Dotnote vs Stay Dry
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dotnote
Quickly log your daily mood and identify patterns in your well-being. This low-friction check-in helps you understand what makes your days good or bad, offering insights without complicated journaling.
- Fast daily rating
- Log wins and improvements
- Year view and trend analysis
- Home and lock screen widgets
- No account required
- Local data storage
Read full descriptionHide full description
You know something needs to change. Maybe it is your habits, your focus, your energy, or the way your days keep slipping by unexamined. Dotnote turns that feeling into a signal. In about 10 seconds a day, you can: - rate your day from 1 to 5 - capture one win or one thing to improve - add a short reflection if you want - spot patterns over time After a few weeks, you stop guessing. You can see which days feel good, what helps, what throws you off, and when you are starting to drift. Dotnote is not a complicated journal, and it is not a bloated habit tracker. It is a low-friction daily check-in built to help you stay honest with yourself. WHO IT IS FOR You do not need to be struggling. Dotnote is useful for anyone who wants a clearer picture of their own life: the person trying to build consistency after a rough patch, the professional who feels productive but cannot tell whether that actually maps to good days, the parent who wants to stay self-aware without adding another task to the pile. If you have ever finished a week and had no real sense of how it went, this is the tool that fixes that. HOW IT WORKS Each day you get one prompt: how was today, from 1 to 5. That single number is enough to start building a picture. Then you can add a win (something that went well, however small) or something to improve (a pattern you noticed, something you want to adjust). That is the whole loop. Thirty seconds on a good day, ten seconds when you are in a rush. The optional reflection field is there when you need to write something longer, but it is never required. Dotnote does not ask you to fill in five sections before you can close the app. THE YEAR VIEW The year view is where the data becomes useful. Every day of the year is represented as a single dot, colored by your rating. At a glance you can see your actual rhythm: the stretches where things were consistently good, the weeks that were rough, the patterns that repeat without you realizing. Most people are surprised by what they find. The data is honest even when memory is not. From the year view you can also scroll through individual days, spot correlations you had not noticed, and get a grounded sense of how your year is actually going rather than how you imagine it is going. WIDGETS Dotnote includes home screen and lock screen widgets so the check-in stays in reach without opening the app. A tap from a widget goes directly to today's entry. Nothing is buried. The friction is as low as it gets. PRIVACY AND NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED Your data lives on your device. There is no Dotnote account, no sign-up, no cloud sync to a third-party server. Everything stays local by default. If you use iCloud, your data can sync across your own devices, but it does not go anywhere else. Features: - Fast daily rating - Wins and improvements - Year view and trends - Widgets for quick check-ins - No separate Dotnote account required Privacy Policy: https://dotnote.app/privacy/
Stay Dry
This app offers tools to help users achieve and maintain sobriety. It features streak tracking, milestone rewards, an AI coach for support, and guided exercises for cravings and meditation.
- Track sober days and money saved
- Earn digital medallions for milestones
- AI coach for judgment-free support
- Panic button for intense cravings
- 30-day sober living program
- Guided meditations and mocktail recipes
Read full descriptionHide full description
Getting sober is hard. Staying sober is harder. Stay Dry gives you the tools for both, built with John, a sober dad who has lived every day of it. TRACK YOUR STREAK Count your sober days, watch your progress, and see how much money you keep by not drinking. EARN REAL MILESTONES Collect beautifully crafted medallions from 24 hours all the way to 50 years. Every coin is a day you fought for. A COACH IN YOUR POCKET Talk it out with your AI coach any hour of the night. Judgment-free support for cravings, stress, and the 2am moments. Self-help support, not therapy or medical care. WHEN A CRAVING HITS The panic button walks you through the worst 20 minutes: guided breathing, grounding, and a plan to get to the other side. A 30-DAY PROGRAM THAT GETS IT Short daily lessons on cravings, triggers, sleep, and rebuilding real life sober, written in plain language. CALM, ON DEMAND Guided meditations in John's own voice, including the Full Body Scan, plus mocktail recipes for when your hands need something to hold. PREMIUM Start with a 14-day free trial. Premium unlocks the full program, the coach, and the complete session library. Subscriptions renew until canceled; manage anytime in Settings. Stay Dry is for adults 18 and up. It is a self-help tool and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you may be experiencing alcohol withdrawal, seek medical care; withdrawal can be dangerous. One day at a time. Let's stay dry. Terms of Use: https://staydry.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://staydry.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Stay Dry at freemium against Dotnote's subscription. Stay Dry also leads on ratings volume (76 vs 1). Dotnote's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and review sentiment (100% vs 83%). On price, update cadence, 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. Dotnote sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Stay Dry sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $13.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Dotnote holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Stay Dry has 76 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Dotnote's written reviews are positive against 83% of Stay Dry's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dotnote | Stay Dry |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.7 (76 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 83.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 76 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | Freemium — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 107 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | adapting.tech sp. z o.o. | SoberDad Coaching LLC |
Customer experience
Dotnote
Stay Dry
In-app purchases
Dotnote
- Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Stay Dry
- Premium Monthly1 Month trial$13.991 Month
- Premium Monthly14 Days trial$13.991 Month
- Premium Annual14 Days trial$99.991 Year









