Comparison

Scribble vs Opal

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

Head to head
About

Scribble

This app provides a quick and easy way to record thoughts, ideas, and reflections through short, concise entries. Organize your notes with custom journals and tags, favorite important entries, and set reminders for future reflection. Keep your journal private with biometric lock features.

Highlights
  • Categorize entries into custom journals
  • Organize with multiple tags
  • Favorite important entries
  • View entries from any date
  • Filter entries by journals and tags
  • Lock with Touch/FaceID
  • Schedule entry reminders
Features
Read full description

Need a place to write down all your thoughts, ideas, and reflections? Meet Scribble - a bullet journal designed for creating short, concise entries. Scribble is perfect for people who wish to record their thoughts, but don’t have the time to sit down and write a long journal entry. Use Scribble whenever you have a thought that’s worth remembering and categorize it into a relevant journal/tag to easily find it later. One of the benefits of microjournaling over traditional journaling methods is that by writing down your thoughts in the moment, you get a more accurate picture of your thought process throughout the day. FEATURES: CATEGORIZE YOUR ENTRIES INTO JOURNALS You can assign each entry to a specific journal/topic. This will color code your entries to the journal’s corresponding color and make your entries easier to organize. (i.e. Ideas, Goals, Insights, Dreams) ADD TAGS TO FURTHER ORGANIZE YOUR ENTRIES You can also assign multiple tags to each entry to help further categorize each entry. This can be helpful if you wish to have subcategories in each journal. FAVORITE ENTRIES Add a heart next to your most important entries to help highlight them for easy access later. VIEW ENTRIES FROM ANY DATE Jump to a specific date to see all your entries at different points in time. QUICKLY FILTER YOUR ENTRIES You can quickly filter your entries by any combination of journals, tags, and more. Tap on any label to add that filter, and only see entries matching those filters LOCK WITH TOUCH/FACEID Keep your entries private by locking your journal with Touch/FaceId. You are still able to create new entries while your journal is locked to help make using Scribble as quick and easy as possible. SCHEDULE REMINDERS FOR YOUR ENTRIES Add a reminder to any entry and schedule a push notification for a specific time. Visit the Reminders screen to see all entries with a reminder, and mark them as complete when necessary. **Note from developer: Thanks for being one of the first users of Scribble! Your feedback is extremely valuable, and I'm constantly looking for new ways to improve the app. If you have any questions, bugs, or feature requests, please email me at scribble.microjournal@gmail.com Privacy Policy: https://scribble-app.notion.site/Privacy-Policy-c3dd5a9575fd4bafa6d1ac4591679297 Terms of Use: https://scribble-app.notion.site/Terms-and-Conditions-452421f049a74f5ebee40990c939142c Attribution Credits: https://scribble-app.notion.site/Attribution-Credits-79a118f030b24bc498d18d69257c353f

About

Opal

This private journaling app uses AI to help you understand your thoughts and emotions. It offers guided prompts, ambient soundscapes, and the ability to write, speak, or add photos to your entries. AI tools analyze your writing to reveal patterns and insights, all while prioritizing your privacy with on-device storage.

Highlights
  • AI-powered pattern analysis
  • Guided journaling journeys
  • Voice and image entry support
  • Multiple journal organization
  • On-device privacy controls
  • Prompt-based or blank page entries
Read full description

Opal is a guided journal and diary to delve deeper: why you react the way you do, what you actually want, what your dreams keep trying to show you. Pick a guide from a large free library, follow a ten day series, or open a blank page and write whatever is on your mind. A FREE LIBRARY OF GUIDES Browse guides on finding clarity, purpose and direction, relationships, attachment styles, limiting beliefs, Stoic philosophy, gratitude, and more. Each guide walks you through a sequence of questions, with an example answer beside every prompt so you always have somewhere to begin. TEN DAY SERIES When you want a longer practice, start a series. Shadow Work spends ten days with the parts of yourself you usually avoid, from the inner critic to the golden shadow. Deep Manifest helps you name the desire underneath the goals you keep setting. The Dreaming Life teaches you to record your dreams and follow the figures and images that keep returning. A new day appears on your home screen each morning, and each one builds on what you wrote before. GUIDED AUDIO JOURNALING Some pages open with a short recorded practice. Press play, close your eyes, and let a memory or an image surface. When the audio ends, write about what came up and where you felt it in your body. Ambient soundscapes are there too, for when you want rain or low tones behind your writing. WRITE YOUR WAY Type, talk, or write by hand. Voice entries are saved as tapes you can replay, each with a transcript you can read back. Add photos to any entry, and keep separate journals for the different threads of your life. CONNECT DOTS ACROSS TIME Opal reads across your entries and shows you what it finds: recurring themes, emotional patterns, relationship dynamics, dream symbols. Each week, month, and year it assembles a reflection drawn from your own words, shows you the passages it relied on, and keeps it in your archive. You can also ask your journal a question and get an answer grounded in what you actually wrote. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your writing is stored on your device. No account required, no cloud sync by default, no data sold. Lock Opal with a password. When you use an AI feature, names, places, and other identifying details are masked on your phone before anything is sent, and you decide how much context is shared. Your entries are never used to train AI models. Export or delete them whenever you like. ENDORSED BY THERAPISTS "Opal encourages deep self-expression and deep self-acceptance while also giving tools for change." Leanne Domash, Ph.D., Psychologist and Author Opal is free to download, with a free library of guides. Opal Premium unlocks [premium features]. Start with one prompt tonight. Questions: opaljournal@gmail.com Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Scribble4 screens
Opal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Opal at free against Scribble's freemium. Opal also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks). Scribble's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.1). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Scribble sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Opal sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $7.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Scribble against 5.0 for Opal. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 24 and 37 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Scribble ships an update every 3 weeks, Opal every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Scribble versus Opal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterScribbleOpal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (24 ratings)5.0 (37 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2437 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.1
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB359 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHunter LaiDarby Tarlow

Customer experience

Scribble

All ratings24 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Opal

All ratings37 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Scribble

Subscriptions2
  • Pro$1.991 Month
  • Pro$14.991 Year
1 purchases

Opal

Subscriptions1
  • Premium Monthly7 Days trial$7.991 Month

Questions

Is Scribble free?
Scribble is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Opal free?
Opal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Scribble or Opal?
Opal is rated higher. Scribble averages 4.9 out of 5 from 24 ratings, while Opal averages 5.0 from 37 ratings.
Do Scribble or Opal have ads?
Neither Scribble nor Opal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Scribble or Opal?
Scribble ships an update every 3 weeks, and Opal every 8 days. Most recently, Scribble was updated on October 12, 2026 and Opal on October 24, 2026.

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