Comparison

Journey vs Shutter Clique

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

Head to head
About

Journey

Build and grow vibrant online communities with a modern platform. Facilitate connections through visual feeds, group chats, and member profiles. Ideal for creators, clubs, and local groups seeking engagement.

Highlights
  • Visual community feed
  • Group chat / group text
  • One-click community invitations
  • Journaling
  • Habit tracker
  • Task management
  • Rich member profiles
Features
Read full description

The best app to start and grow a community. Journey is the modern alternative to Facebook Groups, Reddit, Discord, Group Me, Slack, Whatsapp Groups, Amino, Mighty Networks, Circle, Bunches, Nextdoor, Skool and every other community app of the last decade. Perfect for communities of all shapes and sizes, Journey is great for building a college club, creator or influencer community, sports club, passion or interest community, or fan club. INFLUENCER AND CREATOR COMMUNITIES Seeing your followers build real friendships with each other can be one of the most rewarding experiences a creator can have. Empower your fans to connect with each other and earn a new income stream by setting up a paid membership community. 200 followers paying $5 a month = $1K per month in your bank account. The best part is that you can get off the content treadmill – your fans get value from just being able to talk to each other and make new friends. It’s not all on your shoulders as a creator or influencer to constantly produce content. COLLEGE CLUBS AND COMMUNITIES From Greek Life fraternities & sororities to college sports and business clubs, Journey is perfect for creating a vibrant community on campus. Members of your college community converse in a rich, visual feed and have group chats for deeper conversations. Easily share your community qr code around campus on billboards, stickers, and merch. Check out the ‘Umich Life’ community in the Journey app for an example of a thriving community from the University of Michigan. SPORTS CLUBS A journey community is the perfect way to recruit and engage members or your local community. Members can tip you for the effort you put into club management or they can pool funds for your club events. Members can also create different group chats based on interest, level of experience, or availability – whatever makes sense for your club. PASSION COMMUNITIES From arts & crafts to DIY renovations, the visual feed in a Journey community is perfect for sharing photos and videos of the process, as well as the wins and fails! DMs and group texts are great for members connecting with each other and building deeper relationships. LOCAL COMMUNITIES Start a community for your local area as a place to share local news, events, meet people, and support local businesses. Post your local community’s qr code on bulletin boards and stickers and share the link with your neighbors and friends. FEATURES • Visual community feed – your central hub where members can post photos, videos, and ask questions. • Group chat / group text • One-click community invitations (viral community growth). • Journaling • Habit tracker + accountability partners • Task management • Rich member profiles • Create a masterclass to empower your members and promote your community. • Paid membership community tips and subscriptions (coming soon) • Mint your own social token to drive growth and engagement (coming soon) We currently have some amazing communities and guides spanning: • Embroidery • Roller Skating • Skateboarding • Snowboarding • Skiing • Skydiving • Backbacking • Spearfishing • Acting • Squash • Sailing • Cooking • Kiteboarding / Kitesurfing • Guitar • Surfing We are constantly looking for new communities and ways to improve our app to help your communities flourish – please reach out to us at hello@startyourjourney.io with any feedback, questions, or ideas.

About

Shutter Clique

A private social network for sharing daily photos with a small, trusted circle. It prioritizes privacy with no ads, public posts, or user discovery. Connect with up to 15 friends using their contact information and enjoy secure, encrypted photo sharing.

Highlights
  • Private photo sharing
  • Limited friend count (15 max)
  • Encrypted photo transfer
  • No ads or public posts
  • Comment and reaction features
  • Save and delete photos
  • 1-month free trial
Features
Read full description

Shutter Clique is a private social network to share daily photos with your closest friends and family. There are no ads, no public posts, no user discovery, no reading your personal contacts, and no infinite scroll. Just the features you need to stay connected with the closest people in your life. To stay true to that goal, you are limited to a maximum of 15 friends. And you have to already know the email address or phone number of someone to connect with them, i.e., random people you don't know can't connect with you on Shutter Clique. You can see the most recent photo that each friend has posted in the last day, with the ability to add comments and reactions. Photos are transferred over encrypted channels and your photos are never shared publicly. Letting you stay safely connected and engaged with what’s going on in the lives of your trusted inner circle. You have full access to all the photos you've taken. You can save any of your photos to your device's Photos app (with no corporate branding added to your photos), and you can delete anything you've posted at any time. Most public social networks make money by selling your personal information to advertisers. Shutter Clique doesn’t do that. Instead we charge a small nominal fee of $0.99 / month to cover our infrastructure costs so we can keep the service running and keep your data private. You can use the app for free for 1 month to see if you like it before having to pay. Even if you don't pay, you will continue to have access to all your data captured during the trial period. Subscription details: You will be prompted to subscribe after a 1 month trial period, or you can elect to subscribe during the trial period via the Account tab in the app. A $0.99 / month purchase will be applied to your iTunes account on confirmation. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial will be forfeited if you purchase a subscription. For more information, see our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy below. Documentation: https://shutterclique.com/docs Terms of Service: https://shutterclique.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://shutterclique.com/privacy

Screenshots

Journey4 screens
Shutter Clique4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Journey at none against Shutter Clique's 1. Journey also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). Shutter Clique's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8). 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. Shutter Clique sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. Journey asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Shutter Clique holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 22 and 8 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Journey ships an update weekly, Shutter Clique every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Journey versus Shutter Clique: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterJourneyShutter Clique
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (22 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings22 — better8
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size200 MB23 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperJRNY, Inc.Gallus Soft LLC

Customer experience

Journey

All ratings22 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Shutter Clique

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Journey

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Shutter Clique

Subscriptions1
  • $0.99 / month$0.991 Month

Questions

Is Journey free?
Journey is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Shutter Clique free?
Shutter Clique is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Journey or Shutter Clique?
Shutter Clique is rated higher. Journey averages 4.8 out of 5 from 22 ratings, while Shutter Clique averages 5.0 from 8 ratings.
Do Journey or Shutter Clique have ads?
Neither Journey nor Shutter Clique shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Journey or Shutter Clique?
Journey ships an update weekly, and Shutter Clique every 3 weeks. Most recently, Journey was updated on November 3, 2026 and Shutter Clique on November 4, 2026.

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