Comparison

Grid Diary vs Thinky

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

Head to head
About

Grid Diary

This app offers a guided journaling experience to foster personal development and mindfulness. It helps users build positive habits, manage stress, and enhance various aspects of their lives through customizable prompts and unique layouts.

Highlights
  • Prompted journaling with custom questions
  • Unique grid and mandala layouts
  • Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly planning
  • Supports various journaling methods
  • Mindfulness and self-care focus
  • Stress and anxiety alleviation techniques
Features
Read full description

Introducing Grid Diary: More than just a journaling app, it's your comprehensive personal development system. Embark on a personal growth journey that covers all aspects: • Embrace mindfulness & self-love • Establish morning & evening routines • Enhance personal health & wellbeing • Develop self-care habits • Alleviate stress and anxiety through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy • Acquire new skills • Boost productivity • Strengthen relationships • Ignite creativity ...and so much more. At Grid Diary, we understand that personal development is a holistic endeavor, not a singular pursuit. Grid Diary empowers you to create a diary system that goes beyond simple daily entries. By utilizing features such as custom prompts, tags, and categories, you can build a personalized framework for cultivating happiness and developing positive habits such as proactivity, optimism, and gratitude. Use Grid Diary to unlock the true power of keeping a diary and start your journey towards a happier, healthier you. # Feature Highlights • Prompted Journaling: Guided Self-Reflections Avoid writer's block with our question library or customize your own prompts for deeper self-reflection. • Unique Grid Format: Elegant and Comprehensive Organize all that matters to you on a single page with our customizable grid layout, fostering a holistic personal development system. • Mandala Layout: Journal like a Mind Map Our 9-grid Mandala-inspired layout, featuring a fixed center, emulates the artful representation of life's organization and connection to the cosmos. Journaling becomes intuitive and mirrors the way our minds work. • Day/Week/Month/Year Dimensions: Create Your Own Rituals Establish rituals that anchor you in time, crafting a framework for planning, acting, and reviewing on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. • Compatibility with Various Journaling Methods Whether you prefer morning diaries, success diaries, manifestation journals, or bullet journals, Grid Diary's flexibility accommodates your preferred approach. Discover the transformative power of Grid Diary and unlock your full potential today! # Don't Just Take Our Word for It "New Apps We Love" - Apple "If you've wanted to journal but don't know where to start, meet Grid Diary. Swappable prompts in a lovely, flexible grid format invite you to record and reflect on life's happenings - from noting your habits and goals to sharing affirmation and gratitude." - Google "Grid Diary is a good option for journal writers pressed for time or inspiration." - The New York Times --- As a dedicated three-person team, we believe that privacy is paramount for a journaling app. With no venture capital or advertisers backing Grid Diary, our long-term development relies solely on our members' paid subscriptions. We never sell your data to third parties for profit. # Note about Health App integration: After you have authorized access to health data, you can insert information such as steps or activity energy into your diary. Additionally, you can save your journaling time as mediation minutes to Health app. Grid Diary won't use your health data for other purposes. Privacy Policy https://griddiaryapp.com/support/privacy Terms of Service https://griddiaryapp.com/support/terms

About

Thinky

This app offers a secure and simple way to journal your thoughts and feelings. It automatically classifies your mood, provides writing prompts, and allows for cloud backup. Track your emotional patterns with visual graphs and set reminders to build a consistent journaling habit.

Highlights
  • Automatic mood classification
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Writing prompts
  • Cloud backup and sync
  • Photo attachments
  • Daily reminders
  • Visual mood graph
Read full description

Say hello to effortless journaling with Thinky, the beautifully simple and secure free journal. Take the guess work out of your thoughts and feelings as automatic mood classification tracks life’s ups and downs, leaving you time to focus on what really matters. Start the habit of a lifetime with Thinky, with your wellbeing at heart. More Thinky features: - Safely tuck your thoughts away with our state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption, keeping your private feelings just that: private. - Not sure where to start? Thinky’s writing prompts will help you focus on your wellbeing and remove that blank-page fear. - Create your free account to securely backup and sync your entries to the cloud - Add a splash of colour to your timeline and bring your posts to life with a photo, perfect for those times when words aren't enough. - Complete your post in a few seconds thanks to our simple, no-fuss interface, perfect for journaling on-the-go. - Never miss an entry: build the habit of daily journaling with reminders and streaks to incentivise you to keep up your practice. - Take the guess work out of your emotions and let Thinky’s automatic mood classification do all the hard work for you. - With each post, grow your bespoke visual mood graph and see how your mood ebbs and flows over time. - Take a moment for reflection, and ask Thinky to remind you of special posts at a future date. - Search your entries quickly and easily and see if you can spot patterns in your thoughts. - See in the dark with Dark Mode, perfect for late night journaling. - Keep your journal private with the Face ID lock. Now is the time to focus on you: download Thinky, your intuitive mindfulness companion.

