Ben's Virtues vs Franklin's Almanack
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ben's Virtues
This app helps you cultivate personal growth by tracking your adherence to thirteen virtues, inspired by Benjamin Franklin's original plan. Review your day nightly and mark transgressions to improve your conduct over time.
- Thirteen virtue tracking chart
- Weekly virtue focus
- Daily transgression marking
- Yearly cycle completion
- Personal conduct regulation
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Follow Benjamin Franklin's 13-week virtue system used for nearly 300 years to build discipline, honesty, moderation, industry, humility, and more. • Focus on one virtue each week • Takes one minute every evening • Free, no ads, and no account necessary • Apple Watch and widget make it even easier to track your virtues In 1726, while on an 80-day ocean voyage from London to Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin developed a plan and corresponding chart for regulating his future conduct. He based his plan on a chart of thirteen virtues. He committed to giving strict attention to one virtue each week - placing a mark on his chart each time he transgressed that week’s virtue. After thirteen weeks he moved through all thirteen virtues. He would repeat the course four times a year. Use this modern incarnation of Benjamin Franklin’s original chart to improve and regulate your daily conduct. Every evening review your day. Tap the day's date to place a mark if you transgressed the week's virtue. One virtue is highlighted every week and the whole chart should be completed four times in a year. The goal is to live your days - giving strict attention to each virtue - without having to place any marks on your chart. Thank you for checking out Ben's Virtues. If you like the app please let me know what virtue you are currently focusing on by leaving a quick review.
Franklin's Almanack
This app delivers daily proverbs and counsel from Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack. Browse wisdom by theme, track your progress on virtues, and enjoy a clean, distraction-free interface. Sync your favorites and reflections across devices with iCloud.
- Daily wisdom notifications
- Wisdom organized by theme
- Yearly virtue ledger
- Progress tracking for habits
- iCloud sync for reflections
- Over 670 authentic sayings
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Almanack: Daily Wisdom from Benjamin Franklin “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” A Treasury of Timeless Wisdom In 1732, Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack—proverbs and counsel for living well. This newly redesigned Almanack brings those same pearls of wisdom to your pocket, now with a clearer, calmer UI and UX throughout. Daily Wisdom Delivered Each morning receive a fresh saying to guide your day. As Poor Richard noted, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” A Well‑Organized Library Browse wisdom sorted by theme—Virtue, Industry, Thrift, Time, and more. “Lost time is never found again,” so find what you seek with ease. A Ledger for the Year Keep a full‑year ledger of your reflections across the 13 virtues, with a plainer week focus and progress tracking to steady your habits. Your reflections and favorites now keep their place across iCloud, so your progress follows you wherever you read. Features - 670+ authentic sayings from Poor Richard’s Almanack - Daily notifications with timely wisdom - Organized by category for easy browsing - Powerful search to find exactly what you need - Favorites that sync across your devices - Contextual examples generated on your device - Beautiful, distraction‑free design “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Download this Almanack today and invest in your daily dose of wisdom.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Franklin's Almanack at 5.0 against Ben's Virtues's 4.3. Franklin's Almanack also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 4 weeks). Ben's Virtues's advantage is ratings volume (37 vs 2) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Franklin's Almanack holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ben's Virtues has 37 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Ben's Virtues ships an update every 4 weeks, Franklin's Almanack every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ben's Virtues | Franklin's Almanack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (37 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 37 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Reason Interactive | Via Labs |
Customer experience
Ben's Virtues
Franklin's Almanack
Bugs and requests
Ben's Virtues
Reported bugs
25 issues- Blank screen
- Crashes every time it's opened
- App no longer works
- Keeps resetting and losing progress
- Data doesn't get stored or saved
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- App doesn't work
- Can only choose one virtue line
- Updates remove data
- Keeps losing progress
- Dots don't appear on any other virtues except the highlighted one
- History/tracking deleted on iOS update
- Impossible to put marks on any of the virtues except the one highlighted
- Impossible to put more than one mark on a virtue per day
- Rewording of Franklin's description of Chastity
- Chart boots out after 3 or 4 weeks
- Doesn't move forward each day
- No way to manually set the calendar date
- App completely reset itself
- Randomly resetting itself and deleting prior progress
- Keeps randomly reseting itself and deleting prior progress
- Just freezes immediately on opening
- App doesn't work...at all
- Wil not run on ipad
- Didn't work on my iPad
- Not working right now
Requested features
23 requests- Allow setting custom start day
- Enable marking all virtues daily
- Allow adding custom virtues
- Improve visibility of virtue tracking
- Option to export data
Show 18 moreShow fewer
- Include samples of Ben Franklin's tracked virtues
- Allow multiple marks per day
- Support for more than one virtue focus at a time
- Add ability to cycle through thirteen weeks with marking on other virtues
- Make it able to put dots in EVERY spot per day
- Add ability to change "virtues" to add your own
- Add tab with passage from Franklin's bio
- Allow user to set start day
- Add ability to put more than one mark on a virtue per day
- Allow tracking of multiple virtues
- Add option to create custom virtues
- Set alarm/push notification for daily rating
- Include video and autobiography section
- Update app to 4.0
- Allow marking any virtues on any given day
- Include option of creating your own list of virtues
- Add higher level of personalization
- Add more discussion on each virtue
Franklin's Almanack
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Ben's Virtues
No in-app purchases
Franklin's Almanack
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Ben's Virtues free?
Is Franklin's Almanack free?
Which has better reviews, Ben's Virtues or Franklin's Almanack?
Do Ben's Virtues or Franklin's Almanack have ads?
Which is updated more often, Ben's Virtues or Franklin's Almanack?
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