Umbra vs Self
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Umbra
This app offers guided journaling rooted in Jungian psychology for self-reflection and emotional integration. It helps users confront and understand their shadow self, manage ego and anger, and heal inner child wounds through structured prompts and pattern tracking. All data is stored locally for absolute privacy.
- Guided shadow work journaling
- Ego and anger management tools
- Inner child healing sessions
- Emotional trigger tracking
- Local data storage for privacy
- Face ID/PIN journal lock
- Emotional analytics
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Umbra is a shadow work journal rooted in Jungian psychology, designed for honest self-reflection, emotional clarity, and personal transformation. This is not a gratitude journal. This is a guided tool for psychological integration, helping you confront the parts of yourself you tend to avoid. Built for deep inner work. All entries stay offline, on your device. No cloud. No accounts. No tracking. ▶ ABSOLUTE PRIVACY Your shadow stays with you. Umbra stores all data locally on your device with no external processing or data collection. Lock your journal with Face ID or PIN for complete peace of mind. ▶ UNDERSTAND THE SHADOW SELF ◀ [WHAT IS SHADOW WORK] Shadow work is a practice from the psychology of Carl Jung. It involves confronting unconscious patterns, repressed emotions, and hidden beliefs. Through guided journaling, you bring these shadows into awareness to begin the process of psychological integration. [HOW UMBRA WORKS] Choose an Intent: Select a specific emotion to explore, such as Anger, Shame, Ego, Fear, or Envy. Reflect on a Prompt: Each question is rooted in Jungian psychology and designed for honest self-examination. Track Your Patterns: Visualize which shadows surface most often and track your emotional evolution over time. ▶ MASTER YOUR EGO & ANGER ◀ [EGO MANAGEMENT] Identify the voice of your ego and dismantle limiting beliefs. Our specialized ego work prompts help you understand self-image patterns and move toward a more authentic version of yourself. [ANGER & TRIGGER TRACKING] Identify your emotional triggers before they take control. Umbra provides a structured anger management guide to help you process frustration and understand the root cause of your reactions. ▶ HEAL THE INNER CHILD ◀ [REPRESSED EMOTIONS] Resolve childhood trauma through targeted inner child healing sessions. Address unmet needs and break generational cycles with subconscious reprogramming exercises. [SHAME & ENVY REFLECTION] Work through the most difficult emotions. Use specific journaling paths for shame and envy prompts to transform these mired feelings into catalysts for self-discovery. ▶ ULTIMATE PSYCHOLOGY JOURNAL ◀ [EMOTIONAL ANALYTICS] Visualize the distribution of your triggers. Umbra turns your private reflections into meaningful insights, showing you how your inner landscape shifts as you do the work. [ACCESSIBLE TO ALL] Full support for accessibility preferences including bold text, dynamic type, increased contrast, and voiceover support. Upgrade to Umbra Premium with monthly, yearly, or lifetime plans for unlimited journal entries, advanced emotional analytics, and the full library of Jungian prompts. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage plans and turn off auto-renewal in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions. Umbra is not a medical device and should not replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Terms of service: https://umbra.byarcadia.app/terms/ Privacy policy: https://umbra.byarcadia.app/privacy/
Self
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Sometimes a person is suddenly alone. The relationship ends, the family dissolves, the friend moves, the old life goes quiet. Or they have been alone a long time and are learning that solitude is a skill the culture didn't teach them. Either way, when they reach for their phone in a hard hour, they want one steady voice. Not a coach, not a therapist, not another self-help framework. Someone who has been there. This is that. Self-Reliance Tips is a hundred small observations from someone who has been in a hard hour and made it through. Each one opens with "You might..." or "Consider..." or "Some people find..." The choice always lives with you. There is no card that begins "You should." Three cards wait face-down each day. Tap as many as you want. The cards you reveal stay in your Collection forever, so you can come back to them on a different hard hour. There is no streak. No notification asking you to be consistent. No progress meter measuring whether you "showed up." What you'll find: A hundred cards across the small spectrum of a real life: nervous-system regulation, micro-actions, self-compassion, solitude as a skill, connection without performance, grief, identity, and witness-staying. Cards on subjects with documented mechanisms (slow exhale, 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, self-compassion break, facial-feedback, weak-tie research) link to authoritative sources for the curious: Cleveland Clinic, APA, Healthline, self-compassion.org, Greater Good Berkeley, Harvard Health. Drew's note in Settings names what he was going through when he built this app. Brutal honesty over performance. What you won't find: No subscription. No streaks. No ads. No data collection. No advice voice. No "you should." No promise that things will be fine. If the hour you are in is bigger than this app, the resources at the bottom of Settings are real people on the other end: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Crisis Text Line, Veterans Crisis Line, NAMI HelpLine, SAMHSA, RAINN, plus three therapist finders that filter by insurance and sliding-scale options. You are allowed to call them even if you are not sure it is bad enough. Self-Reliance Tips is not therapy. It is not a substitute for professional care. It is steady company. For the person who has heard enough fix-it speak. For the four-in-the-morning hour. For the days you are learning, slowly, how to be alone with yourself in a way that holds.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Self at 5.0 against Umbra's 3.0. Self also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 3 weeks). Umbra's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, 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. Umbra sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month and Self sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Self holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
Umbra ships an update every 3 weeks, Self daily. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Umbra | Self |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 63 MB | 253 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dominik Wozniak | Drew Douglass |
In-app purchases
Umbra
- Pro Monthly$6.991 Month
- Rescue Pro Annual7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Pro Annual7 Days trial$34.991 Year
Self
- A warm cup$1.99
- One step taken$4.99
- A view of dawn$9.99
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- A long quiet evening$19.99









