Comparison

Diarium Journal vs MapSelf

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

Head to head
About

Diarium Journal

Capture your memories, thoughts, and experiences in a private digital journal. Enrich entries with photos, audio, and location data, and secure your personal timeline with password protection. Organize your life and revisit moments with flexible viewing options.

Highlights
  • Private diary and daily journal
  • Add photos, drawings, audio, files
  • Track mood with star ratings
  • Calendar, timeline, and travel map views
  • Import from other diary apps
  • Cross-platform sync
  • Password, PIN, Face ID, Touch ID protection
Read full description

Keep a private diary and daily journal for memories, photos, mood, travel, gratitude, and everyday notes—with no ads or subscriptions. Diarium helps you capture what happened today and build a personal timeline you can return to for years. Write a quick reflection or a detailed entry, enrich it with the moments that matter, and protect everything with a password, PIN, Face ID, or Touch ID. Make each entry your own • Keep a personal diary, gratitude journal, bullet journal, photo diary, or travel journal • Add photos, drawings, audio recordings, files, tags, people, ratings, and locations • Track your mood with star ratings and tracker tags • Revisit memories through calendar, timeline, and travel map views • Organize thoughts with lists and text formatting • Set daily reminders to support your writing routine Bring the details of your day together. Diarium can add useful context from your camera roll, calendar events, weather, completed tasks, Apple Health and other fitness activity, social activity, and entertainment activity. Moving from another journal? Import from Apple Journal and supported diary apps including Day One, Diaro, Journey, Daylio, Diarly, Daybook, and Evernote. You can also back up your diary database and export entries as Word, HTML, JSON, or plain text. Continue your journal across supported phone, tablet, laptop, and desktop versions. Optional sync uses your own iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or WebDAV storage, so you do not need a separate Diarium account. Diarium is made for the story of everyday life: reflections, family memories, trips, photos, gratitude, feelings, and small moments worth remembering. It remains personal, flexible, and secure whether you write daily or only when inspiration strikes. Diarium is free to use, with optional Diarium Pro for advanced features such as sync, unlimited attachments per entry, Word export for printing, connected feeds, custom fonts, widgets, and weather in entries. You can evaluate Pro features for 7 days after installing. Diarium Pro is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. It is linked to your Apple ID and unlocks Pro for iOS and iPadOS; a separate Pro purchase may be required on other platforms.

About

MapSelf

Read full description

Some days you mean to sit down and write about yourself. You rarely do. MapSelf is the other version of that. Short sets of questions, one at a time, and a reflection written back to you. It is built for adults who want to pay attention to themselves without keeping a journal — and for the stretches of life where something is quietly shifting. A job. A relationship. A direction you are no longer sure about. HOW IT WORKS You pick a set. A handful of questions, one per screen, multiple choice. No blank page, no typing, no streak to protect. Your answers are scored across 15 dimensions in 4 groups — being present, setting boundaries, deep focus, guilt-free rest, and eleven more. Then a guide writes you a reflection on what you chose: a short piece of prose about the pattern in your answers, and up to three things you might try. THE NUMBERS ARE NOT THE AI'S Your scores are arithmetic. Every option carries a fixed weight, and your dimension scores come from those weights alone. The AI writes the prose and never touches the numbers. Answer the same way twice and you get the same score twice. YOUR MIND MAP Each set updates the dimensions it touches. Together they build a radar across all 15, with a trend line showing how it moves over time. Nothing here is a verdict. A low score is an earlier stage, not a failure, and no dimension has a bad end. FOUR GUIDES, ONE SET OF ANSWERS Flow reads the emotional layer. Nova looks for strengths not yet fully expressed. Spark stays on habits and follow-through. Edge maps the roles and constraints you are working inside. Same answers, four different readings. You can ask a second guide about a set you have already finished. SUBSCRIPTION AND CREDITS MapSelf is free to download. Browsing sets, reading what each one covers, and your profile cost nothing. Completing a set and receiving a reflection requires a subscription and credits. Subscriptions are available weekly, monthly and yearly, each including a number of credits per period. While your subscription is active you can also buy extra credit packs. Prices are shown in the app before any purchase. New subscribers get a 7-day free trial that includes 3 credits. It converts to a paid subscription unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the trial ends. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. You can manage or cancel yours in your Apple Account settings. YOUR ANSWERS STAY YOURS There is no feed and no profile for anyone to browse. Nothing leaves the app unless you choose to share it. You can delete your account from inside the app. Deletion completes after 30 days, and you can change your mind during that time. WHAT MAPSELF IS NOT It is not a personality test and will not sort you into a type. It is not a medical, diagnostic or therapeutic product, and nothing it writes is clinical advice. It is for adults 18 and over. Terms of Service: https://mapself.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://mapself.app/privacy

Screenshots

Diarium Journal4 screens
MapSelf4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Diarium Journal at fortnightly against MapSelf's every 5 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Diarium Journal sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and MapSelf sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Diarium Journal ships an update fortnightly, MapSelf every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Diarium Journal versus MapSelf: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDiarium JournalMapSelf
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (2.1K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews95.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings2.1K — better—
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.417.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size27 MB18 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperTimo PartlSahmurat UGURLU

Bugs and requests

Diarium Journal

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Sync issues between devices
  • Crashes when adjusting settings
  • Photos not displaying correctly in some cases

Requested features

7 requests
  • Ability to embed photos within entries
  • More font and color options
  • Checklist/task functionality
  • Multiple journal/diary support
  • Export to PDF or other formats
Show 2 more
  • Improved search with highlighting
  • Focus mode for distraction-free writing

MapSelf

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Diarium Journal

One-time1
  • Pro version (iOS)$14.99
7 purchases

MapSelf

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly7 Days trial$1.997 Days
  • Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Yearly7 Days trial$39.991 Year
One-time4
  • 5 Credits$3.99
  • 15 Credits$9.99
  • 25 Credits$14.99
Show 1 more
  • 50 Credits$24.99

Questions

Is Diarium Journal free?
Diarium Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MapSelf free?
MapSelf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Diarium Journal or MapSelf have ads?
Neither Diarium Journal nor MapSelf shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Diarium Journal or MapSelf?
Diarium Journal ships an update fortnightly, and MapSelf every 5 weeks. Most recently, Diarium Journal was updated on October 30, 2026 and MapSelf on October 24, 2026.

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