Retrospect vs JournalNow
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Retrospect
This app offers a private and straightforward method for recording your thoughts, locations, and moods. It allows for daily reflection and helps you make informed future decisions by reviewing your life experiences from various perspectives. Your data is securely stored on your device and backed up to iCloud.
- Private journaling
- Mood tracking
- Location logging
- On-device storage
- iCloud backup
- No account required
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A private and easy way to save your memories. Retrospect lets you journal your thoughts, locations, and moods throughout the day, all without needing an account. Plus, your data is always kept completely private and only visible to you. Whether you want to remember a special trip or just a great day, Retrospect is the perfect way to do it. And because it helps you reflect on your life from different points of view, you can make more educated decisions about your future. Retrospect stays out of your way so you can focus on your own content. Try today and start saving your memories, your future self will thank you! ‣ Easily track your mood throughout the day, including energy level and emotions. ‣ Log the locations you've visited in your entries. Interact with map waypoints, or easily create your own custom locations. ‣ Journal once per day, or multiple times depending on your habits. ‣ No account needed! All data is stored on device and securely backed up to your iCloud account. ** Many new features coming soon!
JournalNow
Capture your life, reflect with clarity, and organize memories with an AI-assisted private journaling app. Record thoughts via voice, attach media, and use intelligent suggestions for titles and summaries. It offers a secure, premium space for reflection and personal growth.
- AI-assisted journaling
- Voice dictation
- Media attachments
- Smart search
- Organization by journals and tags
- Memory resurfacing
- Export options
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JournalNow is a private daily journal, diary, mood tracker, and memory archive designed to make reflection feel natural. WRITE AND CAPTURE - Create rich entries with text, voice notes, photos, video, audio, and sketches. - Add mood, tags, location, weather, favorites, and pins. - Use Quick Capture, widgets, Live Activities, and Shortcuts when inspiration arrives. - Protect individual entries with a PIN. REFLECT WITH PURPOSE - Start with guided prompts and reusable templates for gratitude, work, travel, wellbeing, and deeper thinking. - Use optional on-device Apple Intelligence for titles, tags, summaries, semantic search, and weekly reflection when supported by your device and language. REVISIT WHAT MATTERS - Explore entries in Calendar, On This Day, resurfaced memories, and Journal Map. - Find anything with fast search, OCR, and filters for journal, mood, tag, date, theme, and importance. - See insights for writing cadence, word count, moods, themes, and reflection habits. ORGANIZE YOUR WAY - Create multiple journals with distinct themes and visibility controls. - Customize templates and reminders, and request writing suggestions when you need them. - Enjoy a spacious iPad experience alongside iPhone capture. OWN YOUR DATA - Export readable entries as separate PDF files. - Create a complete .journalnow backup for transfer or restoration in JournalNow. - Restore a complete backup or import Markdown and text files. - Journal entries are stored locally. Optional Apple Speech online transcription, place lookup, and link previews can contact Apple or the relevant website to deliver those features. Vanguard Studios does not receive your journal entries. Explore Premium during a 7-day app trial without starting a subscription. After the trial, core journaling remains available for free. A monthly or annual subscription starts only when you confirm a purchase with Apple; subscriptions renew automatically until canceled in your Apple account settings. Prices are shown before purchase. Customers who purchased JournalNow before version 2.1 keep complete access. Previous lifetime purchases remain restorable through Apple. Apple Intelligence features require a compatible device, supported language, and system availability. Privacy Policy: https://vanguardstudio.vercel.app/privacidade Terms of Use (Apple Standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Support: https://vanguardstudio.vercel.app/contato
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Retrospect at none against JournalNow's 1. JournalNow's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 21 months). 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. JournalNow sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Retrospect asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Retrospect against 5.0 for JournalNow. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively.
Retrospect ships an update every 21 months, JournalNow every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Retrospect | JournalNow |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 21 months | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lowell Pence | Gustavo Venzon |
Customer experience
Retrospect
JournalNow
In-app purchases
Retrospect
No in-app purchases
JournalNow
- JournalNow Lifetime$1.99









