Comparison

Diary vs Simple Journals

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

Head to head
About

Diary

This app provides a secure and beautiful space to record your thoughts, plans, and life moments. Protect your entries with a password and enjoy a customizable interface with features like image support and PDF export.

Highlights
  • Password protection with PIN
  • Add/edit/remove images
  • Search functionality
  • Export entries to PDF
  • Customizable color and font styles
  • Reminders
  • Auto-lock for privacy
Features
Read full description

Secret thoughts and moments should always remain secret and a private diary should always be intimate, beautiful and safe. With that in mind, we dedicated our efforts to create a simple and beautiful diary application that helps you lock your secrets with your own password. Use this diary and put down all your thoughts or even future plans and follow them as the time passes. Make it your trustworthy friend who never judges you and who's always there for you. A good diary required good features, so here are some of the great features especially created for you: EASY TO USE & BEAUTIFUL - very easy to use yet very comprehensive - beautiful view off all your notes right on the main screen - easy navigation between your diary entries - image add/edit/remove functionality - image library with great gallery view - great overview of your daily entries - quick entry add, edit & delete - beautiful emojis(emoticos) - highlight your mood and feelings - search functionality - quickly & easily search through your journal - export to PDF functionality - save all your entries whenever you want SAFE & PRIVATE - PASSWORD PROTECTED - password lock functionality to keep your secret save - 4 digit PIN code - functionality for password update, recovery and removal - auto lock after more than 5 minutes of inactivity CUSTOMIZABLE - multiple color styles from which you can choose - multiple font styles - customizable font-size - reminders functionality OTHER COOL FEATURES - data reset functionality - beautiful design - can be easily used as a diet journal or even travel diary - totally free Regardless you want to write your love story or you just want to write down your thoughts and moments from your life, we hope this diary will turn out to be your best friend and confidant. Enjoy your life and create amazing stories!

About

Simple Journals

Features
Read full description

This App provides a simple framework for writing collections of Journals any any kind. It allows textual entries, image entries, map entries, photo album entries, overview entries and future event planning entries to added to a journal, in any combination and in any quantity. The data may be saved locally and/or synchronised between devices from a backup in the Users iCloud account. The App allows for publishing of a Journal to a simple HTML format and a collection image files. This has auto-renewing Subscriptions which must be purchased to continue to use the App after an initial 30 Days of free usage. To explain what is being paid for, If the User chooses not to purchase a subscription upon App startup after the 30 free days, then the App wishes the user goodbye and terminates.

Screenshots

Diary4 screens
Simple Journals4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Diary at none against Simple Journals's 2. Diary also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.2). Simple Journals's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 months). On price 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

Both are free to download. Simple Journals sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 per 6 months. Diary asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Diary ships an update every 5 months, Simple Journals fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Diary versus Simple Journals: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDiarySimple Journals
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (1.7K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.7K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.2
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAurel CristePeter Shevill

Bugs and requests

Diary

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Password not working consistently
  • Entries disappearing or not saving properly
  • Scrolling/jumping text when writing longer entries
  • Inability to recover deleted entries

Requested features

6 requests
  • Backup and sync across devices
  • More customization options (fonts, colors, backgrounds)
  • Ability to export entries
  • Night mode/dark theme
  • Voice-to-text entry
Show 1 more
  • Ability to organize entries by tags or categories

Simple Journals

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Diary

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Simple Journals

Subscriptions2
  • 6 Month Subscription$0.496 Months
  • 12 Month App Subscription.$0.991 Year

Questions

Is Diary free?
Diary is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simple Journals free?
Simple Journals is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Diary or Simple Journals have ads?
Diary shows ads; Simple Journals does not.
Which is updated more often, Diary or Simple Journals?
Diary ships an update every 5 months, and Simple Journals fortnightly. Most recently, Diary was updated on November 2, 2026 and Simple Journals on November 3, 2026.

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