Comparison

Rainflower vs Self

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

Head to head
About

Rainflower

This app helps you capture life's moments with a visual journal. Record thoughts, feelings, photos, and videos, and create a unique garden that grows with your emotions and progress over time. Gain insights into your mood patterns with detailed breakdowns.

Highlights
  • Microjournaling for daily moments
  • Mood tracking with visual flowers
  • Progress tracking through gardens
  • Calendar view for mood insights
  • Photo and video attachments
  • Emotional and mood breakdowns
Features
Read full description

Rainflower is a microjournaling app that helps you effortlessly capture the tapestry of your life's small moments. It's a mood diary, journal, scrapbook, and progress tracker, offering a holistic perspective on your personal growth and evolution over time. Download Rainflower now to embark on a journey of reflection and discovery. PLANT A FLOWER FOR EVERY MOMENT - Easily capture moments throughout your day by jotting down your feelings, recording your thoughts, or attaching videos and photos. - Create flowers and change the weather based on your emotions and mood, forming a unique visual representation of each moment. - View a timeline of flowers to see how your emotions evolve throughout the day. CREATE GARDENS TO TRACK PROGRESS - Organize your moments by creating gardens. Witness your personal development by populating your garden with new experiences, and view skill improvements and mood changes over time. GAIN INSIGHTS ON YOUR EMOTIONS AND MOOD - Gain a comprehensive understanding of your mood landscape with a monthly views on the Calendar page. - Dive into a detailed view of moments every day by tapping on specific calendar dates. - Explore weekly, monthly, yearly, or overall breakdowns of your emotions and mood. - Visualize your daily mood variations, providing a nuanced understanding of how you feel throughout the day.

About

Self

Features
Read full description

Sometimes a person is suddenly alone. The relationship ends, the family dissolves, the friend moves, the old life goes quiet. Or they have been alone a long time and are learning that solitude is a skill the culture didn't teach them. Either way, when they reach for their phone in a hard hour, they want one steady voice. Not a coach, not a therapist, not another self-help framework. Someone who has been there. This is that. Self-Reliance Tips is a hundred small observations from someone who has been in a hard hour and made it through. Each one opens with "You might..." or "Consider..." or "Some people find..." The choice always lives with you. There is no card that begins "You should." Three cards wait face-down each day. Tap as many as you want. The cards you reveal stay in your Collection forever, so you can come back to them on a different hard hour. There is no streak. No notification asking you to be consistent. No progress meter measuring whether you "showed up." What you'll find: A hundred cards across the small spectrum of a real life: nervous-system regulation, micro-actions, self-compassion, solitude as a skill, connection without performance, grief, identity, and witness-staying. Cards on subjects with documented mechanisms (slow exhale, 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, self-compassion break, facial-feedback, weak-tie research) link to authoritative sources for the curious: Cleveland Clinic, APA, Healthline, self-compassion.org, Greater Good Berkeley, Harvard Health. Drew's note in Settings names what he was going through when he built this app. Brutal honesty over performance. What you won't find: No subscription. No streaks. No ads. No data collection. No advice voice. No "you should." No promise that things will be fine. If the hour you are in is bigger than this app, the resources at the bottom of Settings are real people on the other end: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Crisis Text Line, Veterans Crisis Line, NAMI HelpLine, SAMHSA, RAINN, plus three therapist finders that filter by insurance and sliding-scale options. You are allowed to call them even if you are not sure it is bad enough. Self-Reliance Tips is not therapy. It is not a substitute for professional care. It is steady company. For the person who has heard enough fix-it speak. For the four-in-the-morning hour. For the days you are learning, slowly, how to be alone with yourself in a way that holds.

Screenshots

Rainflower4 screens
Self4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Rainflower at none against Self's 4. Rainflower also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). Self's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 4 days). On price, ads 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. Self sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Rainflower asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Rainflower ships an update every 4 days, Self daily. Both last shipped on October 6, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Rainflower versus Self: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRainflowerSelf
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB253 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAndrew WangDrew Douglass

In-app purchases

None

Rainflower

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Self

One-time4
  • A warm cup$1.99
  • One step taken$4.99
  • A view of dawn$9.99
Show 1 more
  • A long quiet evening$19.99

Questions

Is Rainflower free?
Rainflower is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Self free?
Self is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Rainflower or Self have ads?
Neither Rainflower nor Self shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Rainflower or Self?
Rainflower ships an update every 4 days, and Self daily. Most recently, Rainflower was updated on October 6, 2026 and Self on October 6, 2026.

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