automatically gathering all texts, photos, voice recordings, and videos of the day into time slices—your daily archive. You’ll find life needs no polish; just capture the moment, and time will weave your story. 【 Design Philosophy · Simple · Gentle 】 Lightmark avoids complex categories, using tags for light management, keeping only the essence of “recording.” You’re not writing tasks, but your heart’s voice. * Minimal interface for immersive writing * No distractions, no ads, no popups * Supports dark mode, fitting the quiet of night 【 Who is it for? 】 * People who want to keep diaries but can’t stick with it * People who want to record emotions but don’t know where to start * Those who love the purity of paper diaries but want better saving and searching * Anyone wanting to practice self-acceptance without being trapped by “perfection” Terms of Use: https://app.qlulu.fun/termsofuse Privacy Poclicy: https://app.qlulu.fun/privacy

Screenshots

Time Caps4 screens
Lightmark3 screens

Verdict

The call

Time Caps and Lightmark both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Lightmark's written reviews are positive against 84% of Time Caps's. Lightmark also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 weeks). Time Caps's advantage is ratings volume (153 vs 9) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Time Caps sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Lightmark sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Time Caps against 4.9 for Lightmark. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Time Caps has 153 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 84% of Time Caps's written reviews are positive against 100% of Lightmark's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Time Caps ships an update every 6 weeks, Lightmark every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 2, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Time Caps versus Lightmark: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTime CapsLightmark
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (153 ratings)4.9 (9 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings153 — better9
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer灿海 陈璐 秦

Customer experience

Time Caps

All ratings153 ratings
Positive96.1%
Neutral3.3%
Negative0.7%
Written reviews49 reviews
Positive83.7%
Neutral8.2%
Negative8.2%

Lightmark

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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
Show 4 more
  • 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

Lightmark

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Time Caps

Subscriptions2
  • Time Traveler Pro (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Time Traveler Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$24.991 Year
One-time4
  • 1200 Cap Pieces$0.99
  • 2888 Cap Pieces$1.99
  • 3600 Cap Pieces$2.99
Show 1 more
  • 5000 Cap Pieces$3.99
3 purchases

Lightmark

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Annual$12.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$14.99

Questions

Is Time Caps free?
Time Caps is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lightmark free?
Lightmark is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Time Caps or Lightmark?
Lightmark is rated higher. Time Caps averages 4.8 out of 5 from 153 ratings, while Lightmark averages 4.9 from 9 ratings.
Do Time Caps or Lightmark have ads?
Neither Time Caps nor Lightmark shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Time Caps or Lightmark?
Time Caps ships an update every 6 weeks, and Lightmark every 3 weeks. Most recently, Time Caps was updated on September 2, 2026 and Lightmark on September 15, 2026.

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