Screenshots

Grid Diary4 screens
Thinky4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Thinky at free with in-app purchases against Grid Diary's subscription. Thinky also leads on review sentiment (84% vs 48%) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 26.0). Grid Diary's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (963 vs 95). On price, rating, update cadence 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. Grid Diary sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Thinky sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. 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 — 4.6 for Grid Diary against 4.7 for Thinky. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Grid Diary has 963 ratings behind it against 95, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 48% of Grid Diary's written reviews are positive against 84% of Thinky's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Grid Diary versus Thinky: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGrid DiaryThinky
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (963 ratings)4.7 (95 ratings) — better
Positive reviews48.3% of reviews84.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings963 — better95
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS26.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size80 MB49 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSumi InteractiveThinky Ltd

Customer experience

Grid Diary

All ratings963 ratings
Positive90.7%
Neutral3.3%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews497 reviews
Positive48.3%
Neutral9.3%
Negative42.5%

Thinky

All ratings89 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral5.6%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive84.3%
Neutral13.7%
Negative2.0%

User reviews

Grid Diary

From 963 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🌟 Excellent journaling app
  • 📚 Customizable templates and prompts
  • 🧠 Helps with self-reflection and mental health
  • 🗓️ Organized grid layout
  • 🔍 Useful search and timeline features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Sync issues and data loss
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🔒 Lack of account deletion or data export options
  • 🤔 Confusing onboarding and upgrade process
  • 🕰️ Slow loading times and app freezes

Thinky

From 95 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and easy to use
  • ✨ Visually appealing design
  • 🧠 Helps with self-reflection
  • 🔒 Passcode protection available
  • 💡 Tracks moods effectively

Room to improve

  • 📝 Strict word limit (250 characters)
  • 🤔 Difficulty navigating to past dates
  • 📱 No iPad specific version
  • 🔔 Reminders not always working
  • ❓ Privacy key issues preventing login

Bugs and requests

Grid Diary

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Entries disappearing or not syncing properly
  • Password reset functionality not working
  • Subscription issues and inability to access premium features
  • Compatibility problems with newer iOS versions

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add Apple Pencil support
  • Improve sync reliability across devices
  • Provide more customization options for layouts and fonts
  • Integrate with other productivity apps and calendars
  • Implement a one-time purchase option
Show 1 more
  • Allow randomized daily prompts

Thinky

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when navigating to past dates
  • Privacy key not working for login
  • Wind down and bedtime alerts not working

Requested features

14 requests
  • Increase word limit
  • Ability to export entries
  • Tagging entries for search
  • Add a return button for new lines
  • Bullet points feature
Show 9 more
  • Edit past entries
  • Add more features and color customization
  • Ability to add entries to specific dates
  • iPad version
  • Pin separate from phone for access
  • Dark mode
  • Advanced analytics
  • Change daily entry order (asc/desc)
  • Previews for entries

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Grid Diary

Subscriptions4
  • Monthly3 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Monthly3 Months trial$4.991 Month
  • Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Annual6 Months trial$29.991 Year
4 purchases

Thinky

One-time4
  • Coffee-sized tip$0.99
  • Sandwich-sized tip$2.99
  • Pizza-sized tip$4.99
Show 1 more
  • A very generous tip$9.99

Questions

Is Grid Diary free?
Grid Diary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Thinky free?
Thinky is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Grid Diary or Thinky?
Thinky is rated higher. Grid Diary averages 4.6 out of 5 from 963 ratings, while Thinky averages 4.7 from 95 ratings.
Do Grid Diary or Thinky have ads?
Thinky shows ads; Grid Diary does not.
Which is updated more often, Grid Diary or Thinky?
Grid Diary ships an update every 2 weeks, and Thinky every 2 weeks. Most recently, Grid Diary was updated on October 24, 2026 and Thinky on October 20, 2026.

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