Comparison

Pixels vs The Lightly App

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

Head to head
About

Pixels

Visually track your daily mood with a grid of colored pixels. Add journal notes, log symptoms, and identify emotional patterns over time. This private and beautiful app helps build self-awareness.

Highlights
  • Daily mood tracking
  • Journal notes
  • Symptom and habit logging
  • Yearly visual mood grid
  • Emotional pattern identification
  • Customizable moods and colors
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/

About

The Lightly App

Features
Read full description

The Lightly App helps you notice what pulls you out of presence, and gives you a way back. Many meditation apps practise presence with a timer. Lightly takes another route: it asks what is pulling you away right now, and hands you a key for that exact pull. Worried, or lost in the future: a short flow that ends in complete trust. Guilt, regret or a grudge: a short flow that ends in complete forgiveness. Angry, sad or restless: find where it sits in the body, then let it move or pour it into something you make. Out of energy: find what stops you from resting, then rest. Something hurts: it asks what kind of hurt, and hands you trust, forgiveness or acceptance. Each flow is a few screens of gestures, not reading. When you are back in the moment, the app says so and lets you put the phone down. Go deeper when you want to: belief work, dream work with a home screen widget, sigils and rituals, a daily astrology reading, and vibrational tuning, a short guided conversation. Private by design. No account, no analytics, no ads. What you do in the app stays on your phone. Two rooms reach the internet. Astrology fetches the day's reading, which is the same for everyone and carries nothing about you. Vibrational tuning sends what you type there to an AI model to write the replies, and nothing is kept. Lightly is a spiritual practice. It is not therapy or medical care. Free.

Screenshots

Pixels4 screens
The Lightly App4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: The Lightly App at none against Pixels's 5. The Lightly App also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 11 days). Pixels's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads and iOS requirement 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. The Lightly App asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pixels ships an update every 11 days, The Lightly App every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Pixels versus The Lightly App: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPixelsThe Lightly App
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (44 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews96.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings44 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 11 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB65 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperTeo VogelMattis Erngren

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
None

The Lightly App

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pixels free?
Pixels is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is The Lightly App free?
The Lightly App is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pixels or The Lightly App have ads?
Neither Pixels nor The Lightly App shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pixels or The Lightly App?
Pixels ships an update every 11 days, and The Lightly App every 4 days. Most recently, Pixels was updated on October 30, 2026 and The Lightly App on October 29, 2026.

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