Comparison

Minimal diary vs DailyMark

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

Head to head
About

Minimal diary

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Minimal diary is a daily journal and journal with lock, built for anyone who wants a safe place to write thoughts, memories, and daily notes. Whether you write every day or only when you need to, this journal app keeps your words protected and easy to come back to. Write freely or use voice journal, add photos or time stamps, and keep your diary secure with a passcode. With Google Drive backup, your journal is always safe even if you reset or reinstall the app. Simple Daily Diary and gratitude journal A clean daily journal for writing without distractions Tap any day to start writing instantly Use it as a personal diary, notes app, or reflection journal One line or many pages, write at your own pace Diary with Lock App lock with passcode Protect your private diary and journal entries Journal with lock that keeps your writing secure on your device Add Time & Photos Insert the current time into your diary entries Attach photos to your journal Images stay neatly organized without affecting your text Daily Journal is your private diary with lock โ€” a calm space to write, reflect, and remember. https://northernmonkey.thegigletter.com/terms/ https://northernmonkey.thegigletter.com/privacy-policy/

About

DailyMark

Features
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A diary that converses with the past. DailyMark is not a social feed and not a blog. The words here are not meant to be shown to anyone. They keep the facts that existed only in that moment, for the self yet to come. The moment you brace yourself to keep a diary, you start erasing the thoughts that embarrassed you, searching only for the good memories, and wearing yourself out trying to recall what you were too busy to write down last week. This app does not allow that. The immaturity, the hesitation, the contradiction โ€” each is engraved as the reality of that moment. So a record can be kept only as that same day's entry, and once engraved it can be neither edited nor deleted. This is not just a diary. It is a log that keeps the traces of change, so the future you can converse with it. [How a record works] - Text only (no photo, no video, no location) - Up to 400 characters per record - A URL may be included (URLs do not count toward the limit) - No editing, no deletion [Records per day] - Free: twice a day - Pro: five times a day (the same during the 14-day trial) This is not a place to write a great deal. It is a place to record how today, and how now, really was. [Asking your past self] Pose a question such as "What have I been worried about lately?" or "A year ago, what was on my mind?" and the AI reads back through your past records and answers in the voice of who you were then. - Free: 5 times in total - Pro: up to 30 times a month [A monthly reflection (Pro)] On Pro, the AI reads back over a past month's records and returns the recurring themes, the signs of change, and the lingering tone in a short passage. [The color of feeling] Each record's text is read for its emotional tendency, based on the circumplex model of affect, and kept quietly on the calendar as the color of that day. Looking back across time, a restless season or a calm one comes through, letting you review your past for yourself. [Exporting records (Pro)] Your own records can be exported at once in three formats โ€” JSON, Markdown, and CSV โ€” and saved through the share sheet (up to 3 times a month). [Privacy] - No ads, no third-party tracking - Records are not used to train AI (assured by the OpenAI and Anthropic API terms) - Each record is visible only to its author (Row Level Security) - Deleting the account removes the data permanently (within 30 days, with no recovery) [Requirements] - iOS 15 or later - iPhone only (iPad and Mac are not supported) - Japanese and English (following the device language) [Subscription] - DailyMark Pro: a monthly subscription, auto-renewing (see App Store for local pricing) - Cancellation is handled in the standard iOS Subscriptions settings - Pro features remain available through the paid period [Support and legal] For questions: kokujitsuki@five-birds.com Privacy Policy: https://five-birds.com/kokujitsuki/privacy Terms of Service: https://five-birds.com/kokujitsuki/terms Specified Commercial Transactions Act notice: https://five-birds.com/legal/tokushoho To keep, for the future self, the feeling and the thought and the hesitation that exist only in this moment. Not a life smoothed into order, but the process of change itself, engraved as it happens.

Screenshots

Minimal diary4 screens
DailyMark4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: DailyMark at 15.1 against Minimal diary's 17.6. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Minimal diary sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and DailyMark sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Minimal diary ships an update every 6 days, DailyMark weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Minimal diary versus DailyMark: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMinimal diaryDailyMark
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 days โ€” betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS17.615.1 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size9 MB40 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperAvirath Pinjarkarfive-birds.com

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Minimal diary

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly - 30 Days$4.991 Month
  • Annual Plan$44.991 Year
1 purchases

DailyMark

Subscriptions1
  • DailyMark ProMonthly14 Days trial$1.991 Month

Questions

Is Minimal diary free?
Minimal diary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is DailyMark free?
DailyMark is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Minimal diary or DailyMark have ads?
Neither Minimal diary nor DailyMark shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Minimal diary or DailyMark?
Minimal diary ships an update every 6 days, and DailyMark weekly. Most recently, Minimal diary was updated on October 19, 2026 and DailyMark on October 25, 2026.

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