Comparison

MoodWell vs Chronicling

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

Head to head
About

MoodWell

Track your daily moods and understand how activities and weather impact your mental well-being. This private journal helps you identify patterns and gain insights into what makes you feel your best.

Highlights
  • Private mood logging
  • Activity and weather correlation
  • Customizable moods and activities
  • Photo and note attachments
  • Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly charts
  • Data export (CSV/JSON)
  • iCloud Sync
Features
Read full description

MoodWell mood tracker enables you to keep a private journal of how different activities and changes in weather effect your mental health. Use this super-simple to use diary to know which activities make you feel your absolute best and which ones might be negatively impacting you. We recommend logging your mood at least once but preferably 2-3 times a day. You should at least log any drastic changes in your mood and factors which make you feel that way. Choose from a list of color coded moods and attach optional positive or negative emotions you might be feeling. Add activities on what you have been up to. Describe the weather if you like. You can also add photos and notes to the logs. MoodWell uses the recorded moods, activities and weather data to present interesting statistics on your mental health. The graphs and calendar show how your mood changes over a period of time. After logging a few times, you will get valuable insights like - which weekdays do you usually feel your best, which ones are the worst, which months of the year are your best and worst, which activities you do more often when you feel good and which ones make you feel not too good. Are you usually in a worse mood when it's cold and gloomy outside? Are you more energetic when it's sunny? The color coded Year in Pixels chart shows you how you have felt on every single day throughout the year similar to an old school diary. These insights will help you understand your mental health better. You can also use the search function to look for specific items - hastags can be used to make the search super powerful. For example: #n will search for all logs with notes #p will search for all logs with photos #awful will search for all logs with awful mood #exercise will search for all days when you worked out #sunny will search for all days when it was sunny MoodWell comes with: - No ads, No subscriptions and No analytics - data stays on your device privately - biometric (TouchID or FaceID) authentication to make your app private so only you can unlock it - ability to create custom activities, emotions, weather tags and rename and remove existing ones (PRO feature) - attach photos - attach notes - daily, weekly, monthly and yearly charts - reminders to never forgot to log - exporting to both CSV and JSON. You can either do this from the settings page (scroll to the bottom > Export Data) or from the bottom graphs drawer's Save button. - save the graphs as a photo directly from the app - iCloud Sync: automatically syncs your mood logs, photos, notes, custom emotions/activities/weather/icons and reminders across all your devices which are signed in to the same iCloud account. - Light and Dark mode. Settings for "Use system dark mode setting" and "Dark mode". - Custom tint colour theme for the app! Variety of colour choices! - custom icons for weather. Icons must be PNG format and preferably 100x100 resolution. - customize the greetings and reminder notification greeting based on time - morning, afternoon, evening and night greetings. - a new background everyday to keep the app looking fresh - 10 Free and fully featured logs after which we hope you will buy a one-time small in app purchase to support future updates development and unlock unlimited logs I offer an ad free, subscription free, tracker and analytics free and simple app for the absolute best experience for my users. If you are finding my app useful, please leave me a positive rating on the app store as that helps get the word out to others! If you have any feedback or feature requests, please email Pran at: pran@pranapps.com Happy journaling!

About

Chronicling

This app provides a flexible way to monitor habits, health, mood, and daily activities. It offers customizable tracking options, quick logging methods, and insightful data visualization to help users identify patterns and maintain consistency. Secure syncing and data export are also available.

Highlights
  • All-in-one habit and health tracking
  • Fully customizable categories
  • Fast and effortless logging
  • Smart reminders for goals
  • Detailed data logging (notes, numbers)
  • Visual insights and trends
  • Private and secure iCloud sync
Features
Read full description

