Comparison

ChronJour vs LifesJournal

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

Head to head
About

ChronJour

This travel journal app organizes your journeys on a map and timeline. Easily revisit past trips, plan new ones, and archive content like notes, photos, and videos. It offers multiple ways to add locations and capture routes.

Highlights
  • Map and timeline view
  • Add places via search, location, or photo EXIF
  • Route capture and planning
  • Attach notes, links, photos, videos
  • Guide-based organization
  • iCloud sync
Features
Read full description

ChronJour is a personal travel journal built around a map and timeline. Keep places, routes, and trip content in one view so it is easy to revisit past journeys and plan what comes next. • Map + timeline view: filter places and routes by month and jump back to any period. • Multiple ways to add places: map search, current location, or photo EXIF location import. • Route capture and planning: save planned routes or manually selected point-to-point routes with distance, estimated duration, and waypoints. • Trip content archive: attach notes, links, photos, and videos to places or routes. • Guide-based organization: group content by city, theme, or trip and filter the map by guide. • iCloud sync: keep data consistent across devices on the same Apple Account. An optional in-app purchase, “Map Marker Icon Pack,” unlocks additional marker icons.

About

LifesJournal

Automatically and privately records your journeys and visited locations without manual input. It builds a searchable archive of your travels, offering insights into your movement patterns and surfacing meaningful memories. Integrates with health data for a holistic view of your wellbeing.

Highlights
  • Automatic location tracking
  • Visual timeline of visits
  • Smart place recognition
  • Visit history search
  • Geographic footprint maps
  • Memory surfacing
  • Apple Health integration
Features
Read full description

Life's Journal automatically and privately records every place you visit and every journey you take — no manual check-ins, no tapping, no effort. Just live your life and let the app build a beautiful, searchable archive of everywhere you've been. An app that only gets better, with even richer data, the longer you use it! TIMELINE See your day unfold in a rich, visual timeline. Every visit is logged with the place name, duration, and how you got there — whether walking, driving, cycling, or flying. Add notes, attach photos, and mark your favorites. SMART PLACES Your visits aren't just GPS coordinates. Life's Journal recognizes actual place names like "Starbucks" or "Central Park" instead of street addresses. Every location becomes a place in your personal database with visit history, categories, notes, and photos. HAVE I BEEN HERE BEFORE? Ever walk into a restaurant and think "I've definitely been here before… but when? And who was I with?" Life's Journal knows. Ask Siri "Have I been here before with Life's Journal?" or press the button in the app and instantly get the answer — how many times you've visited, when you were last there, and how you got there. No more racking your brain. Your journal remembers what you forgot. STATS & ANALYTICS Discover patterns in how you move through the world. See your visits, distance traveled, time spent, and transport modes broken down by day, week, month, or any custom date range. COVERAGE EXPLORER Visualize your geographic footprint on interactive maps. Track which countries, US states, and counties you've visited. With Street Coverage (beta), see every road you've traveled in your favorite cities, or try to visit every street in your hometown. MEMORY LANE Life's Journal surfaces meaningful memories automatically — visit anniversaries, milestones like your 50th trip to a favorite spot, places you haven't been in a while, and travel highlights. The longer you use it, the richer your memories become. Tap the memory banner and relive the day! HEALTH INTEGRATION Connect with Apple Health to see steps, distance, calories, heart rate, and workouts correlated with your visits. Understand how your movement patterns connect to your wellbeing. PHOTOS The app automatically detects photos taken during your visits and suggests attaching them. Build a visual record of your life tied to the places you've been. SIRI & SHORTCUTS Ask Siri "Have I been here before?" to instantly check your visit history at any location. MORE FEATURES • Home screen and lock screen widgets • Apple Watch companion app • Search and filter across all visits by name, category, date, or notes • Import history from GPX, CSV, and JSON files • Export your complete journal as a backup • Customizable notifications for daily recaps, milestones, and weekly digests • All data stored privately on your device Life's Journal is free to use with core tracking, timeline, places, and basic stats. Upgrade to Premium for Health Dashboard, Memory Lane, full Coverage Explorer, Street Coverage, advanced search, and more. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://gist.github.com/GravyTrainInc/4be781b5c45ed250d7df1e085acf132e

Screenshots

ChronJour3 screens
LifesJournal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: LifesJournal at every 3 weeks against ChronJour's every 2 months. On price, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ChronJour sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and LifesJournal sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ChronJour ships an update every 2 months, LifesJournal every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
ChronJour versus LifesJournal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChronJourLifesJournal
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB135 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer华 曹GTrain Inc

Customer experience

ChronJour

Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

LifesJournal

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ChronJour

One-time1
  • Icon Expansion Pack$0.49
2 purchases

LifesJournal

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly 3.99$3.991 Month
  • Yearly$39.991 Year

Questions

Is ChronJour free?
ChronJour is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is LifesJournal free?
LifesJournal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ChronJour or LifesJournal have ads?
Neither ChronJour nor LifesJournal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ChronJour or LifesJournal?
ChronJour ships an update every 2 months, and LifesJournal every 3 weeks. Most recently, ChronJour was updated on November 11, 2026 and LifesJournal on October 31, 2026.

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