Comparison

Diarly vs Routine Tracker +

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

Head to head
About

Diarly

This app helps you start and maintain a journaling habit with daily prompts, mood tracking, and the ability to add photos and other media. It also allows for creating topic-based notes and seamlessly integrates with other apps and services for a comprehensive personal record.

Highlights
  • Daily prompts with enriched data (weather, location, health)
  • Mood tracking and pattern analysis
  • Topic-based note creation
  • Multimedia attachments (photos, videos, audio)
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Customizable themes and layouts
  • Password and biometric protection
Features
Read full description

You don't need a free hour or the right words to keep a journal. Start with five minutes and one honest sentence. Write with your first coffee, on the train home, or in the quiet before sleep. A journal grows the same way a life does: one ordinary day at a time. Diarly is a private journal, diary, and notes app for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Each entry becomes part of a personal timeline you can search, revisit, and keep. DAILY JOURNAL, DIARY, AND PRIVATE NOTES Use Diarly as a daily journal or diary, a gratitude journal, a travel journal, a mood diary, a photo journal, a voice journal, or private notes with a password. Create separate journals, or keep dated entries and undated notes together. Diarly Free includes one journal with unlimited entries and media. Add photos, videos, drawings, audio, tags, locations, weather, and calendar details. Write in Markdown and organize notes, lists, ideas, plans, and quotes. MOOD TRACKER AND JOURNAL INSIGHTS The built-in mood tracker makes it easy to log how you feel. You can also save your mood and feelings to Apple Health. Mood Calendar and Insights show how your logged moods change over time, gently highlighting lighter or heavier stretches without judging what they mean. Diarly can be used as a private mental health journal for writing about thoughts, feelings, stress, or anxiety. It is a journaling and reflection tool, not a medical or mental health tracker. JOURNAL PROMPTS, TEMPLATES, AND DAILY WRITING Journal prompts and reusable templates make daily journaling easier to begin. Build a journal template with a prompt, weather, location, calendar events, today's photos, or Apple Health details such as sleep, steps, and workouts. These optional details can support a sleep journal, fitness journal, or health journal without analyzing your health. The Today view gives you a quick glimpse of your journal through a customizable feed of recent entries, mood check-ins, writing suggestions, quotes, tags, calendar events, and On This Day memories. Reminders, writing goals, and journal streaks help you return without making the diary another chore. FIND AND REVISIT YOUR MEMORIES Search finds entries and notes by words, tags, moods, and dates. Timeline and Calendar organize daily entries by date. Map shows travel journal entries saved with a location. Gallery gathers journal photos, videos, and drawings. On This Day recalls earlier years. PRIVATE DIARY WITH PASSWORD AND ICLOUD SYNC Your journal stays on your device. Premium syncs your diary through your personal iCloud Drive. There is no separate account to create, and we never store your journal on our servers. Lock the app with a password, Face ID, or Touch ID for free. Premium adds encryption for the text of your entries and private notes. The app is built exclusively for Apple devices. One Premium subscription covers iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch and adds iCloud sync, multiple journals, encryption, themes, export formats, and the AI Assistant. IMPORT, EXPORT, AND KEEP YOUR JOURNAL Import journals from Apple Journal, Day One, Journey, Stoic, Evernote, Markdown, and CSV. Export your journal to Markdown, PDF, Rich Text, and HTML so your writing remains readable outside the app. AI+ is a separate optional subscription. It lets you transcribe audio journal entries into text and use OCR to extract text from photos. Your journal remains yours, whether you write a daily diary, track moods, collect memories, or keep private notes. Help Guides → https://diarly.app/help Privacy Policy → https://diarly.app/privacy Terms of Use (EULA) → https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Routine Tracker +

Features
Read full description

Routine Tracker is a beautifully simple habit tracker designed for individuals and families. Whether you're building your own morning routine or tracking your child's daily milestones, Routine Tracker helps you stay consistent — one day at a time. WHY ROUTINE TRACKER? Most habit apps are built for one person. Routine Tracker lets you organize multiple routines side by side — your habits, your kids' habits, even shared family chores — all in one clean weekly view. KEY FEATURES • Multi-Category Tracking Create separate sections like "My Habits", "Baby Habits", or any custom category. Each gets its own grid so routines stay organized. • Nested Sub-Habits (3 Levels Deep) Group related habits together. Check off "Breakfast" and its sub-tasks (Tea, Sandwich, Mashed Potatoes) auto-update. • Planned Times & Smart Scheduling Set a time for each habit (6:00 AM Wake up, 9:00 PM Sleep). Choose daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly, or yearly frequencies. • Weekly Grid View See Monday through Sunday at a glance. Tap any day to mark a habit done. Past days lock automatically to prevent accidental edits — tap the lock icon to edit history. • Copy Yesterday One tap carries over yesterday's checked habits to today. Perfect for repeating routines. • Notes per Day Add notes to any completed habit — track how a workout felt, what your baby ate, or anything worth remembering. • Analytics Dashboard See 30-day completion rates, total habits tracked, and per-habit progress bars. Filter by category to focus on what matters. • Drag & Drop Reordering Arrange habits in the order that matches your day. • Smart Icons Habits get auto-assigned icons based on their name — coffee for "Tea", moon for "Sleep", droplet for "Drink water". PERFECT FOR - Parents tracking their children's daily routines - Anyone building morning or evening rituals - Families coordinating shared chores - Individuals working on multiple goal areas at once - Kids learning independence through visual checklists PRIVATE & SECURE Your data is yours. Sign in with email or Google. Everything is encrypted in transit and protected by row-level security. Delete your account anytime — your data goes with you. Start building consistency today. Routine Tracker — one day at a time.

Screenshots

Diarly4 screens
Routine Tracker +4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Routine Tracker + at none against Diarly's 7. Routine Tracker + also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, 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

Both are free to download. Diarly sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Routine Tracker + asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Diarly versus Routine Tracker +: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDiarlyRoutine Tracker +
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.5K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews84.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.5K — better—
Update frequencyFortnightly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size281 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKrzysztof NowakLIJA JAMES

Bugs and requests

Diarly

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Entries disappearing after app updates
  • Inability to password protect individual journals

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to add reminders and notifications
  • Option to organize entries into folders
  • Support for Markdown formatting and backlinking
  • Improved export and backup functionality

Routine Tracker +

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Diarly

Subscriptions6
  • Monthly AI+$1.991 Month
  • Monthly Premium$2.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium7 Days trial$24.991 Year
Show 3 more
  • Premium Journal – Yearly Plan7 Days trial$24.991 Year
  • Yearly Premium7 Days trial$25.991 Year
  • Yearly Premium7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Migrate Lifetime LicenseFree
None

Routine Tracker +

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Diarly free?
Diarly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Routine Tracker + free?
Routine Tracker + is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Diarly or Routine Tracker + have ads?
Neither Diarly nor Routine Tracker + shows ads.

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