Comparison

Zipgoals vs Ember

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

Head to head
About

Zipgoals

This app helps you achieve your ambitions by combining goal tracking, milestone planning, and journaling. Break down large goals into manageable steps, plan your progress, and reflect on your journey with a rich editor and thought-provoking prompts.

Highlights
  • Goal setting with clear targets and deadlines
  • Milestone planning with nested sub-milestones
  • Rich text journal editor
  • Thought-provoking journal prompts
  • Cross-device syncing
Features
Read full description

Zipgoals — Goals, Milestones & Motivation Journal Turn your ambitions into achievements. Zipgoals is the goals app built for people who are serious about growth, combining powerful goal tracking, milestone planning, and deep journaling into one beautifully simple experience. Whether you're chasing a career milestone, working toward a personal breakthrough, or simply trying to understand yourself better, Zipgoals gives you the structure to move forward — one goal at a time. FEATURES GOALS Set meaningful goals with clear targets and deadlines. Break down big ambitions into manageable steps, track your progress, and stay focused on what matters most. Creating and completing goals in Zipgoals feels satisfying. MILESTONES Every big goal is made up of smaller wins. Milestones let you map out the stepping stones along the way, so you always know your next move. Check them off as you go and watch your progress build momentum. Even better, your milestones can contain milestones nested as deeply as you need. RICH JOURNAL EDITOR Write more than just words. Zipgoals' powerful block editor lets you format your thoughts exactly how you want whether you're doing a brain dump, writing a reflection, or mapping out your day. Bold ideas. Structure your thoughts. Journal the way that works for you. THOUGHT-PROVOKING PROMPTS Never stare at a blank page again. Zipgoals serves up carefully crafted journal prompts designed to spark deeper thinking, surface your goals, and help you understand what's driving you and what's holding you back. ALL YOUR DEVICES Your goals don't stop when you switch devices and neither does Zipgoals. Seamlessly synced across all your devices so your progress, journal, and milestones are always with you, wherever you are. Start your first goal today. Your future self will thank you.

About

Ember

A fast and organized workspace for writing Markdown notes, storing PDFs, diagrams, and voice memos. It offers a vault for reusable prompts and syncs across Apple devices. Start for free with full editor access.

Highlights
  • Rich Markdown editor
  • Inline PDF and image support
  • Reusable prompt vault
  • Daily notes, folders, and tags
  • Instant search functionality
  • Private iCloud sync
  • Share Extension
Features
Read full description

Your notes should feel like home. Ember is a warm, fast place to think — Markdown notes, PDFs, diagrams, voice memos, and a vault of reusable prompts, all in one calm workspace that syncs across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. WRITE IN RICH MARKDOWN A live editor with real formatting: headings, tables, task lists, links, highlights, footnotes, and code — rendered as you type, never in your way. Bullets, numbers, and checkboxes feel native and effortless. MORE THAN TEXT Drop PDFs, images, diagrams, and voice notes right inline. Your references live beside your writing, so everything about a thought stays in one place. A VAULT FOR YOUR PROMPTS Keep the prompts you reuse for writing, research, and planning in a dedicated Prompt Vault — organized, searchable, and a tap away when you need them. STAY ORGANIZED, STAY FAST Daily notes, folders, tags, smart filters, and pinned notes keep things tidy, and instant search finds anything the moment you look for it. YOURS EVERYWHERE Ember runs natively on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with optional private iCloud sync, widgets, and a Share Extension for capturing from anywhere. FREE TO START Capture notes, PDFs, prompts, and attachments with the full editor — free, no account required. EMBER PRO Unlock advanced themes and alternate icons, premium writing and organization workflows, and deeper Prompt Vault tools, as a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts. No ads. No selling your words. Your notes stay on your device and your own iCloud. Make a home for your thinking. Download Ember Notes. TERMS & PRIVACY Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://embernotes.app/privacy

Screenshots

Zipgoals4 screens
Ember4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Zipgoals at none against Ember's 3. Zipgoals also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). Ember's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 14 months). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Ember sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Zipgoals 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 Zipgoals against 5.0 for Ember. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ember has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Zipgoals ships an update every 14 months, Ember every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Zipgoals versus Ember: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterZipgoalsEmber
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings16 — better
Update frequencyEvery 14 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supported — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB76 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBlit LabsRene DeAnda

Customer experience

Zipgoals

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Ember

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Zipgoals

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Ember

Subscriptions2
  • Ember Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Ember Pro Annual$34.991 Year
One-time1
  • Ember Pro Lifetime$99.99

Questions

Is Zipgoals free?
Zipgoals is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ember free?
Ember is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Zipgoals or Ember?
Zipgoals and Ember are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 6 ratings respectively.
Do Zipgoals or Ember have ads?
Zipgoals shows ads; Ember does not.
Which is updated more often, Zipgoals or Ember?
Zipgoals ships an update every 14 months, and Ember every 2 weeks. Most recently, Zipgoals was updated on November 4, 2026 and Ember on October 31, 2026.

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