aDiary vs the waterfall
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
aDiary
Capture the essence of your day with brief, text-only entries. This minimalist journal app offers iCloud sync, FaceID protection, and creative sharing templates. Designed for quick daily reflections, it avoids long-form writing and multimedia.
- Text-only daily entries
- iCloud Sync
- FaceID protection
- Multiple journal layouts
- Creative sharing templates
- Search and date filters
- Dark Mode
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Jot down a sentence, a word, or even just an emoji each day. Features: * Multiple journal layout styles * iCloud Sync * FaceID protection * Full iPadOS optimization * Background privacy safeguards * Adjustable font sizes * Multiple export formats * Dark Mode ready * Search & date filters * Creative sharing templates * True minimalist design aDiary is a text-only diary app designed for short entries. We intentionally avoid long-form writing or multimedia features. "Writing lengthy entries or multimedia diaries can be time-consuming and hard to maintain." "What if you just captured one meaningful moment daily?" Capture the essence of your day with almost zero effort. Simple in form, thoughtful in design. When inspiration strikes, give our stylish sharing feature a try! Pricing: • Quarterly($0.49): 3 months premium access. • Annual($1.49): 12 months premium access. • Lifetime($2.99): Permanent premium access. Privacy policy:https://docs.ddot.top/#/privacy_policy?id=english Term of Use:https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
the waterfall
This app serves as a personal introspection companion, allowing users to record thoughts, ideas, and memories. It features guided questions for deeper self-reflection, supports Markdown for expressive text, and allows tagging and image association with entries. Data is stored locally and synced with iCloud for privacy.
- Guided self-reflection questions
- Markdown support for text
- Tagging and image association
- Local data storage with iCloud sync
- Pinning important memories
- Record reading notes and movie reviews
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Waterfall —— More than just a diary app, it's your personal introspection companion. Waterfall is committed to helping you think, remember, and discover the beauty in life. As a unique diary app, the charm of Waterfall lies in its potential to touch every detail of life. Here, you can record your thoughts and ideas. Furthermore, our question feature allows for deeper pondering — just hold down on a diary entry and prompt yourself with a question, like "What did you eat today?", "What are you thinking about?", or "Was there something today that made you happy?". Each question is a deep dive into your own self-reflection. Moreover, Waterfall is fully featured — it supports Markdown, making your text even more expressive. You can also associate tags and pictures with your memories, turning them into visual echoes. So, what exactly can Waterfall record? The answer is: almost everything. Apart from life's snippets, you can use it to log your reading notes, movie reviews, and even life goals. Pin important things to remind yourself to always keep up the enthusiasm for life. In the end, we hope that you enjoy your time with Waterfall, where each day, you can cherish the last moment of the day and reminisce about the day's experiences. Here, every day, you have your own waterfall. It's worth noting that Waterfall takes your privacy very seriously. All your data are stored locally and automatically synced with iCloud, visible only to you. At Waterfall, your privacy is always given the highest level of protection. May you have a beautiful day with Waterfall. Wishing you a waterfall day.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: the waterfall at 88% against aDiary's 0%. the waterfall also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.0) and ratings volume (5 vs 1). aDiary's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months) and iOS requirement (16.1 vs 18.0). 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. aDiary sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 per 3 months and the waterfall sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
the waterfall holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: the waterfall has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of aDiary's written reviews are positive against 88% of the waterfall's.
aDiary ships an update monthly, the waterfall every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on June 24, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | aDiary | the waterfall |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 88.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.1 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 高均 欧 | 文杰 李 |
Customer experience
aDiary
the waterfall
In-app purchases
aDiary
- Quarterly7 Days trial$0.493 Months
- Annual7 Days trial$1.391 Year
- Lifetime$2.99
the waterfall
- WATERFALL UPGRADE$7.99









