Comparison

Once 2 vs Fresh Diary

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

Head to head
About

Once 2

This app provides an elegant and private space to record life's moments, ideas, and emotions. It offers a rich writing experience with customizable themes, photo insertion, and automatic location and weather tagging. Entries can be organized with books and tags, searched, and exported or shared.

Highlights
  • Exquisite book-like reading experience
  • Elegant themes and custom fonts
  • Immersive full-screen writing
  • Rich text editing with photo insertion
  • Automatic weather, temperature, and location tagging
  • Organize with books, tags, and calendar view
  • Passcode protection and PDF export
Features
Read full description

Once is designed to inspire writing and focus on the essence of journal: all the moments, ideas, secrets, emotions and pictures - the nature of your life. It encourages you to record your inspirations, keep tracks of your stories, and easily share them with others. Some of the features are: • Exquisite experience of reading like a book • Elegant themes and customized fonts • Focused reading and immersive writing in full screen • Rich text editing support • Inserting multiple photos/images anywhere throughout the entries • Auto set weather, temperature and location • Books and Tags to filter entries • Calendar as an overview • Text searching • Passcode protecting your privacy • Export to PDF files • Share journal as a beautiful picture on social networks • Share plug-ins (support for Safari, memos, etc.): text sharing as a new diary (If the icon is not displayed, click more to activate) • Syncing between iPhone, iPad and Mac via iCloud • iOS / iPadOS / macOS universal app - purchase once, use everywhere! If you have any problems or suggestions, please let us know: Email: mooteeapps@outlook.com Term of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

About

Fresh Diary

A minimalist and private journaling app with a powerful rich text editor. Track your moods, visualize your entries on a map, and set yearly goals. Securely sync across devices and export your memories.

Highlights
  • Rich text editor
  • Diary footprints on map
  • Mood statistics
  • Calendar view
  • Year goals
  • Cloud synchronization
  • Bulk export
Features
Read full description

"Fresh Diary" is a minimalist and pure Diary app. No ads, no community, no annoying notifications. Private, secure, supports cloud synchronization and rich text editor. APP Features: 【Rich Text Editor】Supports styles such as bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, font size, text color, text background color, first line indentation, left/center/right alignment, line spacing, etc. 【Diary Footprints on Map】See where you have written Diary entries over the years on the map. Full of memories. 【Mood Statistics】Detailed statistics of mood fluctuations and can view Diary entries based on mood. 【Calendar View】Supports calendar view, see Diary entries for specific dates on the calendar, makes searching for Diary entries easier. 【Year Goal】Set your goals or wishes for this year and become better! 【Supports Date Feedback】Supports feedback of Diary entries, if you forget to write a Diary, you can always catch up. 【Cloud Synchronization】Supports iCloud storage, automatic synchronization between multiple devices, makes your Diary more private and secure. 【Bulk Export】Supports bulk export of Diary entries, exports beautiful printable PDF files, even more beautiful when bound. You can also export beautiful images to facilitate sharing of Diary entries. 【Unlock Password】Supports setting gesture unlock, Face ID/Touch ID unlock, to protect your privacy. 【Diary Writing Reminder】Daily reminders, you will never forget to write a Diary again! 【Not Just a Diary】You can record your little thoughts at any time on the "Thoughts" page, and it also supports an editor as powerful as the Diary. —————————————————— Privacy Policy: http://lixkit.gitee.io/app/FreshDiary/privacy.html Service Agreement: https://lixkit.gitee.io/app/FreshDiary/service.html Contact Us: feedback@lixkit.com

Screenshots

Once 24 screens
Fresh Diary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Fresh Diary at 100% against Once 2's 61%. Fresh Diary also leads on update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 months) and rating (4.9 vs 4.6). Once 2's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On price, ratings volume, 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. Once 2 sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Fresh Diary sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Fresh Diary holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 60 and 31 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 61% of Once 2's written reviews are positive against 100% of Fresh Diary's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Once 2 ships an update every 3 months, Fresh Diary every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Once 2 versus Fresh Diary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOnce 2Fresh Diary
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (60 ratings)4.9 (31 ratings) — better
Positive reviews60.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings60 — better31
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer实 许峰峰 李

Customer experience

Once 2

All ratings60 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral1.7%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews170 reviews
Positive60.6%
Neutral14.7%
Negative24.7%

Fresh Diary

All ratings27 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Once 2

Reported bugs

19 issues
  • App crashes when editing
  • App freezes when typing
  • Entries lost after crashing
  • Syncing issues between devices
  • Cursor jumps randomly during typing
Show 14 more
  • Export function not working
  • Text overlap in export preview
  • Paid subscription not recognized
  • App crashes on Mac when editing
  • App freezes when switching between apps on Mac
  • Sync issues after updating to Once 2
  • iCloud sync not turning back on
  • Glitching and out-of-order books
  • Cannot send feedback through the app
  • Dark mode not working
  • App hangs when selecting text or editing
  • App crashes when copying and pasting
  • App freezes and requires force quit
  • App lags significantly

Requested features

16 requests
  • Arrow navigation for pages
  • Pen functionality for iPad
  • Voice recording feature
  • More colorful icons
  • Ability to add multiple photos at once
Show 11 more
  • Share to feature for direct content sharing
  • Option to resize images
  • Dark mode
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Free passcode option
  • Improved editing tools (punctuation, grammar)
  • Make the app pink
  • Make the app free
  • Sync Once 1 diaries to Once 2
  • Keyboard hides automatically when typing
  • More journal/notebook options without payment

Fresh Diary

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Once 2

Subscriptions2
  • Once Pro 1x3 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • Once Pro 12x1 Month trial$9.991 Year
One-time2
  • Legacy Version SupportFree
  • Once Pro ∞$29.99
3 purchases

Fresh Diary

Subscriptions2
  • 月度会员7 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • 年度会员$6.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Membership$1.99

Questions

Is Once 2 free?
Once 2 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Fresh Diary free?
Fresh Diary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Once 2 or Fresh Diary?
Fresh Diary is rated higher. Once 2 averages 4.6 out of 5 from 60 ratings, while Fresh Diary averages 4.9 from 31 ratings.
Do Once 2 or Fresh Diary have ads?
Neither Once 2 nor Fresh Diary shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Once 2 or Fresh Diary?
Once 2 ships an update every 3 months, and Fresh Diary every 6 days. Most recently, Once 2 was updated on October 24, 2026 and Fresh Diary on October 24, 2026.

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