Comparison

Hearty Journal vs Secret Diary

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

Secret Diary

Securely record your thoughts, daily events, and journeys with this private diary app. It offers robust security features like Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode lock, and allows for extensive personalization with themes, fonts, and backgrounds. All entries are stored locally for maximum privacy.

Highlights
  • Face ID, Touch ID, passcode lock
  • iCloud backup and restore
  • Unlimited editing options
  • Add photos, backgrounds, fonts
  • Personalize with artistic themes
  • Local data storage
Features
Read full description

Secret Diary is a free diary journal app with high security. Your data is safe with iCloud backup and restore. This app use Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode lock to protect the security of your secret thoughts, daily diary and journeys. To ensure privacy and security, all your entry will only be saved on your device and not sent to any servers. Secret Diary provide unlimited dairy editing options, adding photos, backgrounds, fonts, moods, etc. Also, you can personalize this app with multiple artistic and kawaii themes. Everything is free! This App will protect your memories securely. Please try and enjoy it!

Screenshots

Hearty Journal4 screens
Secret Diary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Secret Diary at none against Hearty Journal's 1. Secret Diary also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 3 months). Hearty Journal's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 4.7). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume 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. Secret Diary asks for nothing beyond the download.

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 98 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 92% of Hearty Journal's written reviews are positive against 85% of Secret Diary's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hearty Journal ships an update every 3 months, Secret Diary every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Hearty Journal versus Secret Diary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHearty JournalSecret Diary
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (44 ratings) — better4.7 (98 ratings)
Positive reviews92.1% of reviews — better85.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4498 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB66 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHearty Creative Inc.Trang Le Thi

Customer experience

Hearty Journal

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

Secret Diary

All ratings59 ratings
Positive86.4%
Neutral11.9%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews40 reviews
Positive85.0%
Neutral7.5%
Negative7.5%

Bugs and requests

Hearty Journal

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Secret Diary

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Cannot get back to previous background themes
  • Lock screen appears after entries are visible
  • App crashes when phone is on airplane mode
  • Difficulty entering or recovering passcode
  • Passcode not visible or functional at times

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow autocorrect while typing
  • Ensure lock screen appears first
  • Recover passcode when forgotten
  • Add backup feature
  • Enable Face ID/Touch ID for login

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Hearty Journal

Subscriptions1
  • 溫度日記 VIP版$4.491 Month
None

Secret Diary

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hearty Journal free?
Hearty Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Secret Diary free?
Secret Diary is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Hearty Journal or Secret Diary?
Hearty Journal is rated higher. Hearty Journal averages 4.9 out of 5 from 44 ratings, while Secret Diary averages 4.7 from 98 ratings.
Do Hearty Journal or Secret Diary have ads?
Neither Hearty Journal nor Secret Diary shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hearty Journal or Secret Diary?
Hearty Journal ships an update every 3 months, and Secret Diary every 2 weeks. Most recently, Hearty Journal was updated on November 2, 2026 and Secret Diary on November 3, 2026.

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