Comparison

Bullet Journal Companion vs UpNote

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

Head to head
About

Bullet Journal Companion

This app enhances your notebook journaling practice by offering digital tools for capturing tasks, events, and notes. It provides features for backing up, tagging, and searching your notebooks, along with guidance and community inspiration. The app also helps foster reflection and prepare you for monthly planning.

Highlights
  • Digital task, event, and note logging
  • Notebook backup and search
  • Bullet Journaling guide and tutorials
  • Reflection prompts and habit formation
  • Community articles and inspiration
  • Monthly planning prompts
  • Page photo capture and backup
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

The Bullet Journal® Companion 2.0 is designed from the ground up to help you get the most out of your BuJo® practice and your notebook. Version two is packed with the most requested features by the community. FEATURES: • The Log - Quickly capture Tasks, Events, and Notes when away from your notebook. • Library - Backup and Tag and search all your notebooks. • Guide - Learn the how to Bullet Journal®. • Reflection - Help form the powerful habit of reflection. • Articles - Get inspired by the global community. • Monthly prompts - Make sure you're prepared each month. • Designed by Ryder Carroll, creator of the Bullet Journal® system. NEW in version 2.5: - Improved menu and interface - Home screen now features daily journaling prompts and quotes - New collection of widgets to log or reflect - "Learn" section features a lot of new content - "Guide" features new tutorials - A LOT of bug fixes and optimizations NEW in version 2.0: • Take pictures of all your pages. • Back up your Bullet Journals to your Files app. • Restore old notebooks on new devices. • View reflections from months past. • Redesigned reminders notifications. • Log items expire after 72 hours. • New views to organize your entire library of Bullet Journals. • Now faster and more responsive. • Numerous optimizations and bug fixes. NOTE: This app is NOT designed to replace your notebook. It is a companion FOR your notebook.

About

UpNote

This app provides a clean and beautiful interface for writing and organizing notes, journals, and to-do lists. It offers rich formatting options, an intuitive organization system, and instant syncing across devices, with offline capabilities. Premium features include enhanced security and export options.

Highlights
  • Rich text editor with formatting tools
  • Intuitive organizing system (notebooks, pins, links)
  • Secure note locking with Touch/Face ID
  • Instant cross-device syncing and offline access
  • Markdown support and export
  • Task management and to-do lists
Features
Read full description

UpNote is a clean and beautiful app for writing and organizing. It's easy to use with rich features and delightful experience. UpNote is designed to help you take notes easily and stay focused on what matters most. UpNote has beautiful fonts and elegant themes that you can adjust to make your writing experience most comfortable and pleasant. UpNote is an ideal place to keep your diary and journal. It has a powerful lock feature so that you can rest assured that your notes stay private and secure. You can also use Touch ID or Face ID to securely unlock your notes. UpNote’s intuitive organizing system will keep your note space neat and light. There are many ways to organize your notes: putting them into notebooks, pinning your notes to the top of the note list, bookmarking them for quick reference or linking to other notes. You can also close any notebooks to focus on only most important one. UpNote’s rich editor makes it perfect for planning and managing your tasks. Simply write down your to-do list and have them synced to all your devices. UpNote offers highlight, text colors, table, nested list, code and many other important formatting tools so that you could easily format your notes. UpNote syncs notes instantly on all devices. It also works reliably offline, so you could take note anytime, anywhere. If you are a markdown user, UpNote is great for you too. It has intuitive shortcuts based on markdown, which makes it more fun to write notes. You can also export your notes to Markdown or PDF. Try UpNote now and you will fall in love with it! ---- Upgrade to Premium to get full power of UpNote: - Lock your notes and notebooks - Insert table and attachments - Write unlimited number of notes - Elegant themes and notebook covers - Export to text PDF, HTML and Markdown ---- Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You will not be able to cancel the subscription once activated. Manage your subscriptions in Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial peri​od will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription. ---- If you have any question or feedback, we would love to hear it. Send an email to support@getupnote.com, and we would love to get in touch with you! ---- Privacy policy: https://getupnote.com/privacy.html Terms of use: https://getupnote.com/terms.html

