Comparison

iZen Garden 3 vs Diary with Lock

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

Head to head
About

iZen Garden 3

Create a tranquil digital Zen garden with a vast array of objects, plants, and creatures. Rake the sand into intricate patterns while listening to soothing ambient soundtracks. Perfect for relaxation, meditation, or stress relief.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of objects, plants, and creatures
  • Customizable sand raking
  • Nine ambient meditation soundtracks
  • Meditation and sleep timers
  • Daily Zen sayings
  • Save garden designs
Read full description

For less than the price of a latte, iZen Garden™ gives you all the peace and tranquility of a beautiful Zen Garden without the sandy mess! Choose from 100s of objects, plants and creatures to place in your garden, then rake the sand. Now Universal. iZen Garden is available for iPhone and iPad in a single app bundle. One price gets you both platforms. New audio track, "Merced River" featuring the sounds of the Yosemite valley. ** Selected as one of the "500 Best Apps in the World" by the Sunday Times of London. ** ** TOP PICK! Featured in O'Reilly's "Best iPhone Apps" ** ** As Featured on iPhones in Apple store displays! ** ** Editor's Choice by ItaliaMac ** ** Selected as one of the Best 100 Apps by iLounge.com 2 years running! ** The tradition of the Zen Garden goes back nearly a thousand years in Japanese and asian culture. iZen Garden brings this beautiful artform to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Choose from over 100 different types of stones, shells, fossils and plants to place in your garden and then use your finger to “rake” the sand into intricate abstract patterns. All while listening to the soothing sounds of one of our 9 built-in meditation soundtracks. iZen Garden™ is perfect for long meetings, train rides, or meditation practice. It helps you to center your mind, relax your psyche and relieve your stress. iZen Garden™ was chosen as a staff favorite it's first week in the App Store. Listen to what others have said: "The best by far... a true rarity: it’s an app that we continue to enjoy many months after the initial purchase." - iLounge "Out of all the Zen Garden applications, this is clearly the most thorough and precise, and the system is clear-cut." - iPhone Alley Features: * 100 different stones, seashells, fossils and plants, all professionally photographed from real objects and beautifully rendered to place in your garden. * Add fluttering and resting butterflies to your garden which will fly around from place to place. * Rotate, scale, and move the objects to place them using a pinch gesture with your fingers. * Four different colors of sand, from beach white, to volcanic black. * Nine different soothing ambient soundtracks to help still your mind while you tend your garden. Relax to the gentle lapping of ocean waves at your feet, the quiet solitude of a forest, or the soft twinkling of bells and wind chimes. * Completely customizable rake with variable width and depth settings. * "Daily Zen" a daily Zen saying or Koan is presented when you enter your garden. * Save your design to your camera roll by holding the Home button and pressing the lock button. * Built-in documentation and help system makes using the app a breeze. * To access the Information Screen double tap anywhere on the sand, or touch the "i" button. * Meditation Timer. Create your garden and then sit in quiet contemplation until the timer finishes and brings you back with a gentle ringing of a bell. * Sleep Timer. Puts your phone to sleep after a set period of time so you can listen to the relaxation sounds to fall asleep without worrying about your battery dying. * Share your garden and your Daily Zen on Twitter, Email, or through your film roll. Includes beautiful themes that frame your garden artfully with different trays and handmade papers. * Save multiple gardens and recall them at any time to continue to tend and change them. And now, with the re-release of iZen Garden, we're offering on-going updates with new objects, new ambiance, and more! See what everyone is talking about, buy iZen Garden™ today!! A monthly subscription to iZen Garden is a doorway to daily zen, and greater peace and happiness. End user license agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Diary with Lock

Capture and cherish life's moments in a secure, beautifully designed digital journal. Add text, photos, and videos, track your mood and weather, and protect your entries with a passcode. Back up your memories to iCloud and export them as PDFs.

Highlights
  • Photo and text diary entries
  • Lock screen passcode protection
  • iCloud backup
  • Mood and weather tracking
  • Font customization
  • Intruder snapshots
  • PDF export
Features
Read full description

Welcome to iDiary – the ultimate diary app that combines the classic art of journaling with modern technology! With iDiary, you can easily capture and cherish all your precious moments in a beautifully designed and secure platform. Here are some of the key features that make iDiary the perfect diary app for you: - Photo and Text Diary Entries: Create rich and engaging diary entries by mixing text and photos and videos together. iDiary lets you capture your life's moments in an expressive and immersive way. - Lock Screen Passcode: Keep your diary entries safe from prying eyes with a secure lock screen passcode. Your secrets are safe with iDiary! - iCloud Backup: Never lose a single moment of your life again. iDiary automatically backs up your diary entries to iCloud, ensuring that all your memories are safe and secure. - Mood and Weather: Capture your mood and the weather each day to add an even deeper level of detail to your diary entries. - Font Customization: Choose from a variety of fonts to make your diary entries even more unique and personal. - Intruder Snapshots: iDiary automatically captures a photo of anyone who tries to access your diary without your permission. Keep your diary safe and secure at all times. - PDF Export: Export your diary entries as PDFs for easy sharing, printing, or archiving. Download iDiary today and start capturing all your precious moments in a secure and beautiful diary app! Privacy Policy: https://www.bytecrazy.com/common_privacy_en.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Contact Us: trudutton@gmail.com

Screenshots

Diary with Lock4 screens

Verdict

The call

iZen Garden 3 and Diary with Lock both sit at 4.1 stars, but that hides the real split: 80% of iZen Garden 3's written reviews are positive against 0% of Diary with Lock's. iZen Garden 3 also leads on monetization model (free vs freemium). Diary with Lock's advantage is device support and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. iZen Garden 3 sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Diary with Lock sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Diary with Lock holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 14 and 20 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 80% of iZen Garden 3's written reviews are positive against 0% of Diary with Lock's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on July 25, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
iZen Garden 3 versus Diary with Lock: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriZen Garden 3Diary with Lock
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (14 ratings)4.3 (20 ratings) — better
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1420 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 months
Ads—No
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
Devices—iPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size167 MB58 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJiva DeVoeHeyou Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

iZen Garden 3

Written reviews20 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

Diary with Lock

All ratings20 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral5.0%
Negative15.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

iZen Garden 3

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Premium Yearly$29.991 Year
1 purchases

Diary with Lock

Subscriptions1
  • iDiary Pro7 Days trial$9.991 Year

Questions

Is iZen Garden 3 free?
iZen Garden 3 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Diary with Lock free?
Diary with Lock is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iZen Garden 3 or Diary with Lock?
Diary with Lock is rated higher. iZen Garden 3 averages 4.1 out of 5 from 14 ratings, while Diary with Lock averages 4.3 from 20 ratings.
Which is updated more often, iZen Garden 3 or Diary with Lock?
iZen Garden 3 ships an update every 3 months, and Diary with Lock every 3 months. Most recently, iZen Garden 3 was updated on July 25, 2026 and Diary with Lock on September 8, 2026.

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