Journal Mate vs Automation Control
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Journal Mate
Organize your physical and digital documents, from handwritten notes and scattered papers to screenshots and PDFs. This app acts as a scanner, library, and manager, making it easy to store, search, and share your important information.
- Scan papers on the go
- Save screenshots and PDFs
- Recognize and interact with text
- Import from Photos and Files apps
- Share notebooks or pages
- Automatic iCloud sync
- Instant search by name
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Saved something important - but can’t remember where? Journal Mate keeps handwritten notes, receipts, scans, photos, screenshots, GIFs, videos, Live Photos, PDFs, saved locations, and web links together and organized - instead of scattered across Photos, chats, browsers, albums, and folders. CAPTURE IT WHILE IT MATTERS • Scan paper pages or capture several photos with the built-in camera, then review or retake them before saving • Import photos, screenshots, GIFs, videos, Live Photos, and PDFs • Scan QR codes, save websites as bookmark pages, play saved YouTube links inline, and save locations shared from Apple Maps or Google Maps as map bookmarks • Create blank pages for drawing and annotation KEEP THE CONTEXT • Keep related pages together in Stacks and group new imports automatically without changing their journal order • Search journals by title and notes, then manage content with filters, multi-select, and Spotlight • Reorder pages, move or copy them between journals, merge or duplicate journals, mark journals as favorites, pin important ones, and archive older ones • Edit photos, GIFs, Live Photos, and videos: crop, rotate, adjust, filter, pixelate or blur details, draw, and add text, emoji, or stickers - while preserving animation and motion USE IT WHEN YOU NEED IT • Share media files, create configurable PDFs from selected pages or complete journals, and export a restorable backup • Preview PDFs and adjust paper size, layout, margins, scaling, and pages per sheet • Save content to Journal Mate from other apps with the Share Extension • Sync your library through iCloud across your Apple devices • Work comfortably on iPad with a multi-column layout and easy navigation between your library, journals, and pages YOUR DATA, WITHOUT TRACKING Your library is stored on your devices and syncs through your iCloud account. Journal Mate does not use third-party ad SDKs or cross-app tracking. Journal Mate includes improvements to VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, contrast, and navigation, refreshed themes, and support for 85 languages. Your first 50 active pages are free. Pro removes the page limit and unlocks every color theme. Save it now. Find it later. Terms of Use: https://journalmate.app/en/legal/terms/
Automation Control
Enhance your existing automation workflows with advanced management and conditional execution. This tool allows you to enable, disable, or pause automations based on specific criteria like time, location, or focus modes. It provides a centralized dashboard for organizing and monitoring your automated tasks.
- Conditional execution of automations
- Enable/disable/pause automations
- Sort and filter automations
- Backup and restore configurations
- Log view for completed automations
- Set conditions (Date, Time, Location, Focus Modes, Weather)
- Search and pin automations
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If you use the Shortcuts automations like I do, surely you can find it difficult to manage them. Automation Control works with the Shortcuts app to provide a better way to manage your Shortcuts automations. This app, in a nutshell, is a glorified IF statement that determines if your automations should run or not. By simply adding Automation Control's Get Status of Item action to your Shortcuts Automations or by using the Automation Control Template shortcut, you now have better control over enabling, disabling, pausing, or setting conditions for your automations unlike ever before. This does not replace your Shortcuts automations tab; you still need to do some setup there for this app to manage them. Originally a shortcut a few years ago, and now an app, and with it, here are some things that you can do... - Name your automations along with adding an icon and a description - Sort your automations in order of A-Z, Z-A, Status, or Manually - Quickly toggle on/off your items with a simple double tap and view its status right on the item row - Multiple indicator views to choose your favorite way of viewing the on and off status of your items - 12-hour and 24-hour timing support - Backup and Restore - Log View to see a log of when your automations completed successfully - Send or Receive a text variable between Shortcuts and this app - Filter/Group automations based on status - Search bar to search for specific automations - Pin automations - Set timers on your automations - Multiple layouts - Set conditions such as Date & Time, Location, Focus Modes, Weather, and more... - More and more to come... How to use: - Create an Automation Control item by tapping the + button in the top right. - Name, describe, and select an icon and, of course, enable it. - Leave it as a Controller item by simply saving the new item or tap the Controls button and set various conditions. - Download the Automation Control Template shortcut, rename it to the same name as the control item you’ve just created, and set up your actions. - Set up your automation via the Automation tab in the Shortcuts app and add a Run Shortcut action from the list of actions and select the shortcut you’ve just modified. Full details found at https://ibanks.craft.me/6kbyyNVhWXjawv
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Automation Control at 80% against Journal Mate's 50%. Automation Control also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Journal Mate sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Automation Control sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Journal Mate ships an update every 2 weeks, Automation Control weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and June 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Journal Mate | Automation Control |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 4.8 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 189 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Vitalii Bahmet | Jerrod Banks |
Customer experience
Journal Mate
Automation Control
In-app purchases
Journal Mate
- Journal Mate Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
- Journal Mate Pro Yearly$24.991 Year
Automation Control
- Small Tip$0.99
- Medium Tip$2.99
- Large Tip$4.99
Questions
Is Journal Mate free?
Is Automation Control free?
Do Journal Mate or Automation Control have ads?
Which is updated more often, Journal Mate or Automation Control?
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