Keep track of anything you want to keep an eye on, from habits and chores to symptoms. Chronicling shows how long it's been, how often things happen, and which days and times they tend to happen. Some things happen every day, like coffee, a walk or your medication. Others come and go: changing the bed sheets, a headache, calling home. Chronicling handles both, so it all lives in one place. "If you're looking for a flexible approach to tracking events in your life and want to try an app with an excellent, modern design that supports the latest iOS and iPadOS technologies, be sure to give Chronicling a try." - MacStories LOG IT IN A TAP - Add events from your Apple Watch, widgets, Control Center, the Lock Screen, Siri and Shortcuts - Record a number or a note too, such as cups, miles, pages or how you felt - Automate logging with Shortcuts, from workouts to arriving home SEE HOW OFTEN, AND WHEN - Time since last logged, average gap and longest gap for every category - Heatmaps, charts and trends over weeks, months and years - Spot patterns by weekday and time of day - An annual Wrapped to look back at your year GENTLE REMINDERS - Time Since Last Event: get a nudge when it's been too long since you last logged something, from a few hours to a few months - Daily Goal: pick a time of day, and you'll only be notified if you haven't hit that day's goal - Rolling Goal: aim for a number over the last few days or weeks, with a daily check that only notifies you if you're falling short YOUR CATEGORIES, YOUR WAY - Create your own categories with emoji or symbols and your own colors - Choose the period each category's stats cover - Organize them into groups and filter by Focus ON ALL YOUR DEVICES - iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro - Private iCloud sync between your devices - Export to CSV or a single-file backup at any time - your data is yours If you have questions, suggestions or any other feedback, please contact me at support@chroniclingapp.com. Subscriptions to Chronicling Premium will automatically renew unless canceled within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial will be forfeited if you purchase a subscription. For more information, see https://chroniclingapp.com/terms-of-use/ and https://chroniclingapp.com/privacy-policy/.

Screenshots

MoodWell4 screens
Chronicling4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: MoodWell at 10.0 against Chronicling's 18.4. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. MoodWell sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chronicling sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. 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 — 4.8 for MoodWell against 4.8 for Chronicling. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 253 and 186 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 85% of MoodWell's written reviews are positive against 79% of Chronicling's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MoodWell ships an update every 5 days, Chronicling weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
MoodWell versus Chronicling: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMoodWellChronicling
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (253 ratings)4.8 (186 ratings) — better
Positive reviews85.1% of reviews — better79.3% of reviews
Number of ratings253 — better186
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better18.4
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB95 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPranoy ChowdhuryRebecca Owen

Customer experience

MoodWell

All ratings253 ratings
Positive94.5%
Neutral3.6%
Negative2.0%
Written reviews67 reviews
Positive85.1%
Neutral9.0%
Negative6.0%

Chronicling

All ratings186 ratings
Positive94.6%
Neutral1.1%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews58 reviews
Positive79.3%
Neutral6.9%
Negative13.8%

Bugs and requests

MoodWell

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Crashes when editing past posts
  • Crashes when trying to change emotions or selected pictures
  • Crashes when adding activities
  • Notifications seldom work
  • Cannot make new logs after update
Show 2 more
  • Cannot buy after update
  • App crashes constantly when adding emotions, weather etc. (older version)

Requested features

11 requests
  • Frequency of emotions tracking
  • Customizable rating scales
  • Alphabetize emotions and activities toggle
  • Add weather factors to emotions
  • Ability to see frequency of emotions
Show 6 more
  • Add custom categories (e.g., Health)
  • iCloud sync to iPad version
  • Watch app integration
  • Ability to change names of moods
  • Categorize custom emotions
  • Medication tracker

Chronicling

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MoodWell

One-time1
  • MoodWell Premium$12.99
3 purchases

Chronicling

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly14 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • Premium Annual14 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Premium Lifetime$39.99

Questions

Is MoodWell free?
MoodWell is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chronicling free?
Chronicling is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MoodWell or Chronicling?
Chronicling is rated higher. MoodWell averages 4.8 out of 5 from 253 ratings, while Chronicling averages 4.8 from 186 ratings.
Do MoodWell or Chronicling have ads?
Neither MoodWell nor Chronicling shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MoodWell or Chronicling?
MoodWell ships an update every 5 days, and Chronicling weekly. Most recently, MoodWell was updated on November 2, 2026 and Chronicling on November 3, 2026.

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