Comparison

Thinky vs Guided Journaling

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

Head to head
About

Thinky

This app offers a secure and simple way to journal your thoughts and feelings. It automatically classifies your mood, provides writing prompts, and allows for cloud backup. Track your emotional patterns with visual graphs and set reminders to build a consistent journaling habit.

Highlights
  • Automatic mood classification
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Writing prompts
  • Cloud backup and sync
  • Photo attachments
  • Daily reminders
  • Visual mood graph
Read full description

Say hello to effortless journaling with Thinky, the beautifully simple and secure free journal. Take the guess work out of your thoughts and feelings as automatic mood classification tracks life’s ups and downs, leaving you time to focus on what really matters. Start the habit of a lifetime with Thinky, with your wellbeing at heart. More Thinky features: - Safely tuck your thoughts away with our state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption, keeping your private feelings just that: private. - Not sure where to start? Thinky’s writing prompts will help you focus on your wellbeing and remove that blank-page fear. - Create your free account to securely backup and sync your entries to the cloud - Add a splash of colour to your timeline and bring your posts to life with a photo, perfect for those times when words aren't enough. - Complete your post in a few seconds thanks to our simple, no-fuss interface, perfect for journaling on-the-go. - Never miss an entry: build the habit of daily journaling with reminders and streaks to incentivise you to keep up your practice. - Take the guess work out of your emotions and let Thinky’s automatic mood classification do all the hard work for you. - With each post, grow your bespoke visual mood graph and see how your mood ebbs and flows over time. - Take a moment for reflection, and ask Thinky to remind you of special posts at a future date. - Search your entries quickly and easily and see if you can spot patterns in your thoughts. - See in the dark with Dark Mode, perfect for late night journaling. - Keep your journal private with the Face ID lock. Now is the time to focus on you: download Thinky, your intuitive mindfulness companion.

About

Guided Journaling

This app helps you reflect on your life, form habits, and reduce stress through personalized guided journaling. Analyze trends with over 60 charts, manage tags, and set goals with reminders. Secure your data with on-device encryption and cloud sync.

Highlights
  • Personalized guided journals
  • Habit formation and goal setting
  • Mood and activity tracking
  • Data analysis with 60+ charts
  • On-device encryption and secure backup
  • Export data in multiple formats
Features
Read full description

Discover past trends, celebrate now, and take control of your future with the most personalizable guided journal app Features: -Record anything in one place, reflect on your life, form habits, reduce stress, sleep better, feel calmer, and happier through guided journaling -Over 50 ready-to-use mindful journals or create your own custom guided journals to keep consistent journals with text, number, currency, and time fields -Easily create and manage tags for regularly used things such as moods, feelings, activities, and people -Quantity, summary, and time-based goals and reminders to help you to form habits and to be more consistent -More than 60 charts to analyze mood, goals, tracked time, expenses, locations, tags, template answers, and more -Slide along all your previously geotagged entries on the map -Grid view to quickly compare all your answers between different days, weeks, months, and years -On-device encryption and secure backup and sync between your devices with your own encryption key and dropbox account -Look back at your entries with throwbacks -Images on the calendar and map -Export in PDF, JSON, TXT, KML, CSV -Dark mode -Passcode lock

Screenshots

Thinky4 screens
Guided Journaling4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Guided Journaling at none against Thinky's shown. Guided Journaling also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 84%). Thinky's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.4) and ratings volume (89 vs 5). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Thinky sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Guided Journaling sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Thinky holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Thinky has 89 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 84% of Thinky's written reviews are positive against 100% of Guided Journaling's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and August 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Thinky versus Guided Journaling: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThinkyGuided Journaling
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (89 ratings) — better4.4 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews84.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings89 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size49 MB52 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThinky LtdDominik Gyecsek

Customer experience

Thinky

All ratings89 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral5.6%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive84.3%
Neutral13.7%
Negative2.0%

Guided Journaling

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Thinky

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when navigating to past dates
  • Privacy key not working for login
  • Wind down and bedtime alerts not working

Requested features

14 requests
  • Increase word limit
  • Ability to export entries
  • Tagging entries for search
  • Add a return button for new lines
  • Bullet points feature
Show 9 more
  • Edit past entries
  • Add more features and color customization
  • Ability to add entries to specific dates
  • iPad version
  • Pin separate from phone for access
  • Dark mode
  • Advanced analytics
  • Change daily entry order (asc/desc)
  • Previews for entries

Guided Journaling

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Thinky

One-time4
  • Coffee-sized tip$0.99
  • Sandwich-sized tip$2.99
  • Pizza-sized tip$4.99
Show 1 more
  • A very generous tip$9.99
2 purchases

Guided Journaling

Subscriptions1
  • DoEntry Monthly Plan$1.491 Month
One-time1
  • Doentry Pro Lifetime$40.99

Questions

Is Thinky free?
Thinky is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Guided Journaling free?
Guided Journaling is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Thinky or Guided Journaling?
Thinky is rated higher. Thinky averages 4.7 out of 5 from 89 ratings, while Guided Journaling averages 4.4 from 5 ratings.
Do Thinky or Guided Journaling have ads?
Thinky shows ads; Guided Journaling does not.
Which is updated more often, Thinky or Guided Journaling?
Thinky ships an update every 2 weeks, and Guided Journaling every 2 weeks. Most recently, Thinky was updated on September 28, 2026 and Guided Journaling on August 11, 2026.

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