Minimal Diary vs the waterfall
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Minimal Diary
This app offers a simple way to capture daily thoughts, feelings, and moments. Organize entries with tags and revisit memories on a clear timeline. It's designed for quick, pressure-free journaling.
- Timeline journal organization
- Minimalist design for focus
- Tagging for memory organization
- Quick date navigation
- Private and secure entries
Read full descriptionHide full description
Minimal Diary Capture your life, one moment at a time. Minimal Diary is a simple timeline journal app that helps you record your daily life, thoughts, and feelings effortlessly. No pressure. No long writing. Just open the app and write. Why Minimal Diary? Journaling shouldn’t feel like a task. A sentence, a photo, a small moment — everything can be part of your story. Over time, your entries connect into a timeline, showing your life as it unfolds. Key Features Timeline Journal All entries are organized in a clean timeline, so you can easily review your day. Minimal Design No distractions. No complexity. Just focus on writing. Tags & Organization Travel, books, movies, fitness, daily life — use tags to organize and revisit your memories. Quick Date Switch Swipe to move across days, like traveling through time. Private Space Your personal diary, safe and just for you. Your Life, Your Story You don’t need to write perfectly. Just write something. Over time, it becomes your story. We hope you like the diary and enjoy the app. For any questions and suggestions, please contact minimal.software.studio@gmail.com.
the waterfall
This app serves as a personal introspection companion, allowing users to record thoughts, ideas, and memories. It features guided questions for deeper self-reflection, supports Markdown for expressive text, and allows tagging and image association with entries. Data is stored locally and synced with iCloud for privacy.
- Guided self-reflection questions
- Markdown support for text
- Tagging and image association
- Local data storage with iCloud sync
- Pinning important memories
- Record reading notes and movie reviews
Read full descriptionHide full description
Waterfall —— More than just a diary app, it's your personal introspection companion. Waterfall is committed to helping you think, remember, and discover the beauty in life. As a unique diary app, the charm of Waterfall lies in its potential to touch every detail of life. Here, you can record your thoughts and ideas. Furthermore, our question feature allows for deeper pondering — just hold down on a diary entry and prompt yourself with a question, like "What did you eat today?", "What are you thinking about?", or "Was there something today that made you happy?". Each question is a deep dive into your own self-reflection. Moreover, Waterfall is fully featured — it supports Markdown, making your text even more expressive. You can also associate tags and pictures with your memories, turning them into visual echoes. So, what exactly can Waterfall record? The answer is: almost everything. Apart from life's snippets, you can use it to log your reading notes, movie reviews, and even life goals. Pin important things to remind yourself to always keep up the enthusiasm for life. In the end, we hope that you enjoy your time with Waterfall, where each day, you can cherish the last moment of the day and reminisce about the day's experiences. Here, every day, you have your own waterfall. It's worth noting that Waterfall takes your privacy very seriously. All your data are stored locally and automatically synced with iCloud, visible only to you. At Waterfall, your privacy is always given the highest level of protection. May you have a beautiful day with Waterfall. Wishing you a waterfall day.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Minimal Diary at fortnightly against the waterfall's every 3 months. Minimal Diary also leads on ratings volume (28 vs 5). the waterfall's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, review sentiment, 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. Minimal Diary sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and the waterfall sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
the waterfall holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Minimal Diary has 28 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 91% of Minimal Diary's written reviews are positive against 88% of the waterfall's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Minimal Diary ships an update fortnightly, the waterfall every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Minimal Diary | the waterfall |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (28 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 90.9% of reviews — better | 88.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 28 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 4+ |
| Developer | Chaoyang Minimal Software Studio | 文杰 李 |
Customer experience
Minimal Diary
the waterfall
In-app purchases
Minimal Diary
- Pro Monthly3 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Pro Yearly7 Days trial$8.991 Year
- Pro Lifetime$14.99
- Lifetime Pro$29.99
the waterfall
- WATERFALL UPGRADE$7.99









