Comparison

Empathy Set vs Shadow Work Journal

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

Head to head
About

Empathy Set

This app helps you understand and express your emotions and needs, fostering deeper connections with yourself and others. It offers tools for self-reflection, empathic communication, and collaborative problem-solving, based on Nonviolent Communication principles.

Highlights
  • Understand your feelings and needs
  • Develop empathy for others
  • Engage in constructive conversations
  • Craft I-Statements
  • Brainstorm mutually beneficial solutions
  • Utilize structured feedback tools
  • Interactive journaling
Read full description

Explore Emotions, Build Empathy, Connect Deeply The Empathy Set App is your comprehensive toolkit for developing emotional intelligence and empathy across various facets of life. Rooted in the principles of Nonviolent Communication, our app serves as a dynamic guide to help you navigate your emotional world and build meaningful connections. The Empathy Set App focuses on cultivating empathy in three pivotal areas: Self-Empathy (Me): Embark on an introspective journey to better understand your own feelings and needs. Gain valuable insights into your emotional landscape and make sense of your experiences in different life situations. Empathy for Others (Other): Develop the skills to recognize and comprehend the emotional states and needs of those around you. Strengthen your bonds and cultivate more compassionate, empathetic relationships. Empathic Problem-Solving Conversations (Self and Other): Equip yourself with practical tools to engage in positive, constructive dialogues that address situations important to you. Features: --------- Dynamic Situations: Choose from three compelling levels—Starter, Enhancer, and Maximizer—to dive deep into your emotional landscape and identify your true needs. User-Friendly Dashboard: Effortlessly manage your point balance on our intuitive dashboard, where you can track points you've purchased, earned through referrals, or received as milestone rewards. All your point transactions are displayed in one convenient location for easy access and management. Intuitive Selectors & Funnels: Utilize our smart interface to effortlessly identify and prioritize your feelings and needs, bringing you closer to emotional clarity for both yourself and others. Empowered I-Statements: Craft straightforward or advanced I-Statements that enable you to articulate your emotions and desires with positivity and precision. The Brainstorming Tool: Unleash your creative potential to discover mutually beneficial solutions that cater to everyone's needs. SBI-Q Toolkit: Elevate your communication with our Situation, Background, Impact, and Question Tool, designed to offer structured feedback in both personal and professional settings. Interactive Journal: Make meaningful observations and record insightful notes to not only enhance memory but also capture the essence of the moment. Shareable Situation Summaries: Forward a PDF file of your situational analysis directly via email or text. A convenient way to communicate your emotional state to supportive individuals or initiate conflict resolution discussions. Referral Points: Earn points by inviting friends to download our app. Maintain a healthy point balance for free by using referrals, allowing you to open situations at Starter (56 points), Enhancer (78 points), and Maximizer (108 points) levels. Weekly Self-Reflections: Receive thoughtful notifications encouraging you to assess your emotional well-being and the state of your relationships. Community Connection: Participate in webinars and engage with a compassionate community that values and fosters empathy. Terms of use: https://www.empathyset.com/app-terms Privacy Policy: https://www.empathyset.com/app-privacy-policy

About

Shadow Work Journal

Features
Read full description

Some things are too heavy to carry and too important to throw away. That's where Shadow Work Journal begins. Every morning, Shadow Work Journal opens to a single prompt. Not a feed. Not a dashboard. Not a choice between seventeen things. One question, written for the part of you that you usually keep quiet. You write. However long you need. There's no word count, no timer demanding productivity, no streak shaming you for a missed day. Just a warm cursor on a dark screen, the way a page looks by candlelight. And when you're done, something unusual happens. Ember asks you a question most journaling apps never will: Do you want to keep this, or burn it? If you keep it, it joins a quiet archive you can return to. If you burn it, the words catch light at the bottom of the screen. Embers rise. The text disintegrates, line by line, into drifting particles that fade into the dark. A single word remains: Released. Then it's gone. Really gone. No trash folder. No cloud backup. No undo. (Ember always asks you to confirm — burning is deliberate, never accidental.) This is not a gimmick. It's the whole point. Jung called it the shadow: the parts of yourself you've hidden — the anger, the shame, the envy, the fear. Shadow work is the practice of dragging them into the light long enough to look at them. The value isn't in the archive. It's in the looking. Ember is built around that truth. Some entries deserve to be kept. Most deserve to be written, witnessed by you, and set down. WHAT'S INSIDE • 370 shadow work prompts, one per day, organized across ten themes: anger, shame, fear, abandonment, control, envy, people-pleasing, identity, family patterns, and self-sabotage • A distraction-free writing space. No formatting tools, no word count, no notifications while you work • Burn mode with a deliberate, ceremonial animation and haptic response — because the act of release should feel like something • A private history of kept entries, and a record (without content) of what you released • A single optional daily reminder at a time you choose. No badges. No guilt. No streaks WHAT'S NOT INSIDE No account. No email signup. No onboarding survey. No ads. No AI watching your words. No analytics. No cloud. Your writing lives on your device and only on your device. TRY IT FIRST. THEN OWN IT. Ember is free to download, and your first three entries are free to keep. Write with it before you decide anything. When you're ready, a single Lifetime purchase unlocks all of it — all 370 prompts, unlimited kept entries, burn mode, Live Activity, notifications — and never asks you for money again. It doesn't renew. It doesn't expire. There is no premium tier waiting above it and no upgrade nudge hiding behind a feature. There's also a weekly option, if you'd rather not pay up front. It unlocks exactly the same app. The Lifetime unlock is the one we'd point you to. Shadow work is personal, and personal work shouldn't be rented to you month after month. Buy the tool once. Own the practice. WHO THIS IS FOR Ember is for people who've encountered Jungian archetypes online, heard about inner child work from a therapist, or felt the pull of shadow work and didn't know where to start. It's for those who have tried bloated wellness apps and closed them within a week, seeking something more substantial. It's for the person who suspects — rightly — that the journal they actually need isn't the one with mood graphs and streak badges, but the one that respects the depth of the work they came to do. Open it tonight. Write the thing you haven't said. Keep it if it's meant to stay. Burn it if it isn't. Either way, you did the work. Privacy Policy: https://www.leanorbit.app/shadowwork/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Empathy Set4 screens
Shadow Work Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Empathy Set at Free against Shadow Work Journal's $2.99. Empathy Set also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). Shadow Work Journal's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 7). On update cadence, ads and device support 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

Empathy Set is free to download; Shadow Work Journal costs $2.99 up front. Empathy Set sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Shadow Work Journal asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Empathy Set ships an update every 2 months, Shadow Work Journal every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Empathy Set versus Shadow Work Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEmpathy SetShadow Work Journal
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.7 (9 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews85.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings9 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB1 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperJohn FordLean Orbit LLC

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Empathy Set

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly subscription$0.991 Month
One-time6
  • 500 Points$4.99
  • 1500 Points$9.99
  • Lifetime usage$18.99
Show 3 more
  • 4000 Points$19.99
  • 7500 points$29.99
  • 30000 points$79.99
None

Shadow Work Journal

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Empathy Set free?
Empathy Set is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Shadow Work Journal free?
Shadow Work Journal costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Empathy Set or Shadow Work Journal have ads?
Neither Empathy Set nor Shadow Work Journal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Empathy Set or Shadow Work Journal?
Empathy Set ships an update every 2 months, and Shadow Work Journal every 5 weeks. Most recently, Empathy Set was updated on October 20, 2026 and Shadow Work Journal on October 2, 2026.

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