Comparison

Shadow Work Prompts & Journal vs Shadow Work Journal

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

Head to head
About

Shadow Work Prompts & Journal

Explore your inner world and uncover hidden patterns with guided journaling prompts and AI-powered reflection. Track your moods, learn about mental wellness, and gain self-understanding in a secure, private space.

Highlights
  • Guided journal prompts
  • AI chat with shadow self
  • Mood and emotion tracking
  • Learning library on mental health
  • Symbol and archetype exploration
  • Weekly reflections and insights
  • Secure and private on-device storage
Features
Read full description

Explore Your Inner World Through Shadow Work Shadow Work Prompts & Journal is a private, guided journaling app for self-reflection and personal growth. Use thoughtful prompts to explore recurring patterns, emotions, defenses, and the parts of yourself you want to understand more deeply. No account is required, and your entries stay on your device. What You'll Experience โ€ข Daily Journal Prompts Reflect with carefully written questions that help you slow down, name what you feel, and turn inner observations into meaningful writing. โ€ข Thematic Prompt Packs Explore guided journeys inspired by concepts such as the Mirror Stage, the Big Other, Desire & Lack, the Symbolic Order, and Jouissance. Follow each pack step by step, or revisit prompts at your own pace. โ€ข Mood Tracking Tag entries with your mood and notice how your reflections change over time. โ€ข Voice Journaling Record audio reflections and keep them with your journal entries. โ€ข Searchable Archive Browse, search, and favorite past entries so your reflections remain easy to revisit. โ€ข Export Create PDF or plain-text copies of your entries with dates and mood labels. โ€ข Daily Reminders Set a reminder to make reflection part of your routine. โ€ข Private by Design Your journal entries are stored on your device only. No account or cloud sync is required. Shadow Work Prompts & Journal gives you a calm, structured space for self-discovery, emotional clarity, and ongoing reflection. This app is for personal reflection and does not provide medical or mental health advice. Privacy Policy: https://asugan.github.io/petopia-legal/privacy-shadow.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Shadow Work Journal

Features
Read full description

Some things are too heavy to carry and too important to throw away. That's where Shadow Work Journal begins. Every morning, Shadow Work Journal opens to a single prompt. Not a feed. Not a dashboard. Not a choice between seventeen things. One question, written for the part of you that you usually keep quiet. You write. However long you need. There's no word count, no timer demanding productivity, no streak shaming you for a missed day. Just a warm cursor on a dark screen, the way a page looks by candlelight. And when you're done, something unusual happens. Ember asks you a question most journaling apps never will: Do you want to keep this, or burn it? If you keep it, it joins a quiet archive you can return to. If you burn it, the words catch light at the bottom of the screen. Embers rise. The text disintegrates, line by line, into drifting particles that fade into the dark. A single word remains: Released. Then it's gone. Really gone. No trash folder. No cloud backup. No undo. (Ember always asks you to confirm โ€” burning is deliberate, never accidental.) This is not a gimmick. It's the whole point. Jung called it the shadow: the parts of yourself you've hidden โ€” the anger, the shame, the envy, the fear. Shadow work is the practice of dragging them into the light long enough to look at them. The value isn't in the archive. It's in the looking. Ember is built around that truth. Some entries deserve to be kept. Most deserve to be written, witnessed by you, and set down. WHAT'S INSIDE โ€ข 370 shadow work prompts, one per day, organized across ten themes: anger, shame, fear, abandonment, control, envy, people-pleasing, identity, family patterns, and self-sabotage โ€ข A distraction-free writing space. No formatting tools, no word count, no notifications while you work โ€ข Burn mode with a deliberate, ceremonial animation and haptic response โ€” because the act of release should feel like something โ€ข A private history of kept entries, and a record (without content) of what you released โ€ข A single optional daily reminder at a time you choose. No badges. No guilt. No streaks WHAT'S NOT INSIDE No account. No email signup. No onboarding survey. No ads. No AI watching your words. No analytics. No cloud. Your writing lives on your device and only on your device. TRY IT FIRST. THEN OWN IT. Ember is free to download, and your first three entries are free to keep. Write with it before you decide anything. When you're ready, a single Lifetime purchase unlocks all of it โ€” all 370 prompts, unlimited kept entries, burn mode, Live Activity, notifications โ€” and never asks you for money again. It doesn't renew. It doesn't expire. There is no premium tier waiting above it and no upgrade nudge hiding behind a feature. There's also a weekly option, if you'd rather not pay up front. It unlocks exactly the same app. The Lifetime unlock is the one we'd point you to. Shadow work is personal, and personal work shouldn't be rented to you month after month. Buy the tool once. Own the practice. WHO THIS IS FOR Ember is for people who've encountered Jungian archetypes online, heard about inner child work from a therapist, or felt the pull of shadow work and didn't know where to start. It's for those who have tried bloated wellness apps and closed them within a week, seeking something more substantial. It's for the person who suspects โ€” rightly โ€” that the journal they actually need isn't the one with mood graphs and streak badges, but the one that respects the depth of the work they came to do. Open it tonight. Write the thing you haven't said. Keep it if it's meant to stay. Burn it if it isn't. Either way, you did the work. Privacy Policy: https://www.leanorbit.app/shadowwork/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Shadow Work Prompts & Journal4 screens
Shadow Work Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Shadow Work Prompts & Journal at Free against Shadow Work Journal's $2.99. Shadow Work Prompts & Journal also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). Shadow Work Journal's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4). On update cadence, ads and device support 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

Shadow Work Prompts & Journal is free to download; Shadow Work Journal costs $2.99 up front. Shadow Work Prompts & Journal sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Shadow Work Journal asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shadow Work Prompts & Journal ships an update every 3 weeks, Shadow Work Journal every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 5 level
Shadow Work Prompts & Journal versus Shadow Work Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShadow Work Prompts & JournalShadow Work Journal
PriceFree โ€” better$2.99
Positive reviews0.0% of reviewsโ€”
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks โ€” betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesโ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 โ€” better18.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size69 MB1 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperCagatay Erkin ErenLean Orbit LLC

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Shadow Work Prompts & Journal

Subscriptions3
  • Shadow Work Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Monthly Premium7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Shadow Work Yearly$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Shadow Work Lifetime$19.99
None

Shadow Work Journal

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shadow Work Prompts & Journal free?
Shadow Work Prompts & Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Shadow Work Journal free?
Shadow Work Journal costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Shadow Work Prompts & Journal or Shadow Work Journal have ads?
Neither Shadow Work Prompts & Journal nor Shadow Work Journal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shadow Work Prompts & Journal or Shadow Work Journal?
Shadow Work Prompts & Journal ships an update every 3 weeks, and Shadow Work Journal every 5 weeks. Most recently, Shadow Work Prompts & Journal was updated on October 24, 2026 and Shadow Work Journal on October 25, 2026.

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