Comparison

Quick Journal vs JournalNow

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

Head to head
About

Quick Journal

This app offers a straightforward journaling experience with extensive customization options. Personalize themes, fonts, icons, and layouts to create your ideal digital notebook. Widgets and draft saving features enhance usability for daily reflection.

Highlights
  • Customizable themes and fonts
  • App icon and layout personalization
  • Home screen widgets
  • Save entries as drafts
  • Copy and share entries
Features
Read full description

Quick Journal is the simplest way to keep a journal. You can customize your journal's theme, fonts, app icon, layout, and even where the composer button is placed. To help you write or keep track of your entries, the app features widgets you can put on your home screen. You can copy or share your entries. You can always come back to an entry later by saving it as a draft, just swipe down and the entry will be saved. Hope you enjoy! EULA https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

JournalNow

Capture your life, reflect with clarity, and organize memories with an AI-assisted private journaling app. Record thoughts via voice, attach media, and use intelligent suggestions for titles and summaries. It offers a secure, premium space for reflection and personal growth.

Highlights
  • AI-assisted journaling
  • Voice dictation
  • Media attachments
  • Smart search
  • Organization by journals and tags
  • Memory resurfacing
  • Export options
Features
Read full description

JournalNow is a private daily journal, diary, mood tracker, and memory archive designed to make reflection feel natural. WRITE AND CAPTURE - Create rich entries with text, voice notes, photos, video, audio, and sketches. - Add mood, tags, location, weather, favorites, and pins. - Use Quick Capture, widgets, Live Activities, and Shortcuts when inspiration arrives. - Protect individual entries with a PIN. REFLECT WITH PURPOSE - Start with guided prompts and reusable templates for gratitude, work, travel, wellbeing, and deeper thinking. - Use optional on-device Apple Intelligence for titles, tags, summaries, semantic search, and weekly reflection when supported by your device and language. REVISIT WHAT MATTERS - Explore entries in Calendar, On This Day, resurfaced memories, and Journal Map. - Find anything with fast search, OCR, and filters for journal, mood, tag, date, theme, and importance. - See insights for writing cadence, word count, moods, themes, and reflection habits. ORGANIZE YOUR WAY - Create multiple journals with distinct themes and visibility controls. - Customize templates and reminders, and request writing suggestions when you need them. - Enjoy a spacious iPad experience alongside iPhone capture. OWN YOUR DATA - Export readable entries as separate PDF files. - Create a complete .journalnow backup for transfer or restoration in JournalNow. - Restore a complete backup or import Markdown and text files. - Journal entries are stored locally. Optional Apple Speech online transcription, place lookup, and link previews can contact Apple or the relevant website to deliver those features. Vanguard Studios does not receive your journal entries. Explore Premium during a 7-day app trial without starting a subscription. After the trial, core journaling remains available for free. A monthly or annual subscription starts only when you confirm a purchase with Apple; subscriptions renew automatically until canceled in your Apple account settings. Prices are shown before purchase. Customers who purchased JournalNow before version 2.1 keep complete access. Previous lifetime purchases remain restorable through Apple. Apple Intelligence features require a compatible device, supported language, and system availability. Privacy Policy: https://vanguardstudio.vercel.app/privacidade Terms of Use (Apple Standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Support: https://vanguardstudio.vercel.app/contato

Screenshots

Quick Journal4 screens
JournalNow4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Quick Journal at none against JournalNow's 1. Quick Journal also leads on ratings volume (24 vs 2). JournalNow's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, update cadence, 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. JournalNow sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Quick Journal asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

JournalNow holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Quick Journal has 24 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Quick Journal versus JournalNow: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterQuick JournalJournalNow
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (24 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews86.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings24 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCharlie DeetsGustavo Venzon

Customer experience

Quick Journal

All ratings24 ratings
Positive95.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.2%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive86.4%
Neutral4.5%
Negative9.1%

JournalNow

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

In-app purchases

None

Quick Journal

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

JournalNow

One-time1
  • JournalNow Lifetime$1.99

Questions

Is Quick Journal free?
Quick Journal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is JournalNow free?
JournalNow is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Quick Journal or JournalNow?
JournalNow is rated higher. Quick Journal averages 4.7 out of 5 from 24 ratings, while JournalNow averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Quick Journal or JournalNow have ads?
Neither Quick Journal nor JournalNow shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Quick Journal or JournalNow?
Quick Journal ships an update every 9 days, and JournalNow every 9 days. Most recently, Quick Journal was updated on October 30, 2026 and JournalNow on October 31, 2026.

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