Circle vs dear.
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Circle
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Circle is a diary application that focuses on recording and quantifying daily experiences and reflections, presented through a timeline. Apple Watch users have additional functionality, such as the ability to read and track health data, set fitness goals, and view progress towards those goals. Without recording, there is no occurrence, and without quantification, there is no optimization. Many things that happen in life are worth recording, such as places visited, happy events, and precious moments. Even if things were happy and beautiful at the time, they will fade and be forgotten over time. Leaving words, photos, or videos in unforgettable moments can help us remember the bits and pieces of that time in the future, and that is the meaning of recording. As the old year passes and the new one approaches, we like to review the past and look forward to the future. Many times, after setting goals, we put them aside, and only in the annual review do we realize that time has passed and the goals still seem far away. What we need is to move towards our goals, see our own changes every now and then, and see where we have reached. If we find any deficiencies in the process of achieving our goals, we can do better through feedback loops, and that is the meaning of quantification. --- The Circle app uses HealthKit to collect and display data, such as displaying today's heart rate with a line chart, calculating weekly running distance with a bar chart, and showing progress towards this year's running goal with the Activity Rings. The Circle app itself does not upload or store user's private data, and all data is stored locally at the user's iCloud storage. --- User Support: https://usistem.com/en/page/support/ Privacy Policy: https://usistem.com/en/page/privacy/
dear.
Digitally preserve and organize your cherished cards. Scan them to create a digital collection, sort by various criteria, and even generate PDFs. Never lose a memory again, even if you decide to discard the physical card.
- Scan and store cards digitally
- Organize cards by year, event, or category
- Create and share PDF collections
- Edit card details and images
- Create user profiles and card collections
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Open a sweet birthday card and don’t know what to do with it? Throw it away? Keep it in a box under your bed where it’s never to be seen again? Organize and preserve those memories with dear. Scan and keep all your cards in one place. Organize cards by year, event, holiday, category, person, or any other way you can think of. Create and share PDFs for your scans. Now you don’t have to feel bad about tossing that birthday card from Aunt Sally. To get started begin with the following steps: • Create a user profile • Create your first card collection • Create and scan your first cards • Upload a collection image • Edit a Card in the following ways: • Scan new images • Update the "from" field • Update the description field Thank you for using dear. Please email support@thedearapp.com with feedback or any questions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: dear. at Free against Circle's $14.99. Circle's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
dear. is free to download; Circle costs $14.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Circle ships an update every 3 weeks, dear. every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and July 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Circle | dear. |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (40 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 40 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 怀国 胡 | dearly LLC |
In-app purchases
Circle
No in-app purchases
dear.
No in-app purchases





