Comparison

Doodle A Day vs Five Year Diary

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

Head to head
About

Doodle A Day

Features
Read full description

One tiny drawing a day. A year later, a hand-drawn journal you'll love flipping back through. Calm paper, a soft pencil, a splash of color, and a mood for every day. No skill needed, just a minute and whatever caught your eye today. A coffee cup. The dog asleep in a sunbeam. Rain on the window. Some days the doodle is three lines, some days it's the best thing you drew all week. Add a short note in your own words and the day is kept. Each day you also pick a mood. Over the weeks, the month view turns those moods into a soft watercolor summary, so you can see how the month really felt at a glance. With Artist, a written mood reading puts it into a few gentle lines. Then the pages start to add up. Scroll back through them full screen and the small moments come back, one drawing at a time. The year slowly fills in with your own little pictures. Doodle A Day lives on iPhone and iPad and syncs through your own iCloud, so your journal is right there on either one. Widgets keep today's doodle on your Home Screen, and a gentle reminder at the time you choose helps keep the habit going. FREE - Realistic pencil and pen, plus an eraser - Ink and paper colors - Notes up to 500 characters, shown as a torn-paper caption - Edit today's and yesterday's doodle - Share a page, a scrapbook of days or a flip-book GIF - A mood for every day, with a watercolor mood summary for the month - Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets - Daily reminders - iCloud sync between iPhone and iPad Free includes ads. ARTIST: $2.99, ONE TIME - Watercolor and brush - The full color wheel - Edit any earlier day - A written mood reading for your month - No ads, just the page Your doodles and notes stay private in your own iCloud and aren't shared with anyone. The free version shows ads from AdMob, which use device ID and product interaction data. Privacy Policy: https://wilmoth.engineering/apps/doodle-a-day/privacy Terms of Use: https://wilmoth.engineering/apps/doodle-a-day/terms Support: https://wilmoth.engineering/apps/doodle-a-day/support

About

Five Year Diary

Features
Read full description

Write today, and the same day from last year and the year before appear on the very same page. Gonen Diary is a five-year diary that shows five years of one date on a single page. A few lines are enough, so it is easy to keep going, and a year from now you get to meet yourself again. [Who it is for] - You want an easy five-year diary on your iPhone or iPad - Paper diaries never lasted more than a few days - You want to look back at what you were doing on this day last year - You keep short daily notes, such as a parenting or gratitude journal - You want a privacy-minded diary with no sign-up [No account, no network] - No registration and no email address - Your diary stays on this device only. Nothing is sent to a server - Even if a service goes down or you are offline, your diary stays readable [Meet last year's today] - The same date from five years is lined up on one page - While you write today, you can see last year's you right below - Open a past day from the calendar and the earlier years of that date appear with it - The longer you keep going, the thicker the page gets [Mood in one emoji] - Pick your mood from five emoji (optional; you can write without choosing) - Last year's mood for the same day shows up alongside the text [One photo a day] - Keep one photo per day (free) - Add a photo to today's entry or to a past day you are filling in - Photos stay on the device only. They are shrunk before saving and location data is removed - Last year's photo for the same day appears right under the text [Made for iPad too] - On iPad, the left side is where you write today and the right side lists the same day from earlier years - Text is a little larger (three text sizes to choose from) [Quiet, never pushy] - No streak counts and no "days in a row" badges - Days you skip are simply left alone (no "missed" marks) - Only the total number of entries is shown, quietly - No prompts forced on you and no character limit - No ads [Search and look back] - Search your diary by word (Search tab) - The calendar marks the days you wrote - An optional gentle reminder at your writing time (on or off) [Keeping your diary safe] - Every time you write, a backup copy is made on the device so you can restore it - Export (backup) and import are free. Your diary is always yours to take out (export covers text only, not photos) - Protect the app with Face ID, Touch ID or the device passcode - Nothing is sent to AI [Why a five-year diary works] Because one book shows the same date across five years, you never need to write a lot. Even a few lines turn into "this day last year" a year later. Seasonal events, your children growing, small changes at work and at home, shifts in health and mood: things you cannot notice in a single day appear across the years. [How to use it] 1. Write a few lines in the evening or morning 2. The same date from last year and the year before appears below 3. On days you want a photo, add just one 4. To find an entry, search by word 5. Export a backup of the diary you care about [About paying] - Writing, reading, searching, photos, export and import are all free - The only thing a one-time in-app purchase adds is exporting to PDF (save, print, share) - There are no monthly payments [FAQ] Q. Do I have to write every day? A. No. Days you skip are simply left as they are, with no missed marks. Q. Can I move my diary to a new phone? A. Export and import are free, so your diary can always go with you. Q. Can anyone else see my diary? A. It stays on your device and is never sent anywhere. You can also lock the app with Face ID and the like. Available in Japanese, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified). You can switch in Settings at any time. Dark mode is supported. A year from now, open this day and meet today's you. That is Gonen Diary.

Screenshots

Doodle A Day4 screens
Five Year Diary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Five Year Diary at none against Doodle A Day's shown. Five Year Diary also leads on update cadence (every 9 days vs every 4 months) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Doodle A Day sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Five Year Diary sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Doodle A Day ships an update every 4 months, Five Year Diary every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Doodle A Day versus Five Year Diary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDoodle A DayFive Year Diary
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 9 days โ€” better
AdsYesNo โ€” better
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS17.615.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size14 MB34 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperJacob WilmothAKIHIRO MATSUYAMA

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Doodle A Day

One-time1
  • Artist$2.99
1 purchases

Five Year Diary

One-time1
  • Unlock PDF Export$0.99

Questions

Is Doodle A Day free?
Doodle A Day is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Five Year Diary free?
Five Year Diary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Doodle A Day or Five Year Diary have ads?
Doodle A Day shows ads; Five Year Diary does not.
Which is updated more often, Doodle A Day or Five Year Diary?
Doodle A Day ships an update every 4 months, and Five Year Diary every 9 days. Most recently, Doodle A Day was updated on October 26, 2026 and Five Year Diary on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons