DailyRetro vs PrincipleX
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DailyRetro
This app helps you track habits, record thoughts with photos and markdown, and stay organized with daily reminders. It offers passcode and iCloud support for privacy and data backup.
- Diary keeping with photos and markdown
- Habit tracking for routine management
- Daily reminders and notifications
- Passcode support for privacy
- iCloud support for data backup and sync
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Your habits. Your story. DailyRetro brings your diary and everyday habits together. Write a few lines, save a photo, and record the routines that shape your day. When you look back, remember more than what you did—remember what the day meant to you. KEEP THE LITTLE MOMENTS Capture thoughts, memories, and everyday details in your diary. Add photos and use Markdown formatting to make each entry your own. MAKE ROOM FOR GOOD HABITS Keep track of habits and recurring activities alongside your daily reflections. Record a walk, a reading session, or another small thing you want to make time for. RETURN TO YOUR DAYS Browse your past entries and revisit the moments you want to remember. Your diary gives your routines a little more context. A GENTLE DAILY REMINDER Set a reminder to pause and reflect. A few lines can be enough to keep a day from slipping away. KEEP YOUR DIARY LOCKED Use passcode protection for your diary. DailyRetro also supports iCloud backup and synchronization when enabled. Start with today: one thought, one photo, or one habit worth remembering.
PrincipleX
Capture, reflect on, and grow with your personal principles. This app helps you organize your guiding beliefs and build the habit of living by them through daily reminders and journaling.
- Create and organize personal principles
- Manage principles with folders and tags
- Daily principle practice reminders
- Reflective journaling for personal growth
- Pin important principles for daily focus
- iCloud sync across devices
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Keep useful ideas from getting lost in your saved notes. Collect your own principles, reading excerpts and life lessons, then return to them with reminders and reflection. SAVE WHAT YOU WANT TO REMEMBER Write down a personal principle, a quote or a lesson from experience. Add its source and the context behind it. Build a personal library of ideas worth revisiting. ORGANIZE YOUR COLLECTION Use folders, tags and sources to bring structure to thoughts from work, reading and everyday life. SEE YOUR IDEAS AGAIN Choose daily reminders, pin a principle you want to keep in mind, or revisit it in a Home Screen widget. Set a rhythm that works for you. MAKE THE MEANING YOUR OWN Add reflections to each principle. When was it useful? What do you understand differently now? Keep the idea and your experience together. DISCOVER, SHARE AND SYNC Explore ideas to add to your library, turn a principle into a shareable image, and use iCloud sync across your own compatible devices. START FREE. UNLOCK ONCE. Save up to 20 principles for free. A one-time lifetime purchase removes the limit on adding principles, with no subscription. Signature Color and purchases to support the developer are separate, optional items and are not included in the lifetime unlock. Local prices appear in the app. Use Restore Purchases to check existing access. OPTIONAL SIRI ACCESS On supported systems running iOS 27 or later, you can allow Siri to find, read or open saved principles. Access to reflections is controlled separately. Availability depends on your device, language, region and system settings. Privacy policy: https://xzwings.com/xzwings/principlex.html Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: DailyRetro at weekly against PrincipleX's every 3 weeks. DailyRetro also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. DailyRetro sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and PrincipleX sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for DailyRetro against 5.0 for PrincipleX. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 2 respectively.
DailyRetro ships an update weekly, PrincipleX every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | DailyRetro | PrincipleX |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 2 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Liqiang Wang | 旭 夏 |
Customer experience
DailyRetro
PrincipleX
In-app purchases
DailyRetro
- Buy me a coffee$2.99
PrincipleX
- Monthly Plan$2.991 Month
- Annual Plan$14.991 Year
- A Coffee$1.00
- Signature Color$3.00
- Lifetime Access$9.99









