Comparison

Diary Book vs Journal

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

Head to head
About

Diary Book

This app allows users to privately record their daily life, moods, and memories. It offers tools for creative journaling with customizable covers, stickers, and dynamic themes. Users can track their feelings over time and revisit past entries.

Highlights
  • Mood tracking with calendar expressions
  • Customizable handbook covers
  • Graphic stickers and collage materials
  • Daily diary entries with pictures
  • Dynamic home page themes
  • Calendar date querying
Features
Read full description

Diary Book is a lovely diary app that can record mood and keep a diary. Accumulate your feelings day by day, record your daily life, and keep good memories in Mood Diary. [Our Features] Mood Calendar: super cute little expression to record your daily mood; Hand Book Cover: create your own lovely hand book and collect your own life's hand book. Graphic Stickers: rich and lovely stickers, graphic collage materials, make your hand account more fresh and beautiful anytime and anywhere. Calendar: convenient for querying calendar dates. Graphic Diary: write a diary for the next day and add pictures. Dynamic theme: multiple home page dynamic theme styles to decorate your page. [Our Expectations] Writing morning records every morning, summarizing and reflecting every night can bring a sense of ritual to our daily life. When we open the hand account records in emotions, this whole record is "our own history". I hope you can look back on the past and record everything beautiful through Emotion. If you like Emotion and have any questions or comments in use, please leave your feedback. This subscription will be automatically renewed through your iTunes account, with the renewal fee deducted from your plan within 24 hours prior to the end of the current subscription period. You can manage or cancel automatic renewal at the Account Settings office at least 24 hours before the current subscription period ends. If your trial does not end, the remaining days will automatically expire after you start your subscription. To open a subscription, you agree to the following terms: The terms of service: https://junkeyd.github.io/posts/junke//fuwu Privacy policy: https://junkeyd.github.io/posts/junke/privacy

About

Journal

This app allows users to create a personal diary with a variety of cute stickers and backgrounds. It offers automatic saving of drafts, password protection for privacy, and the ability to insert photos. The app is also optimized for iPad use.

Highlights
  • Customizable stickers and backgrounds
  • Automatic draft saving
  • Password protection for privacy
  • iPad support with Apple Pencil
  • Photo insertion for diary entries
Features
Read full description

Journal, record the unrepeatable moments carefully. Journal is a diary designed for journal enthusiasts. You can use cute stickers and backgrounds as your Journal. As an interesting journaling app, Journal looks forward to recording warm times with you! [Journal Features] -Super many materials: stickers and backgrounds are updated regularly, and there are new surprises every time you make a diary. -Drafts: Save the content of your Journal automatically, so you can no longer be afraid of losing your journal. -Security privacy: You can set a password for the app to protect your secret space. -Support for iPad: It is easier to edit journals with a large screen and an apple pencil. -Photo record: The diary supports inserting photos to retain beautiful moments. This subscription will be automatically renewed through your iTunes account, and the renewal fee will be deducted according to your package within 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. You can manage or cancel the automatic renewal at the Account Settings Department. To cancel the automatic renewal, you must at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. If your trial has not ended, the remaining days will automatically expire after you start subscribing. To open the subscription, you need to agree to the following terms: Terms of Service: https://keshoujie.github.io/posts/keshoujie/fuwu Privacy terms: https://keshoujie.github.io/posts/keshoujie/privacy

Screenshots

Diary Book4 screens
Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Journal at every 6 weeks against Diary Book's every 3 months. Journal also leads on review sentiment (90% vs 80%) and ratings volume (1.8K vs 314). Diary Book's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On price, rating, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Diary Book sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Journal sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Diary Book against 4.6 for Journal. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Journal has 1.8K ratings behind it against 314, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of Diary Book's written reviews are positive against 90% of Journal's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Diary Book ships an update every 3 months, Journal every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Diary Book versus Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDiary BookJournal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (314 ratings) — better4.6 (1.8K ratings)
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews89.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3141.8K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size76 MB45 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer俊柯 吴受杰 柯

Customer experience

Diary Book

All ratings214 ratings
Positive89.7%
Neutral5.6%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative10.0%

Journal

All ratings1,523 ratings
Positive90.6%
Neutral4.5%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews243 reviews
Positive89.7%
Neutral6.2%
Negative4.1%

User reviews

Diary Book

From 314 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Very cute and adorable app
  • ✍️ Good for drawing and writing
  • 💖 Useful for messy or non-existent diaries
  • ✨ Helpful in life
  • 🤩 Obsessively cute design

Room to improve

  • 💸 VIP is expensive
  • 💰 High cost for frames
  • 🚫 VIP is a no-no
  • 🤔 VIP is really expensive, please make it cheaper
  • ⚠️ App glitches and deletes unsaved writing

Journal

From 1.8K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💖 Cute and aesthetic design
  • 📚 Helpful for journaling and planning
  • 🎨 Customizable backgrounds and stickers
  • 👍 Easy to use and organize
  • 🥰 Fun and enjoyable experience

Room to improve

  • 💰 Limited free features, many paid options
  • 🔑 Issues with login/access
  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
  • 📝 Limited font/formatting options

Bugs and requests

Diary Book

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • App crashes when accessing music notes
  • App glitches and deletes unsaved writing

Requested features

2 requests
  • Make VIP cheaper
  • Add a password option

Journal

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when trying to reopen saved pages
  • Stickers not displaying properly in some cases
  • Sync issues causing data loss

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more free stickers and customization options
  • Improve syncing and backup functionality
  • Allow creating custom backgrounds and stickers
  • Introduce a dark mode option

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Diary Book

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly subscription3 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Subscription quarter3 Days trial$7.993 Months
One-time1
  • Pro version$7.99
3 purchases

Journal

Subscriptions2
  • Plus Version3 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Plus Version3 Days trial$4.993 Months
One-time1
  • Pro Version$8.99

Questions

Is Diary Book free?
Diary Book is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Journal free?
Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Diary Book or Journal?
Diary Book is rated higher. Diary Book averages 4.6 out of 5 from 314 ratings, while Journal averages 4.6 from 1.8K ratings.
Do Diary Book or Journal have ads?
Both Diary Book and Journal show ads.
Which is updated more often, Diary Book or Journal?
Diary Book ships an update every 3 months, and Journal every 6 weeks. Most recently, Diary Book was updated on October 30, 2026 and Journal on October 27, 2026.

Other comparisons