Mini journal vs Opal
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mini journal
This app offers a cute and simple way to journal your thoughts and memories. Customize your entries with a variety of stickers and backgrounds, and even create your own unique designs. Share your creations easily with friends and enjoy a seamless journaling experience on any device.
- Cute stickers and backgrounds
- Concise and fast editing
- DIY sticker creation
- One-click sharing
- iPad large screen support
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Mini journal, a cute journaling app, diary, and notebook. You can use your imagination to create journals. Moving forward, every moment is worth recording. *A plethora of cute stickers and carefully selected backgrounds, regularly updating materials to keep inspiration flowing. *A concise design, fast process, and flexible editing function allow you to complete a journal in just a few minutes. *DIY your exclusive stickers with a paintbrush to write and draw better. *One click sharing helps you quickly share your journal with friends. *Device support, clearer journal with iPad large screen. Persistence is a ray of light, illuminating the path forward and making every step shine brightly! This subscription will be automatically renewed through your iTunes account, and the renewal fee will be deducted from your package within 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. You can manage or cancel automatic renewals in the account settings section. Cancelling automatic renewals must be done at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. If your trial has not yet ended, the remaining days will automatically expire after you start subscribing. To initiate a subscription, you need to agree to the following terms: Service Terms: https://xinqun.github.io/posts/xinqun/fuwu Privacy terms: https://xinqun.github.io/posts/xinqun/privacy
Opal
This app offers guided journaling and reflection prompts to help users explore their thoughts, emotions, and dreams. It features a free library of guides, multi-day series, and audio journaling options. Users can also connect themes across their entries and maintain privacy with on-device storage.
- Guided journaling prompts
- Free library of guides
- Multi-day reflection series
- Audio journaling with ambient soundscapes
- Handwriting, typing, and voice entry
- AI-powered theme analysis
- On-device private storage
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mini journal at none against Opal's 1. Mini journal also leads on ratings volume (158 vs 38) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.1). Opal's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, review sentiment, monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Opal sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $7.99 per month. Mini journal asks for nothing beyond the download.
Opal holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 158 and 38 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of Mini journal's written reviews are positive against 100% of Opal's.
Mini journal ships an update every 2 months, Opal every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Mini journal | Opal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (158 ratings) | 5.0 (38 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 94.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 158 — better | 38 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 52 MB | 359 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 新群 陈 | Darby Tarlow |
Customer experience
Mini journal
Opal
Bugs and requests
Mini journal
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notebooks deleted
- Kept glitching out
- Doesn't automatically save
- Cannot purchase VIP
Requested features
5 requests- Add more stickers
- Add a free lock or password to the journal
- Make password protection free, not pro
- Add more free sticker options
- Improve sticker package availability without payment
Opal
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Mini journal
No in-app purchases
Opal
- Premium Monthly7 Days trial$7.991 Month









