Comparison

Hearty Journal vs GhostDiary

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

Head to head
About

Hearty Journal

Capture and preserve precious memories through diary writing. Personalize entries with text, stickers, photos, and a variety of fonts. Securely back up your journal across devices with cloud synchronization.

Highlights
  • Ad-free writing experience
  • Cross-platform journaling
  • 4-digit passcode security
  • Cloud backup and sync
  • Export posts as PNG or text
  • Customizable book and post titles
  • Over 1,000 stickers and 20+ fonts
Features
Read full description

*** Beautiful Diary App, made with love in Taiwan *** *** 200,000+ Global Happy Users *** *** Editors' Pick of App Store *** *** Available on Both Mobile & Desktop *** ◆ Tenderly collect every inch of your precious moments ◆ Through diary writing, you can preserve fragments of time. Express your truest feelings, treasure each moment by adding words, stickers & photos. So that you can revisit those meaningful memories in the future. ・Beautiful diary with a hand-drawn style. Its aesthetic looks like a piece of notebook paper with handwritten words on it. Its clean and ad-free interface ensures a distraction-free writing experience. The app is crafted to serve as a permanent repository for cherished memories, allowing you to capture and preserve them in a delightful and visually pleasing format. ・Create an account and begin writing, knowing that entries will be seamlessly and automatically saved as you type. ・With 20+ luxury fonts and 1,000+ lovely stickers to choose from, you can effortlessly adorn daily entries according to your preferences. ・Highly secure cipher suite (TLS 1.3) is implemented in every connection, ensuring the same level of security used for online transactions and banking. ・All entries in Hearty Journal are encrypted and synced to the cloud, ensuring the protection of precious memories. ・Works seamlessly with computer, tablet and phone. ◆ Features ◆ [Ad-free] Focus on writing [Cross-platform] Comfortably journal across multiple devices - computer, tablet, and phone [Passcode] Secure diary with a 4-digit passcode, providing peace of mind and ensuring protection against unauthorized access [Backup] Hearty Journal is hosted on 2 prominent cloud providers, AWS and Google, to guarantee the utmost data safety. Additionally, daily off-site backups are conducted to ensure the security and protection of data. Your data will be safe even in the case of app uninstallation or device replacement. [Export] You can export posts as PNG images or the entire diary as a text file on the computer. [Customize] You have the flexibility to modify the book title, post titles and post dates to suit your preferences. You can also write multiple entries throughout the day, capturing different moments and experiences. [Personalize] Design your very own style by uploading your favorite cover and background! [Organize] By changing the dates of posts, you can rearrange the order of entries within the diary. Moreover, by assigning a future date to a post, you can pin it to the top, ensuring it remains prominently displayed and easily accessible. This feature is useful for organizing memos, wish lists and goal lists. [Fonts] Black, rounded, handwritten and fountain pen fonts are just a few examples of the 20+ luxury fonts available. [Stickers] Hearty Journal features 1,000+ handcrafted and lovely stickers that enhance the beauty of special moments in your life. [Photos] Enrich your posts with up to 10 captivating photos. [Videos] Collect favorite songs & videos by adding YouTube links to posts. [Hashtags] Add #tags in posts for easy categorization and searching within your diary. [Search] Easily find specific posts by swiftly searching for keywords. [Privately Shared Posts] Share intimate thoughts with your close friends, besties and loved ones by privately exchanging diaries. Express feelings that are difficult to verbalize by quietly confiding them in your diary. [Music] Cook up a playlist for favorite songs, and enjoy the soothing melodies as you immerse yourself in writing. [Period Tracker] [Question & Feedback] For questions, please check the FAQ in the menu for detailed guides. If you need assistance, feel free to contact us at www.ht.mk. When reporting any issues, screenshots or recordings can be useful. Your feedback is greatly appreciated as we value your input and strive to enhance your experience. .Terms of Services: https://hearty.app/terms .Privacy Policy: https://hearty.app/privacy

About

GhostDiary

Easily record your daily life and emotions with cute ghost characters. Track your mood, organize entries by emotion or theme, and gain insights into what affects your feelings. Features include password protection and daily fortune cookies for mindfulness.

