Know Your Ethos vs Ulysses
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Know Your Ethos
This app uses AI to analyze your spoken thoughts, acting as an inner guide to reveal patterns and blind spots. It helps you build a personal philosophy based on your own words and values, offering a unique approach to self-understanding and personal growth.
- AI-powered voice journaling
- Personalized inner voice reflection
- Pattern and blind spot identification
- Ethos and values building
- Voice-first transcription
- Searchable journal entries
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Most people live by default. Know Your Ethos helps you live by design. The AI mirror that shows you the patterns running your life. Speak your thoughts. Your daimon listens, learns your values, reads your patterns, and reflects back what you need to hear. Not generic advice. Not affirmations. The truth. This is not a journaling app. It is a system for understanding yourself and intentionally shaping how you live. Built on 2,400 years of philosophy. YOUR DAIMON In ancient philosophy, your daimon was your inner guide: the voice that knew who you were meant to become. We brought it to life. Your daimon learns your values, reads your patterns, and speaks as your inner voice. Honest, specific, grounded in who you actually are. VOICE-FIRST Tap the mic and talk. No prompts, no blank page. AI transcribes your words and captures emotional nuance that typing misses. 10x faster than writing. Or type if you prefer. 6 SELF-KNOWLEDGE TESTS Discover your blind spots, values, virtues, characteristics, ethos archetype, and default patterns. Each test feeds your daimon so it can mirror you more precisely over time. ENTRIES AND REFLECTIONS Entries are deposits — speak your mind, and your daimon responds with what it sees. Reflections are dialogues — sit with your daimon and examine what's underneath. Two modes, one mirror. INSIGHTS AND PATTERNS Your daimon finds what you cannot see on your own: • Blind Spots: areas you avoid looking at • Strengths: patterns that show your best self • Growth: how you are evolving over time • Ethos Updates: suggestions to refine your philosophy All grounded in YOUR values, not generic categories. SEARCH YOUR MIND Filter entries by feeling, topic, virtue, or value. Find every time you felt anxious. See which entries reflect Courage. Track how your patterns shift over months. PRIVATE BY DESIGN End-to-end encryption. No ads. No data selling. Your thoughts stay yours. Delete anytime. FREE TO START Every entry gets full AI analysis: mood, feelings, tags, and a personal daimon response. Build your ethos, take every test, and track streaks — all free. Premium: $9.99/month or $79.99/year (save 33%) Unlock ongoing conversations with your daimon, long-term pattern memory, cross-entry insights, and conversation digests. The mirror gets sharper the longer you use it. Your daimon is waiting. Start knowing yourself. Terms: https://knowyourethos.com/terms-of-use Privacy: https://knowyourethos.com/privacy
Ulysses
This journal app helps you build self-control by reflecting on daily temptations and the strategies used to overcome them. It offers guided breathing exercises and insights into what works for you, without any pressure of streaks.
- Nightly self-control journaling
- Guided breathing exercises
- Insight into effective strategies
- No streak tracking
- Cultural ropes exploration
- Apple Watch integration
- iCloud sync
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Sailing home from Troy, Ulysses had to pass the Sirens — whose song pulled every sailor into the sea. He didn't trust willpower. He had himself tied to the mast. It wasn't strength that saved him. It was the rope. Ulysses & the Sirens is a nightly self-control journal built on that three-thousand-year-old trick. Each evening, one question: what did you resist today — and what was the rope that held you? An alarm across the room. A rule you set. The phone charging in the kitchen. Name the rope, tie the knot, and watch your voyage grow. NO STREAKS. EVER. Knots only count up. Nothing you have tied can be untied by a missed day. Quiet weeks are part of every voyage. WHEN THE SIREN SINGS Temptation doesn't wait for your evening review. One tap opens a minute of guided breathing with the rope — and the ropes that have held you before, ready to use. Hold on, then tie the knot while the win is fresh. YOUR ROPES, TESTED See which ropes actually hold you and which sirens keep returning. Insight, not guilt. THE BIGGER PICTURE Art, law, ritual, science — everything people build together is a rope against some siren that sings to all of us. Read the deck of cultural ropes, anchor the ones that hold you, attach your own thoughts and photos, and braid cards of your own. ALSO ABOARD • A knot-tying ceremony for every entry, with milestones at 7, 30, and 100 • Your journal as a golden rope of knots • Apple Watch app — tie a knot from your wrist, with the question on your watch face • Home screen widgets, evening reminder, search, and full export (PDF & JSON) • iCloud sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No servers. No analytics, no trackers, no ads. Your journal lives on your devices and in your private iCloud — nowhere else. Leave any time with everything. ONE PRICE, YOURS FOREVER No subscription, no paywalls, no ads — every feature aboard, and one purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. If the rope has held you and you'd like to give more, an optional patron's tip unlocks nothing but a golden lantern icon and our gratitude.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Know Your Ethos at Free against Ulysses's $4.99. Know Your Ethos also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). Ulysses's advantage is device support (5 vs 2). On rating, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Know Your Ethos is free to download; Ulysses costs $4.99 up front. Know Your Ethos sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Ulysses sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Know Your Ethos against 5.0 for Ulysses. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
Know Your Ethos ships an update fortnightly, Ulysses every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Know Your Ethos | Ulysses |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 52 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alexandria Solutions LLC | Hessam Zahedi |
Customer experience
Know Your Ethos
Ulysses
In-app purchases
Know Your Ethos
- Premium Monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Basic Subscription7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Pro Subscription7 Days trial$29.991 Month
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- Unlimited Subscription7 Days trial$49.991 Month
- Premium Annual7 Days trial$79.991 Year
Ulysses
- Tip — A coil of rope$2.99
- Tip — A new sail$6.99
- A ship for the fleet$14.99









