Comparison

Personal Diary vs Dawn Journal

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

Head to head
About

Personal Diary

Securely capture daily life, thoughts, and emotions with a private journal app. Features include a lock, mood tracking, photo/video gallery, and audio recordings for a comprehensive self-reflection experience.

Highlights
  • Robust lock feature for privacy
  • Integrated mood tracker
  • Photo and video gallery
  • Audio recording support
  • Insight screen with charts and graphs
  • Customizable themes and fonts
  • Effortless organization
Read full description

Welcome to Personal Diary, your trusted partner in the journey of self-reflection and private journaling. Designed with your privacy and emotional well-being in mind, Personal Diary offers a unique and secure way to capture your daily life. Unmatched Security: Your thoughts deserve the utmost privacy. Personal Diary comes equipped with a robust lock feature, ensuring that your entries are safe and your secrets well-kept. Experience peace of mind knowing your reflections are secure from outside access. Daily Journaling Made Easy: Whether you're documenting life's moments, jotting down daily events, or exploring your thoughts, Personal Diary makes it easy and enjoyable. Our user-friendly interface provides a smooth and intuitive journaling experience, perfect for both avid journalers and beginners. Track Your Mood: Gain insights into your emotional patterns with our integrated mood tracker. Easily record your daily emotions, track changes over time, and understand your mental health better. It's a powerful tool for self-awareness and emotional growth. Gallery Feature: Dive into your memories with our Gallery feature! Browse through all the photos and videos you've added to your diary entries in one convenient place. It’s a perfect way to visually revisit your precious moments and thoughts. Insight Screen: Introducing the Insight Screen - a new way to understand your journaling habits. See how you interact with the app through informative charts and graphs. This feature provides a visual representation of your mood patterns, journaling frequency, and more, helping you gain deeper insights into your emotional well-being. Customize Your Experience: Make your diary uniquely yours with customizable themes, fonts. Tailor your journaling experience to match your style, creating a space that inspires you to write and reflect. Effortless Organization: Keeping track of your entries is a breeze with Personal Diary. Our organized interface allows you to effortlessly navigate your past entries, find specific memories, and revisit your journey whenever you desire. New Audio Support: Now you can add audio recordings to your entries! Capture your thoughts and emotions not just in words and images but also through voice. This new feature brings a whole new dimension to your journaling experience. Personal Diary is more than just an app; it's a secure haven for your thoughts and emotions. It's where your journey toward self-awareness and mindful living begins. Embrace the power of journaling with Personal Diary today!

About

Dawn Journal

Capture thoughts and moments effortlessly with voice recordings. This app organizes your spoken entries into daily reflections and summaries, allowing you to ask questions and discover patterns in your past entries. Enjoy private sync and optional Face ID protection for your personal insights.

Highlights
  • Voice-first journaling
  • Daily timelines
  • Automatic summaries
  • Journal questioning
  • Private sync
  • Face ID lock
  • Markdown export
Read full description

Dawn is a private voice-first journal for people who want to remember life more clearly without sitting down to write a perfect entry. Record quick thoughts, moments, ideas, frustrations, wins, and details as they happen. Dawn helps turn those raw notes into organized daily reflections and summaries you can revisit over time. Key features: - Voice-first journaling for fast capture throughout the day - Clean daily timelines for reviewing what happened - Automatic summaries that turn scattered notes into a coherent day - Ask your journal questions and find patterns across past entries - Private sync with account-based access - Optional Face ID lock for an added layer of protection - Export readable Markdown when you want your data outside Dawn Dawn is built for honest personal reflection: the small details, the unfinished thoughts, and the daily context that usually disappears. Privacy matters. Journal content is encrypted in transit and storage, and processing features require your explicit consent during setup. Exported Markdown is readable outside Dawn, so only export to devices or vaults you trust. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Subscription Terms: https://big-water.org/dawn/terms Privacy Policy: https://big-water.org/dawn/privacy

Screenshots

Personal Diary4 screens
Dawn Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Personal Diary at none against Dawn Journal's 1. Personal Diary also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Dawn Journal's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, rating 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. Dawn Journal sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $35.99 per year. Personal 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 Personal Diary against 5.0 for Dawn Journal. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 4 level
Personal Diary versus Dawn Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPersonal DiaryDawn Journal
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings11
Update frequency—Every 6 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supported — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size62 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMuhammad IslamBIG WATER LLC

Customer experience

Personal Diary

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Dawn Journal

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Personal Diary

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Dawn Journal

Subscriptions1
  • Dawn Premium7 Days trial$35.991 Year

Questions

Is Personal Diary free?
Personal Diary is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Dawn Journal free?
Dawn Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Personal Diary or Dawn Journal?
Personal Diary and Dawn Journal are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Personal Diary or Dawn Journal have ads?
Personal Diary shows ads; Dawn Journal does not.

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