Highlights
  • Mood tracking with ghost characters
  • Daily diary entries with icons and photos
  • Emotional statistics and analysis
  • Categorized memos and diaries
  • Daily fortune cookies for mindfulness
  • Password protection for privacy
  • Customizable design themes
Features
Read full description

Record your precious day with a ghostdiary! You can record your daily life easily and quickly with cute ghost characters. "Emotional Records" Record your mood as a ghost butler character, and check out the calendar at a glance. It is also possible to classify the diary by each emotion. "Daily Diary" Record who you spent the day with and what you did with various icons. Write it simply with icons on a daily basis, and on a special day, with pictures and long articles. "Mood Tracker" Check the statistics on emotions and activities recorded. Identify the factors that affect my emotions. "Memo" Have you ever wanted to separate themes such as travel diary and cooking diary ? Create a folder and record it one by one by one. Or if you have to remember something, but it's ambiguous to write in your diary, write it separately in the memo column. "Fortune cookies." Start your day with ghost cookies. There'll be a note in it that'll help. When you have negative thoughts such as depression, insomnia, or irritation, stress pull out a fortune cookie and control your mind. "Design Theme" Ghost Butler offers a variety of themed calendars. We are currently offering basic themes and summer themes. "Diary with Password" You can set a password to keep the record safe. "Other Features" It also provides functions such as notification function, font setting, and calendar image sharing. "Contact Us" Please let me know in the review! Thank you :) "Terms of Use" https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Hearty Journal4 screens
GhostDiary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: GhostDiary at fortnightly against Hearty Journal's every 3 months. GhostDiary also leads on ratings volume (181 vs 44) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 13.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. Hearty Journal sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.49 per month and GhostDiary sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Hearty Journal holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 44 and 181 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 92% of Hearty Journal's written reviews are positive against 87% of GhostDiary's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hearty Journal ships an update every 3 months, GhostDiary fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Hearty Journal versus GhostDiary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHearty JournalGhostDiary
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (44 ratings) — better4.7 (181 ratings)
Positive reviews92.1% of reviews — better87.2% of reviews
Number of ratings44181 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB82 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHearty Creative Inc.Yoonjik Cho

Customer experience

Hearty Journal

All ratings40 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews101 reviews
Positive92.1%
Neutral3.0%
Negative5.0%

GhostDiary

All ratings174 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral3.4%
Negative2.3%
Written reviews39 reviews
Positive87.2%
Neutral5.1%
Negative7.7%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Hearty Journal

Subscriptions1
  • 溫度日記 VIP版$4.491 Month
12 purchases

GhostDiary

Subscriptions1
  • free-ads-year$9.991 Year
One-time11
  • sky background$0.49
  • Summer Ghost$0.99
  • ghostcat$0.99
Show 8 more
  • Ghostdog$0.99
  • GhostBear$0.99
  • Ghost Astronaut$0.99
  • Notebook ghost$0.99
  • FlowerGhost$0.99
  • Graduated ghost$0.99
  • Big Eyed Ghost$0.99
  • Skinny Ghost$0.99

Questions

Is Hearty Journal free?
Hearty Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is GhostDiary free?
GhostDiary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Hearty Journal or GhostDiary?
Hearty Journal is rated higher. Hearty Journal averages 4.9 out of 5 from 44 ratings, while GhostDiary averages 4.7 from 181 ratings.
Do Hearty Journal or GhostDiary have ads?
Neither Hearty Journal nor GhostDiary shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hearty Journal or GhostDiary?
Hearty Journal ships an update every 3 months, and GhostDiary fortnightly. Most recently, Hearty Journal was updated on October 23, 2026 and GhostDiary on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons