Stario vs General Journal
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Stario
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Stario turns your life experiences into beautiful collectible cards. Every meal, trip, movie, or moment becomes a card worth keeping. Features: οΌ Collect: Capture photos with your camera and turn them into stunning cards. Add titles, ratings, tags, and locations. οΌ Series: Organize cards into custom collections β food, movies, growth, moments, or anything you love. οΌ Browse: Explore your collections with smart filters β favorites, highly rated, recently collected, and more. οΌ Map View: See where your experiences happened on an interactive map. οΌ Share: Export beautifully designed cards to share on social media or with friends. οΌ Privacy First: Your collection is yours. Collect privately, share on your own terms. οΌ Cloud Sync: Keep your collection in sync across all your devices. οΌ Stario Pro: Subscribe to unlock unlimited captures, imports, series, tags, exclusive map view and cloud sync. Crafted with love by Pol Terms of Use: https://stario.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://stario.app/privacy Feedback: hi.pol.chen@gmail.com
General Journal
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General Journal brings journaling and expense tracking into one private daily timeline. Write a note, log lunch, scan a receipt, track a habit, or talk through the day with your in-app companion. The app keeps money records and life moments together, so spending has context and diary entries do not live in a separate place. Quick ways to record β’ Type everyday expenses in one sentence β’ Scan receipts or Taiwan e-invoice QR codes β’ Add mood notes, reflections, places, links, and photos β’ Use AI to help turn text or photos into structured records β’ Keep recurring income and expenses such as rent, salary, subscriptions, and insurance Review your day β’ Chat with a small companion that can read the selected dayβs records β’ Save the conversation as a diary entry β’ Build a Diary Review book with daily highlight cards β’ Add timeline photos, stickers, backgrounds, and handwritten decoration β’ Share or keep review cards as personal memories Understand money and rhythm β’ Manage cash, bank, card, e-wallet, investment, and settlement accounts β’ Track transfers, credit card payments, friend splits, and multi-currency spending β’ See category breakdowns, monthly trends, account balances, mood calendars, and photo entries β’ Create custom trackers for things like weight, skin, hair, habits, or any private metric Privacy first β’ No app account is required β’ Core journal, mood, expense, photo, and account data is stored on your device β’ AI features only process the text or images you choose to send β’ Export your data and create local backups on your own terms β’ Ads are never given your private journal or expense content by the app General Journal is for quiet daily logging: not a strict budget spreadsheet, not a social network, and not a blank notes app. It is a place to remember what happened, what it cost, and how it felt. Free to use with ads. Optional in-app purchases unlock higher AI limits, an ad-free experience, more photos per entry, and companion features. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Stario at none against General Journal's shown. General Journal's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Stario sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and General Journal sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Stario ships an update every 3 weeks, General Journal every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Stario | General Journal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 5 days β better |
| Ads | No β better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod β better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 54 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ηΏζ΅· ι | Zhegang Xu |
In-app purchases
Stario
- Stario Pro$3.991 Month
- Stario Pro7 Days trial$24.991 Year
General Journal
- General Journal Basic$1.991 Month
- General Journal Premium$2.991 Month
Questions
Is Stario free?
Is General Journal free?
Do Stario or General Journal have ads?
Which is updated more often, Stario or General Journal?
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