Comparison

Prayer Notes vs Dayspring Journal

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

Head to head
About

Prayer Notes

Capture prayer requests instantly and organize them by day for focused prayer. Share requests with groups, track answered prayers, and maintain a personal journal. Includes tools for scripture study and prayer focus.

Highlights
  • Instant prayer request capture
  • Daily prayer lists
  • Group prayer sharing
  • Track answered prayers
  • Scripture journal
  • Prayer builder and focus tools
  • Cross-device sync
Features
Read full description

"I'll pray for you." Then the day gets away from you, and by evening you can't remember who asked. Prayer Notes is where that promise goes the moment you make it. Write it down in ten seconds, put it on a day of the week, and it comes back round when you sit down to pray. Fifteen years and thousands of people later, that is still the whole idea. TEN SECONDS, BEFORE YOU FORGET Someone asks on a Sunday morning. Type a title, type what they need, done. Add the verse you want to pray over it, a photo, the days you want it to come up. File it under Family, Church, Work — or whatever categories fit your life. A LIST FOR EVERY DAY Seven days, seven lists. Sunday's requests on Sunday, Thursday's on Thursday — the method people have kept in paper notebooks for generations, with today's list on your Home Screen, your Lock Screen and your Apple Watch. PRAY TOGETHER Start a group for your small group, your family or your church, and invite the people you choose. Everyone sees the same requests, posts their own, adds an update when something changes, and taps to say they prayed. Your personal prayers stay personal — only what you post is shared. THE ANSWERS STAY Mark a prayer answered and it moves to its own list with the date and what happened. Months later it is still there. People tell us this is the part they reread — the record of what God actually did, in their own words. A JOURNAL FOR QUIET TIME Write what you read and what it stirred, with the passage attached. Browse it by date or by book of the Bible, so you can see everywhere Psalms has met you this year. WHEN THE WORDS DON'T COME Some mornings you have nothing. Prayer Builder takes today's list and writes an outline with matching scripture, right on your iPhone — nothing is sent anywhere. Edit it, pray it, or just use it to start. PRAYERS IN SCRIPTURE Hannah's prayer. David's. The one Jesus taught. Read them, pray them as they stand, or build your own from any verse — six translations included. FOCUS WHILE YOU PRAY Set a timer and let Prayer Focus quiet the apps that would have interrupted you. YOURS, EVERYWHERE iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac, in sync through iCloud. Face ID lock. Widgets. Nightly backups you can restore, and an export you can keep. YOUR PRAYERS COME WITH YOU If you have been using Prayer Notes for years, everything you have written is already here — every request, every answer, every journal entry, in the same categories. Nothing is deleted and the old database is kept untouched in case you ever want it back. Previous in-app purchases are still honored. Write it down. Pray it. Watch God answer. Auto Renewable Subscriptions: Subscriptions will automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime in your Apple ID subscription settings. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Terms and Conditions (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.chuchutrain.com/privacy-policy.html

About

Dayspring Journal

Features
Read full description

You've been writing for years. Dayspring is the first journal that reads it back to you. Most journals are storage. You write faithfully, the entries pile up, and you never go back — not because you didn't care, but because a pile of entries isn't a story. Meanwhile the answers arrive and go unnoticed, because the asking was forgotten. Dayspring is built against that one enemy. HOW IT WORKS 1. Bring in your history. Import from Day One or Diarly in about a minute on Mac or the web, with your original dates kept exactly. 2. Write like you already do. Nothing to learn. Scripture, prayer, and what you sensed are captured on the page as you go — by keyboard, by voice, or from a photograph of a page you wrote by hand. 3. See what's been happening. Week, month, quarter, and year, in your own words. WHAT YOU'LL SEE • The Ascent — the threads of a season and the one line of the year, lifted verbatim from your own entries. • The Altar — the people, places, and matters you keep bringing to God, gathered from the prayers you laid down while writing. • The Lamp — every passage you've written, lit across the whole Bible, so you can find the verses that actually met you. • Rituals — nine contemplative forms, among them the Daily Examen, Lectio Divina, and the Prayer of Recollection, laid over the page as scaffolding and never as a script. Mac, iPhone, and the web, synced without you thinking about it. Eight themes, four writing faces, and a focus mode with nothing between you and the words. OUR PROMISES • Nothing is invented. Every reflection traces to something you actually wrote — the facts are computed in code and the quotes are verbatim. • Your entries are yours. We never train on them and we never sell them. • Your original dates are preserved exactly. Re-importing never duplicates. • You can export everything, any time, in plain markdown. • We will never score your spiritual life. No streaks, no badges, no verdict on your walk with God. Dayspring — Luke 1:78, "the dayspring from on high hath visited us." First light, and mercy after darkness. SUBSCRIPTION Dayspring is an auto-renewing subscription: • Monthly: $7.99 • Annual: $69.99 There is no introductory offer attached to these subscriptions. Choosing a plan starts it immediately: payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, and the subscription renews automatically at the same price unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. BEFORE YOU SUBSCRIBE Every new account gets its first 14 days of full access from us directly — no card, no subscription, nothing to cancel. It is granted by the app, not by the App Store, and it simply ends. Nothing is charged unless you choose a plan. Privacy Policy: https://dayspring-eosin.vercel.app/privacy Terms of Use: https://dayspring-eosin.vercel.app/terms

Screenshots

Prayer Notes4 screens
Dayspring Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Dayspring Journal at none against Prayer Notes's shown. Dayspring Journal also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 9 days) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support 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. Prayer Notes sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Dayspring Journal sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Prayer Notes ships an update every 9 days, Dayspring Journal every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Prayer Notes versus Dayspring Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPrayer NotesDayspring Journal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3.8K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews75.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings3.8K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChuChu Train ProductionsPhillip Chan

Bugs and requests

Prayer Notes

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Prayers disappearing or being deleted after updates
  • Syncing issues between devices
  • App freezing or becoming unresponsive

Requested features

4 requests
  • Allow users to mark prayers as completed without removing them
  • Add ability to sort and reorder prayers
  • Improve date/time formatting options for international users
  • Add support for Apple Pencil

Dayspring Journal

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Prayer Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Features$4.991 Month
  • Premium Features7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time6
  • Calendar View$2.99
  • Database Transfer$3.99
  • Unlimited Requests & Answers$4.99
Show 3 more
  • Unlimited Journal Entries$4.99
  • Remove Ads$7.99
  • Unlock All Features$79.99
2 purchases

Dayspring Journal

Subscriptions2
  • Dayspring Monthly$7.991 Month
  • Dayspring Annual$69.991 Year

Questions

Is Prayer Notes free?
Prayer Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dayspring Journal free?
Dayspring Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Prayer Notes or Dayspring Journal have ads?
Prayer Notes shows ads; Dayspring Journal does not.
Which is updated more often, Prayer Notes or Dayspring Journal?
Prayer Notes ships an update every 9 days, and Dayspring Journal every 2 days. Most recently, Prayer Notes was updated on November 1, 2026 and Dayspring Journal on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons