Comparison

Ripples vs Timeline

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

Head to head
About

Ripples

This private journaling app allows you to capture daily moments and send sealed letters to your future self. It offers thoughtful prompts for reflection and provides insights into your personal growth and thought patterns over time.

Highlights
  • Letters to your future self
  • Daily reflection prompts
  • Timeline with filtering
  • Insights into patterns and growth
  • Privacy-focused with local storage
  • Optional iCloud backup
  • Export to JSON
Features
Read full description

A few words is enough to make a memory. Ripples is built for the small moments you'd never sit down and write a page about. Then it does the thing no other journal does. It brings them back, and lets you write back. Reply to an entry from last month. Argue with the version of you from three years ago. Add the context you didn't have at the time. Your memories stop being a list and start being a conversation that runs the length of your life. HOW IT WORKS Write something small. One line is a complete entry here. No prompts to answer, no friction. Add one from the Action Button, Shortcuts or Siri without even opening the app. Answer your past self. Once your journal has some age on it, Ripples brings back three old entries a day and invites you to respond. Agree, argue, or just add what you know now. Watch the thread grow. A note about a job you almost took. A reply six months later. Another one two years after that. The story never ended, so neither does the entry. That's the ripple. WHY ENTRIES ARE PERMANENT You can't edit an entry once it's saved. That's deliberate. A journal you can quietly revise is a journal that tells you what you want to hear — and the entries worth hearing again are usually the ones you'd have softened. Replies let you add, correct and disagree without rewriting the past. LETTERS TO YOUR FUTURE SELF Seal any entry until a date you choose. It leaves your timeline and stays gone — until a few days before it opens, when it returns with a countdown you can see but can't read yet. Sealed letters are never searchable, so guessing a word can't open one early. A message in a bottle from who you used to be. WHEN YOU WANT TO LET SOMETHING GO Write it down, then burn it. The words are removed from your journal and don't come back. Only the date stays, so the shape of your history stays honest. Permanent shouldn't mean trapped. ALSO INSIDE Timeline — your story in order, with threads, sealed letters and the ones you marked as mattering Search — across everything you've written, never inside a sealed letter Daily reminders — as many as you want, at the times that suit you Face ID / Touch ID lock iCloud backup across iPhone and iPad Export everything to JSON, anytime PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No account. No sign-up. No analytics, no trackers, no ads. Your entries live on your device and sync only through your own iCloud. We never see them — the App Store privacy label says "Data Not Collected" because that's literally true. FREE, AND RIPPLES+ Writing, sealing letters up to a year out, replying, burning, search, reminders, iCloud backup and export are free for everyone, forever. Ripples+ is one payment, no subscription, and adds exactly three things: • Letters that travel further — seal one for any date up to fifty years ahead • Letters that keep returning — mark one to come back every year, or every six months, for as long as you keep answering it • Patterns in your writing — the hours and days you actually write, and the words you keep returning to Start with one line today. See what you have to say about it next year.

About

Timeline

This app provides a private space for daily reflection and personal capture, mimicking the speed and rich media of social platforms without the audience or algorithms. It focuses on distraction-free journaling with features like fast multimedia capture, effortless organization, and robust privacy controls.

Highlights
  • Fast multimedia capture (text, photos, audio)
  • Markdown formatting
  • Hashtag organization
  • Biometric app locking (Face ID/Touch ID)
  • 100% local-first privacy
  • Customizable themes
Features
Read full description

Social media for one. Timeline gives you the intuitive speed, muscle memory, and rich media feed of modern social platforms—without the audience, algorithms, or vanity metrics. It is a distraction-free, local-first microjournal built for private capture and honest daily reflection. KEY FEATURES: • FAST MULTIMEDIA CAPTURE: Jot quick thoughts, format with markdown, attach high-resolution photos, and record audio voice notes in seconds. • EFFORTLESS ORGANIZATION: Categorize moments naturally with clickable inline #hashtags and an instant filter carousel. • BIOMETRIC VAULT: Keep your personal reflections private with Face ID / Touch ID app locking and discreet content obscurity. • 100% LOCAL-FIRST PRIVACY: No remote servers, no user accounts, and no data tracking. Your entries stay sandboxed securely on your device. • CURATED THEMES: Designed for OLED displays with a true pitch-black theme, clean typography, and customizable accent colors. Document your life for yourself—not an algorithm.

Screenshots

Ripples4 screens
Timeline4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Timeline at none against Ripples's 1. Timeline also leads on iOS requirement (16.6 vs 18.0). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Ripples sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Timeline 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 Ripples against 5.0 for Timeline. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Ripples versus Timeline: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRipplesTimeline
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.016.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJohn DavenportKamal Bramwell

Customer experience

Ripples

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

Timeline

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

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Ripples

One-time1
  • Rppl+ (One-Time)$19.99
None

Timeline

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ripples free?
Ripples is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Timeline free?
Timeline is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Ripples or Timeline?
Ripples and Timeline are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Ripples or Timeline have ads?
Neither Ripples nor Timeline shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ripples or Timeline?
Ripples ships an update every 3 weeks, and Timeline every 3 weeks. Most recently, Ripples was updated on October 10, 2026 and Timeline on October 31, 2026.

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