Comparison

Hourly Journal vs GRAB

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

Head to head
About

Hourly Journal

Track how you spend your time with a beautifully designed and simple hourly journal. Log your hours, add tags and reactions, and gain insights into your daily, weekly, or monthly activities through intuitive analytics. Improve your lifestyle by becoming more mindful of your day.

Highlights
  • Log hours and activities
  • Add tags and emoji reactions
  • Daily, weekly, monthly analytics
  • Hourly reminders
  • Intuitive calendar for revisiting past entries
  • Free cloud sync
Features
Read full description

See where your time goes and understand how every part of your day feels. Hourly Journal turns quick check-ins into a clear picture of your time, activities, emotions and energy. Capture meaningful moments throughout the day without writing long diary entries. JOURNAL YOUR DAY, YOUR WAY Record quick notes in 15-minute intervals, add activity tags and express how each moment felt with reactions. Keep journaling even when you’re offline and return to your entries whenever you need them. UNDERSTAND YOUR TIME AND MOOD Connect what you do with how you feel. Review your top activities and emotions across the day, week or month to discover patterns in your routines, productivity and wellbeing. BUILD A CONSISTENT JOURNALING HABIT Build streaks, earn badges and turn short reflections into a lasting habit. Hourly Journal makes it easier to pause, check in and become more intentional with your time. START WITH POWERFUL FREE FEATURES • Offline journaling • 15-minute entries • Up to 3 custom tags • Daily, weekly and monthly insights • Top tags and emotions • Streaks and badges GO DEEPER WITH PREMIUM • Set exact start and end times • Track energy and positive or negative experiences • Personalize tags with icons and sentiment markers • Create up to 3 workspaces • Protect individual workspaces with a passcode • Explore granular Deep Reports • Compare activities and discover peak hours • Customize sleep and wake patterns • Search entries using advanced filters • Export selected entries with custom filters • Enjoy the complete dark mode experience Whether you want to improve your work-life balance, understand your emotions or simply remember how your days unfolded, Hourly Journal helps you turn every hour into useful insight. Start journaling one moment at a time. PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION Hourly Journal is free to use, with optional Premium features available through: • Monthly auto-renewable subscription • Yearly auto-renewable subscription • One-time Lifetime purchase Monthly and yearly subscriptions include a 7-day free trial. Pricing is displayed in the app before you confirm your purchase. Payment will be charged to your Apple Account when the purchase is confirmed. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current billing period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the current period ends. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time through your Apple Account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://hourlyjournal.com/privacy-policy

About

GRAB

Read full description

Ever spent 10 minutes looking for a file on your Mac while you're out?GRAB fixes exactly that. Type what you're looking for in plain language, like "give me the last dentist invoice" or "find the contract with Smith", and GRAB finds it on your Mac and sends it directly to your iPhone. No cloud storage, no accounts, end-to-end encrypted.How it works The AI runs entirely on your Mac's Neural Engine. It interprets your natural language request, then searches your files using Spotlight and OCR, including inside PDF content. When it finds the file, tap Grab and receive it encrypted on your iPhone in seconds.Real privacy, not marketing The connection between iPhone and Mac is end-to-end encrypted using Curve25519 + AES-GCM. On the same network, transfers go directly between your devices. When you're away, files pass through an encrypted connection that only forwards data it cannot read. Your files are never stored on any server, and the keys never leave your devices. No account required. No telemetry. Your files stay yours.Works from anywhere First pairing requires Wi-Fi. After that, you can retrieve files from your Mac over mobile data, from anywhere in the world.Who GRAB is for Professionals working with documents, contracts, invoices Anyone who wants to access their files without cloud storage Anyone who cares about the privacy of their data Anyone who wants simplicity without sacrificing powerGRAB requires the free companion app for macOS.

Screenshots

Hourly Journal4 screens
GRAB4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: GRAB at none against Hourly Journal's 3. GRAB also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 months). Hourly Journal's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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

Both are free to download. Hourly Journal sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. GRAB asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hourly Journal ships an update every 3 months, GRAB every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Hourly Journal versus GRAB: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHourly JournalGRAB
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (8 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews77.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings8 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size49 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developeronesimple.lifeLUCA PUNZO

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Hourly Journal

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Plan$0.991 Month
  • Yearly Plan$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Plan$27.99
None

GRAB

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hourly Journal free?
Hourly Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is GRAB free?
GRAB is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Hourly Journal or GRAB have ads?
Neither Hourly Journal nor GRAB shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hourly Journal or GRAB?
Hourly Journal ships an update every 3 months, and GRAB every 10 days. Most recently, Hourly Journal was updated on October 25, 2026 and GRAB on October 10, 2026.

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