Comparison

baseline vs Pixels

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

Head to head
About

baseline

This app offers a distraction-free journaling experience to help you understand your emotions and improve mental well-being. Track your mood, reflect on your feelings, and gain insights through weekly surveys and visualizations. Your data is encrypted and secured with a passphrase.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free journaling
  • Mood tracking with two scales
  • Upload pictures and screenshots
  • Journaling and mood log reminders
  • Weekly mental health surveys
  • Mood change visualizations
  • Passphrase data lock
  • Financial support fund
Features
Read full description

Understanding what you’re feeling and why is often way harder than it should be. baseline is here to help. By giving you a distraction-free, easy way to journal and track your mood, baseline gives you easy opportunities to write and reflect on what you’re feeling throughout the day. With time, you’ll start to understand yourself and your brain better. baseline is designed not just to help you write and reflect more often, but also to help you understand more about yourself and your mood over time. You’ll get mental health surveys and reviews each week, and we have beautiful visualizations across our app that are designed to help you better see what you’re going through and when you’re struggling. We know we’re dealing with really sensitive information here, so we’re committed to keeping your personal information 100% secure. Everything you write and upload to baseline is encrypted, so we can’t even see what you’ve written. You can also protect your data in-app against people who might have access to your device. Start journaling and mood tracking today with baseline. Features: - Write about how you’re feeling whenever you want, and rate your mood with two different scales - Upload pictures and screenshots to remember important moments - Set reminders to keep yourself accountable to your journaling and mental health goals - View all of your mood logs at a glance, and see how your mood changes over time - Take mental health surveys to track things like anxiety, depression, and stress over time - Lock your data with a passphrase to stop people who might have access to your device from reading it - Find mental health support, including financially with the baseline Gap Fund, which can help users cover “gaps” in their finances - 100% free, forever.

About

Pixels

This app helps you track your daily mood and emotions by turning them into a visual map of color. You can record your mood with a tap, add details with subpixels and custom tags, and use it as a companion for therapy. It offers a private and minimalist experience with no ads.

Highlights
  • Visual mood map
  • Daily pixel color entries
  • Subpixel tracking for mood variations
  • Custom tags and notes
  • Therapy companion tool
  • Minimalist and private design
Features
Read full description

Pixels turns every day into a single colored square on a yearly grid. Your mood, at a glance, for the entire year. TRACK YOUR MOOD • Pick a mood from custom categories • Add a journal note for deeper reflection • Log symptoms, habits, and how you really feel SEE THE FULL PICTURE • Watch your year fill up pixel by pixel • Spot emotional patterns across weeks and months • Detailed stats and charts for your mental health journey PRIVATE & BEAUTIFUL • No ads, no tracking • Customizable moods, colors, and reminders Join thousands of people building self-awareness, one day at a time. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

baseline4 screens
Pixels4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: baseline at none against Pixels's 5. Pixels's advantage is update cadence (every 11 days vs every 3 weeks) and review sentiment (97% vs 86%). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Pixels sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. baseline asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for baseline against 4.8 for Pixels. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 115 and 44 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 86% of baseline's written reviews are positive against 97% of Pixels's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

baseline ships an update every 3 weeks, Pixels every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
baseline versus Pixels: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterbaselinePixels
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (115 ratings)4.8 (44 ratings) — better
Positive reviews86.1% of reviews96.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings115 — better44
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 11 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB77 MB
Age rating4+12+
Developerbaseline healthTeo Vogel

Customer experience

baseline

All ratings106 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral1.9%
Negative5.7%
Written reviews36 reviews
Positive86.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative13.9%

Pixels

All ratings44 ratings
Positive97.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative2.3%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive96.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.3%

Bugs and requests

baseline

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Hourly logging reminders delete old ones after the 11th
  • App tells user they are not connected to the internet when they are
  • Audio recordings are erased instead of saved when internet connection fails
  • Blank white screen after opening app through notification and writing an entry
  • Entries deleted without warning

Requested features

9 requests
  • AI short summary of rants with generalized headlines
  • Sort notes by topic/category and tags
  • Aesthetic themes for personalization
  • Ability to edit recent logs
  • More interactive features like emoticons or affirmations
Show 4 more
  • Randomize notification time
  • Option to go back and log a skipped day
  • Allow Apple Silicon Macs to download the app
  • More advanced weekly recap features for healthcare team reporting

Pixels

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

baseline

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

Pixels

Subscriptions4
  • Pixels Cloud+7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Pixels Cloud+$1.991 Month
  • Pixels Cloud+7 Days trial$21.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pixels Cloud+$21.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pixels+$4.99

Questions

Is baseline free?
baseline is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pixels free?
Pixels is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, baseline or Pixels?
Pixels is rated higher. baseline averages 4.7 out of 5 from 115 ratings, while Pixels averages 4.8 from 44 ratings.
Do baseline or Pixels have ads?
Neither baseline nor Pixels shows ads.
Which is updated more often, baseline or Pixels?
baseline ships an update every 3 weeks, and Pixels every 11 days. Most recently, baseline was updated on October 23, 2026 and Pixels on October 24, 2026.

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