Comparison

Conviction vs Zen

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

Head to head
About

Conviction

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When feelings flood everything, the rest of the day goes with them. A tightness in the chest becomes the whole room. You already know this cycle. You have language for it. You may already be in therapy, mapping overwhelm back to older material. What you still need is a place that holds what the world around you is not ready to hear. Conviction is a shadow work journal and encrypted diary for that moment. It does not replace professional care. It sits beside the work you are already doing. It holds the thought you cannot say out loud, then shows the pattern so the feeling is not the whole story. You decide how deep you go. WHEN FEELINGS TAKE OVER Talk or type. Voice transcription runs on your iPhone. Name the mood while it is happening, not hours later when the story has already hardened. Sit with the mood instead of getting swept by it. Grief, anger, sadness, the loop you cannot shut off. The journal holds them without asking you to perform okay. Your entries live in an encrypted diary on the device. Private. Yours. THE OLDER FEELING UNDERNEATH A blank page is a trap when you are flooded. Guided shadow work prompts give you a place to start. Questions that meet today's trigger on the surface and the older feeling underneath. You open them when you want them. Nobody pushes you further than you chose. This is not a counter you have to protect. This is a room you can enter and leave. SEE THE CYCLE Journal mood analytics, word clouds, and charts show emotional patterns over time. Recurring loops stop looking like who you are and start looking like a cycle you can step out of. Magic Mirror can surface patterns you miss when you are inside the wave. Detected shadow patterns can become goals you actually track. Ruminating becomes something you can see, not something that runs the day. TOOLS FOR THE WAVE When writing is not enough, self-guided tools are one tap away: - The Mirror: CBT thought reframe and cognitive defusion - Safe Harbor: somatic grounding, breathing, body scans - Pattern Lab: trigger mapping and chain analysis - The Council: assertiveness and validation practice These are tools, not treatment. Use them the way you use a notebook between sessions. Momentum cools when you step away. It never snaps to zero. Miss a week. Come back. Nothing resets. A PRIVATE SPACE AES-256 encryption on your iPhone. Unlock with Face ID. On supported iPhones, Apple Intelligence can surface patterns from your entries on the device. Optional encrypted iCloud backup is a Pro feature and uses a key only you hold. We cannot read your journal. A private space for what the world will not hold. WHO THIS IS FOR People who overthink until living shrinks to rumination. People who need backing when emotion takes over the whole day. People who want a journal that holds space, then helps them sit with what showed up. Not a therapist. Not a crisis line. A private journal with tools, on your iPhone. Start free. Unlimited entries, voice, check-ins, and the core tools are included. Mood detection, Magic Mirror, and insight cards have free limits. Unlock Conviction Pro once if you want those limits removed, plus Shadow Work analysis, Cosmic Rhythms, Apple Health correlation, and optional encrypted iCloud backup. Pro is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. No account required to begin. Export anytime. Delete anytime.

About

Zen

Features
Read full description

Just Sit. Your Way. Nothing Else. A silent meditation timer with traditional bells. The sit is free. Optional short guided sits when just sitting is hard. Then silence. No ads, no streaks, no account. JUST SIT Sit on a cushion or chair. Eyes barely open, soft gaze. Feel your body, breath, and posture. No mantra, no goal. When thoughts come and go, just return to sitting. The benefits are real — a calm mind, more focus, more clarity, better sleep, less stress, more presence. They show up when you stop chasing them. YOUR WAY Just sit. Easier said than done. Just sitting can be brutal. Most people need a little guidance, and that detour is fine. Optional short guided sits — the Just Sit course, one idea at a time — then sit in silence. Or leave every optional feature off. Not a library of courses. Discover your way to just sit. NOTHING ELSE Everything you need to just sit is included, and stays free. A timer, bells, Watch, widgets. No ads, no streaks, no account to sit. The sit stays free. Always. Native on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Focus on what matters: just sit. HOW IT WORKS Open the app · pick a duration · sit. Beautiful bells, soundscapes, intervals, warmup and cooldown. If you want to look around: Welcome on first launch, then short guided sits for ordinary life. Nothing required. Explore at your own pace. WHY THIS EXISTS Hi, I'm Francis, a longtime Apple developer. I discovered regular meditation about 15 years ago. I suffer from PTSD, and meditation has helped me survive — more than once — when things fall apart. Meditation only clicked for me with a Zen just-sit practice. To get there I had to put in the time: other practices, sampling, trial and error, year after year of showing up to sit. I needed those 10,000 minutes on apps before I could stop searching and, in the end, just sit. Zen : Your Way is my way of giving back. A quiet timer. Optional guidance to nudge you toward just sitting. Nothing in the way of the sit itself. ON IPHONE AND IPAD • Apple Watch companion — start sits and complications on your wrist • Home Screen widgets and Live Activities

Screenshots

Conviction4 screens
Zen4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Zen at none against Conviction's 3. Zen also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks) and device support (6 vs 1). On price and ads 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. Conviction sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.00 per month. Zen asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Conviction ships an update every 2 weeks, Zen every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 4 level
Conviction versus Zen: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterConvictionZen
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size330 MB25 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperPhillip PaulFrancis Dierick

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Conviction

Subscriptions2
  • Conviction Monthly Subscription$5.001 Month
  • Conviction Annual Subscription$50.001 Year
One-time1
  • Conviction Pro$3.99
None

Zen

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Conviction free?
Conviction is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Zen free?
Zen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Conviction or Zen have ads?
Neither Conviction nor Zen shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Conviction or Zen?
Conviction ships an update every 2 weeks, and Zen every 2 days. Most recently, Conviction was updated on October 31, 2026 and Zen on October 31, 2026.

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