Screenshots

Bullet Journal Companion4 screens
UpNote4 screens

Verdict

The call

Bullet Journal Companion and UpNote both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 86% of UpNote's written reviews are positive against 39% of Bullet Journal Companion's. UpNote also leads on price (Free vs $4.99) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). Bullet Journal Companion's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 8) and chart position (#42 vs unranked). On rating, ratings volume, ads and device support 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

UpNote is free to download; Bullet Journal Companion costs $4.99 up front. UpNote sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Bullet Journal Companion asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

UpNote holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2K and 1.1K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 39% of Bullet Journal Companion's written reviews are positive against 86% of UpNote's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bullet Journal Companion ships an update every 2 months, UpNote weekly. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Bullet Journal Companion versus UpNote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBullet Journal CompanionUpNote
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.5 (2K ratings)4.7 (1.1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews38.9% of reviews85.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2K — better1.1K
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
Best chart rank#42 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB81 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLightcage LLCUpNote Company Limited

Customer experience

Bullet Journal Companion

All ratings1,987 ratings
Positive88.6%
Neutral4.3%
Negative7.0%
Written reviews311 reviews
Positive38.9%
Neutral15.4%
Negative45.7%

UpNote

All ratings1,068 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.8%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews768 reviews
Positive85.9%
Neutral6.0%
Negative8.1%

User reviews

Bullet Journal Companion

From 2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and easy to use
  • 📚 Helpful for bullet journaling
  • 🕰️ Expiring log entries encourage migrating to physical journal
  • 🔖 Useful for archiving past journals

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Difficult to read due to poor font and color choices
  • 🕰️ 72-hour expiration for log entries too restrictive
  • 🚫 Cannot have overlapping journal dates

UpNote

From 1.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Seamless syncing across devices
  • 🚀 Fast and responsive
  • 💡 Nested notebooks and tags for organization
  • 👍 Clean and intuitive interface
  • 💡 Lifetime premium option

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
  • 🐛 Issues with image/attachment handling
  • 🐛 Formatting problems with pasted content
  • 🐛 Syncing problems between devices
  • 🔒 Lack of end-to-end encryption

Bugs and requests

Bullet Journal Companion

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Reflection times not recorded accurately
  • Log entries sometimes duplicated or disappear unexpectedly
  • Issues with loading and navigating the app

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow customization of font, colors, and layout
  • Extend expiration time for log entries
  • Add support for multiple concurrent journals
  • Improve scanning and indexing of journal pages
  • Integrate with digital assistants like Siri for quick logging

UpNote

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Black screen issues
  • Lost notes and data
  • Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
  • Google sign-in not working

Requested features

8 requests
  • Reminders and calendar integration
  • More customization options (fonts, colors, etc.)
  • Improved drawing/handwriting support
  • PDF annotation and embedding
  • Optical character recognition (OCR)
Show 3 more
  • Ability to reorder bullets and lists
  • Improved table editing and formatting
  • Apple Watch app

In-app purchases

None

Bullet Journal Companion

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

UpNote

Subscriptions1
  • Premium monthly subscription$1.991 Month
One-time7
  • Life-time Upgrade$19.99
  • Life-time Upgrade to Premium$19.99
  • Life-time Upgrade$24.99
Show 4 more
  • Life-time Upgrade to Premium$24.99
  • Life-time Upgrade$29.99
  • Life-time upgrade to Premium$34.99
  • Life-time upgrade to Premium$39.99

Questions

Is Bullet Journal Companion free?
Bullet Journal Companion costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is UpNote free?
UpNote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bullet Journal Companion or UpNote?
UpNote is rated higher. Bullet Journal Companion averages 4.5 out of 5 from 2K ratings, while UpNote averages 4.7 from 1.1K ratings.
Do Bullet Journal Companion or UpNote have ads?
Neither Bullet Journal Companion nor UpNote shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bullet Journal Companion or UpNote?
Bullet Journal Companion ships an update every 2 months, and UpNote weekly. Most recently, Bullet Journal Companion was updated on October 29, 2026 and UpNote on October 29, 2026.

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