Comparison

Mindful Hour vs Run Diary

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

Head to head
About

Mindful Hour

Track your mood and emotional patterns with simple check-ins and personal journaling. Explore daily rhythms with planetary hours and gain personalized insights for greater self-awareness and calm.

Highlights
  • One-tap mood check-ins
  • Personal journaling
  • Emotional trends and insights
  • Planetary hours tracking
  • AI-assisted journal reflections
  • Lock Screen widget
  • Private iCloud sync
Features
Read full description

Mindful Hour Awareness in every hour. Mindful Hour is a mindful mood tracker that helps you understand your emotional rhythm through simple check-ins, personal journaling, planetary hours, and thoughtful insights. Notice how you feel, discover meaningful patterns, and explore your day with greater awareness, curiosity, and compassion. FEATURES • One-tap mood check-ins • Personal journaling and reflections • Emotional trends and personalized insights • AI-assisted journal reflections on supported devices • Location-based planetary hours • Daily planetary hour planning • Past and future date exploration • Gentle reminders and mantra audio • Lock Screen widget • Private iCloud sync • Adaptive experiences across iPhone and iPad CHECK IN WITH YOURSELF Capture how you feel with a single tap. Add an optional journal note to explore the thoughts, experiences, or emotions behind the moment. Every check-in becomes an opportunity to pause and reconnect with yourself. DISCOVER YOUR EMOTIONAL PATTERNS Explore how your moods change throughout the day and over time. Personalized insights help you recognize emotional tendencies, moments of balance, and shifts in your energy without judgment or rigid interpretations. EXPLORE THE RHYTHM OF PLANETARY HOURS Mindful Hour draws inspiration from the traditional seven planetary hours: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Each hour is calculated using your location and local sunrise and sunset, offering a unique framework for mindfulness and self-awareness. PLAN WITH GREATER INTENTION Explore planetary hours for today, revisit past dates, or look ahead to future moments. The Planning experience helps you discover the planetary rhythm surrounding your activities, appointments, and meaningful events. PERSONALIZED REFLECTIONS Turn everyday observations into opportunities for deeper self-awareness. Mindful Hour brings together your mood check-ins, journal entries, and planetary hour context to offer thoughtful reflections, gentle nudges, and opportunities to explore recurring themes. On supported devices, Apple Intelligence enables additional journal understanding and personalized reflections, helping you discover connections in your own words while keeping the experience grounded in your observations. FIND MOMENTS OF CALM Listen to planetary mantras, receive optional reminders, and stay connected to the current planetary hour through thoughtful notifications and Lock Screen updates. DESIGNED FOR YOUR DAY Enjoy a calm, intuitive experience across iPhone and iPad, with adaptive layouts designed to make reflection feel natural on different screen sizes. PRIVACY WITH PURPOSE Your personal reflections belong to you. Mindful Hour uses private iCloud storage associated with your Apple account, keeping your experience personal. Mindful Hour is intended for personal reflection and general wellness. It is not a replacement for professional medical, mental health, legal, or financial advice. A GREATER PURPOSE 50% of profits from Mindful Hour support the Tripura Foundation, helping bring light and education to communities in need. MINDFUL HOUR SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Start your Mindful Hour subscription with a free 7-day trial. Once the trial ends, you'll be charged $2.99 per month. Your subscription automatically renews unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime through Settings > Apple Account > Subscriptions. Your Apple Account will be charged when the purchase is confirmed. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula Privacy Policy: https://www.melissadbain.com/mindful-hour-privacy-policy/

About

Run Diary

This app transforms running into a mindful journey by tracking miles, emotions, and gratitude. Create photo collages, log reflections, and visualize progress with a calendar dashboard. Receive daily motivation and weekly achievements to foster growth and joy.

Highlights
  • Automatic run import
  • Photo collage creation
  • Gratitude tracking
  • Mood and weather logging
  • Post-run journaling
  • Calendar visualization
  • Weekly achievement summaries
Features
Read full description

Run Diary is a running journal. It records the run, then asks the better question: how did it feel? Your runs arrive on their own from Apple Health. What you add to them is the part that lasts. WHAT YOU ADD A note written while it's still fresh. How the run felt, in a tap. The weather. What you were grateful for. Photos from the road. WHAT YOU GET BACK A calendar of your month, and what you ran and wrote. A collage of your photos, grouped by month. A word cloud built from the things you've been grateful for. A weekly view that shows the shape of your week at a glance. A quote each morning, if you want one. FROM APPLE HEALTH Run Diary imports your running workouts automatically — from your Watch, or any app that writes to Apple Health. It only reads your workouts. It never writes anything back. You can also log a run by hand, including a second run on the same day. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Your entries, photos and reflections stay on your phone. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account to create. ALSO INSIDE Miles or kilometres. Choose which day starts your week. A daily inspiration reminder you can turn off.

Screenshots

Mindful Hour4 screens
Run Diary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Run Diary at none against Mindful Hour's 1. Run Diary also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 10 days). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. Mindful Hour sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $2.99 per month. Run Diary asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Mindful Hour against 5.0 for Run Diary. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Mindful Hour ships an update every 10 days, Run Diary every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Mindful Hour versus Run Diary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMindful HourRun Diary
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings22
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.017.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB3 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperMelissa BainNigelware

Customer experience

Mindful Hour

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Run Diary

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Mindful Hour

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
None

Run Diary

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Mindful Hour free?
Mindful Hour is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Run Diary free?
Run Diary is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Mindful Hour or Run Diary?
Mindful Hour and Run Diary are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Mindful Hour or Run Diary have ads?
Mindful Hour shows ads; Run Diary does not.
Which is updated more often, Mindful Hour or Run Diary?
Mindful Hour ships an update every 10 days, and Run Diary every 4 days. Most recently, Mindful Hour was updated on November 12, 2026 and Run Diary on November 5, 2026.

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