May Diary vs Reflect AI Journal Diary
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
May Diary
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MayDiary is a private journal. Write, or dictate, and ask about what you wrote. KEY FEATURES: DIARY ANALYSIS: Ask for a summary, the important moments, your mood, recurring patterns, or practical suggestions. You can also ask your own question. Choose a week, a month, a year, or the whole diary. The answer uses your entries. A shorter period is still read in the context of the rest of the diary. DICTATION: On iOS 26, Apple transcribes supported languages on your iPhone. The recording stays on the device, and the speech model downloads once. Where Apple has no on-device model for your language, dictation is sent to OpenAI. After you stop, the transcript is written into the entry. An optional cleanup pass can tidy grammar and formatting; that pass sends the text to OpenAI. TAGS: Keep up to five tags. Add them yourself or let the app suggest them from the entry. Filter the list by a tag. The same tags are used for analysis and for finding entries. FIND ENTRIES: Ask in your own words. MayDiary returns the matching entries. It looks at the wording, the dates, and the tags, not only at an exact phrase. PRIVACY: Entries stay in the app and, if you turn sync on, in your private iCloud. Lock the diary with Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode. MayDiary shows no ads and does not collect your writing. Analysis, finding entries, suggested tags, and OpenAI dictation use your own OpenAI key. Those requests are sent with storage turned off. The key is kept in the iPhone Keychain. EDITOR: A plain editor with Markdown: headings, quotes, lists, bold, and italic. NOTE: Apple dictation does not need an OpenAI key. The other AI features do. Setup instructions are in the app.
Reflect AI Journal Diary
This app helps you understand your life by analyzing your journal entries, voice memos, and photos. It uses AI to surface patterns in your mood, relationships, and growth, while ensuring your data remains private and encrypted.
- AI-driven pattern analysis
- Voice memo transcription
- Photo journaling with text extraction
- Mood and happiness tracking
- MBTI personality analysis
- Encrypted privacy and security
- Collaborative 'Buddy Mode'
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Most diary apps capture your life. Reflect helps you understand it. Write a few lines, record a voice memo, snap a photo, or photograph an old paper journal — Reflect's AI quietly surfaces the patterns underneath. What moves your mood. Who matters most. Where you're growing. Where you're stuck. Reflect notices what you're too close to see and gives it back to you in a way that finally clicks. Your diary stays private. Entries are encrypted on your device and in cloud backup with a recovery code only you have. AI processing strips personal identifiers from text before sending. Reflect never sells, shares, or trains on your journal. A WRITING EXPERIENCE THAT FEELS LIKE YOURS • Rich text editor with 31 fonts across Latin, Arabic, Korean, Hindi, and Japanese scripts • 11 themes, plus a custom theme editor that builds palettes from your own photos • Voice memos with automatic native-language transcription • Photograph old paper journals — Reflect extracts the text, detects the date, infers the mood, and files it on your timeline • 200+ stickers and 10 mood illustration styles • Weather and location auto-tagged • 10 ambient background music tracks for focus AI THAT ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDS YOU • Daily Insight — an honest takeaway from today's entry • Weekly, monthly, and yearly reflections from your own writing • Ask AI — chat with your own journal. "Why did I feel off in March?" • MBTI Analysis — your personality type from how you actually write • People Insights — the relationships shaping your life • Happiness Patterns — what genuinely moves your mood • Lifestyle Insights — habits, sleep, energy, stress • Goal Detection — Reflect spots and tracks the goals you mention • Recovery Insight — a gentle nudge when you've stepped away from a goal PRIVACY ISN'T A FEATURE. IT'S THE FOUNDATION. • Diary Lock with PIN, password, Face ID, or fingerprint • AES-256-GCM encryption on your device and in cloud backup • Personal identifiers stripped before AI processing • Recovery code required to restore on a new device JOURNAL TOGETHER, STAY PRIVATE • Buddy Mode — pair with a friend to send cheers and share a collaborative space • Personal entries stay 100% private; only shared entries are visible to your buddy ACROSS YOUR DEVICES • Apple Watch companion, iPad-optimized layout, cross-device backup HOW PEOPLE USE REFLECT • To process what they can't say out loud yet • Alongside therapy — bring patterns to a session • To digitize and re-read old paper journals PROGRESS YOU CAN SEE • Calendar view, 8-week mood trend chart, interactive map for location-tagged entries • "On This Day" surfaces entries from previous years • 15 badges and streak tracking EXPORT & IMPORT • Export as PDF with photos and mood data, or plain text • Import past journals from other apps 10 LANGUAGES English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Arabic (with proper RTL), Hindi. Crisis lexicon reviewed by native speakers. FREE FOREVER — no ads, no account, no time limit All core journaling, plus Daily Insight, Goal Detection, voice dictation, OCR scanning and prompts — free, always. Free for your first 30 days, then Premium: Weekly Insights, Export, and Auto-Backup. PREMIUM unlocks the deepest AI: Ask AI, MBTI Analysis, monthly & yearly reflections, and Lifestyle, Happiness & People Insights. • Monthly — auto-renews monthly • Yearly — auto-renews annually, best value • Lifetime — one-time purchase, AI features included for 3 years Subscriptions automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Reflect was built for people who want to understand themselves better — without trading their most private thoughts for the privilege. Your data is yours. Always. Terms of Use: https://reflectdiary.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://reflectdiary.app/privacy
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Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Reflect AI Journal Diary at 4 against May Diary's 2. Reflect AI Journal Diary also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.4). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. May Diary sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Reflect AI Journal Diary sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
May Diary ships an update fortnightly, Reflect AI Journal Diary every 9 days. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.
| Parameter | May Diary | Reflect AI Journal Diary |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.4 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 72 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | +4 |
| Developer | PETR HAZUZA | Ala Eddine Boukhili |
In-app purchases
May Diary
- Buy Me a Coffee$0.99
- Support Development$2.99
- Big Thank You$4.99
Reflect AI Journal Diary
- Premium Monthly$4.991 Month
- Premium Yearly — Loyalty Offer$19.991 Year
- Premium Yearly$29.991 Year
- Premium Lifetime$79.99
Questions
Is May Diary free?
Is Reflect AI Journal Diary free?
Do May Diary or Reflect AI Journal Diary have ads?
Which is updated more often, May Diary or Reflect AI Journal Diary?
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