Monologue vs iglu
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Monologue
This journaling app offers a unique, text-message-like interface for recording thoughts. Organize entries into stories, reply to past thoughts, and privately save notes from any app. Your journal remains secure and accessible only on your device.
- Text-message style journaling
- Organize entries into stories
- Reply to older entries
- Share extension for web comments
- Private and device-only storage
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Monologue is a new kind of journaling app that's as easy as texting. Just type and send, and your entries will be grouped by time, like your texting app. You can also group your entries into stories, and reply to your older entries. + Journal like you're texting. + Reply to older entries. + Organize your entries into stories. + Comment on webpages in Safari via the iOS Share extension. Works in any other app that supports sharing a URL, like Yelp, Foursquare, Google Maps, etc. + All entries are private and never leaves your phone.
iglu
This app offers a modern approach to journaling by allowing users to create short, frequent entries. It features AI-powered recommendations and semantic search to help you rediscover past thoughts, all while prioritizing your privacy with on-device processing and iCloud backups.
- Micro-journaling for quick entries
- AI-powered recommendations
- Semantic search for past entries
- Threaded entries for complex thoughts
- On-device AI processing for privacy
- iCloud backup
- Journaling reminders
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iglu is the new and better way to journal: micro-journaling. Record your life as it happens and come back to revisit with our AI-powered feed and semantic search. And most importantly, without sacrificing your privacy. Building a journaling habit has never been this easy! MICRO-JOURNALING Forget sitting down and writing everything at once — that’s boring. Instead, write short entries (like tweets) on the go, as you move through your day. Micro-journaling makes both writing and exploring a breeze! THREADS Fully express your most intricate chain of thought by making threads with your entries. You can write as many nested entries as you want, and they will always be linked together. RECOMMENDATIONS Rediscover your older entries with iglu’s recommendations, selected by our AI based on what you’ve been writing recently. It’s a fun way to explore and get insights into yourself. SEMANTIC SEARCH Looking for an entry but don’t remember the exact words you wrote? Don’t worry, iglu’s semantic search engine gets the general idea of what you’re looking for and shows you the most relevant entries. WRITE SHORTCUT A new entry is always one tap away with iglu’s shortcut. Use it from the Action button, Lock Screen (as a control and as a widget), and Control Center. Say goodbye to friction! ACTIVITY WIDGET Keep track of your writing activity with the activity widget. It shows how much you’ve written in the past few weeks using a beautiful ‘heat map’ design, right on your Home Screen. FACE ID Lock iglu with Face ID to make sure no one snoops around your personal space. JOURNALING REMINDERS Get reminded to take a few seconds to journal every now and then. You can get reminders randomly throughout the day or choose specific times you prefer. PRIVACY Your data is always safe and only ever accessible to you. Our AI runs directly on your phone to make sure your data is not shared with anyone (not even us). We don’t collect anything. All your entries are safely backed up on your personal iCloud account. Free features: Micro-journaling, Threads, Privacy, iCloud Backup, Photos & Videos. Paid features: Recommendations, Semantic Search, Write Shortcut, Activity Widget, Face ID, Reminders. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: iglu at every 6 days against Monologue's every 3 months. Monologue's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and ratings volume (65 vs 5). On price, review sentiment, 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
Both are free to download. Monologue sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and iglu sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.59 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Monologue holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Monologue has 65 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 95% of Monologue's written reviews are positive against 100% of iglu's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Monologue ships an update every 3 months, iglu every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Monologue | iglu |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (65 ratings) — better | 4.6 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 65 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 265 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Minima Software | Rafael Guimarães |
Customer experience
Monologue
iglu
In-app purchases
Monologue
- Remove Ads$2.99
iglu
- Full Access14 Days trial$0.597 Days
- Full Access14 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Full Access14 Days trial$17.901 Year









