Comparison

Calorie Wheel vs Private Diary

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

Head to head
About

Calorie Wheel

Features
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Calorie Wheel is a simple, elegant calorie tracker. Rotate the wheel to log your daily calorie intake with satisfying haptic feedback. Set your daily goal, choose your increment, and watch the wheel change color as you approach your target — green for low, yellow for mid-range, and red when you're near your goal. Features: • Daily History — Swipe up or tap History to view a scrollable log of your past 90 days, color-coded by how close you were to your goal. • Weekly Trend Chart — A 7-day bar chart at the top of your history shows your intake patterns at a glance. • Haptic Feedback — Feel light taps as you spin past notches, stronger taps at 500-calorie markers, and a confirmation pulse when the wheel snaps into place. • Home Screen Widget — A glanceable widget (small and medium sizes) shows your current calories and goal progress with the same color-coded arc. • Quick Onboarding — A simple 3-step walkthrough gets you started in seconds. Resets automatically at 3am each day. No account required — just open and spin.

About

Private Diary

Features
Read full description

Scriptum is a daily journal with no account and no server. Your writing stays on your phone, and nothing leaves it unless you ask it to. ONE PAGE A DAY • A question is waiting each morning, so you never open to a blank page. • Write a line or a thousand words. The day is one page, of any length. • Missed a day? Open the calendar and write it whenever you like. WRITE HOWEVER SUITS YOU • Type, or speak and watch your words land on the page. • Add a photograph to remember the day by. • Note where you were, when that is part of it. FIND IT AGAIN YEARS LATER • Search every entry you have ever written. • A calendar of the days you wrote, and the days you did not. • Open any date and read it exactly as you left it. PRIVATE, NOT MERELY ENCRYPTED • No account. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to sign in to. • No analytics, no trackers, no advertising inside the app. • Most diaries keep your writing on a server. This one has no server to keep it on. AND STILL IMPOSSIBLE TO LOSE • A copy of your journal is kept in your own iCloud, so deleting the app no longer takes it with it. • Nothing is sent to us. The copy sits in your iCloud Drive, where you can see it. • Or save the whole diary, words and photographs, as one file only you hold. SCRIPTUM COMPLETE An optional upgrade, for when the free journal is not enough. • Lock your diary behind Face ID, a fingerprint, or a passcode. • Up to ten photos on a page, arranged for you. • Sketch over the paper in ink. • Stickers to decorate a page, every pack of them. • Have a rambling entry tidied by AI into something you will want to reread. • Colour the whole app to suit you. • Turn your journal into a printable PDF book, typeset page by page. Scriptum Complete is offered monthly or yearly, or as Lifetime, a one-off purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled. Lifetime does not renew. Terms of Use: https://annrstudio.com/scriptum/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://annrstudio.com/scriptum/privacy/

Screenshots

Calorie Wheel3 screens
Private Diary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Calorie Wheel at none against Private Diary's 3. Calorie Wheel also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Private Diary sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Calorie Wheel asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Calorie Wheel ships an update every 2 days, Private Diary weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 8, 2026 and September 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
Calorie Wheel versus Private Diary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalorie WheelPrivate Diary
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB42 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCalorie WheelANNR Studio

In-app purchases

None

Calorie Wheel

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Private Diary

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Yearly$17.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$34.99

Questions

Is Calorie Wheel free?
Calorie Wheel is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Private Diary free?
Private Diary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Calorie Wheel or Private Diary have ads?
Neither Calorie Wheel nor Private Diary shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Calorie Wheel or Private Diary?
Calorie Wheel ships an update every 2 days, and Private Diary weekly. Most recently, Calorie Wheel was updated on September 8, 2026 and Private Diary on September 17, 2026.

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