Terminal Journal vs ZenNotes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Terminal Journal
This offline-first journaling app offers a retro terminal experience for daily entries, goal tracking, and habit monitoring. Secure your private reflections in a passcode-protected Vault. Enjoy custom themes and local notifications for a personalized journaling journey.
- Guided and free journaling
- Goal and habit tracking
- Private Vault for protected entries
- Offline, on-device experience
- Custom themes and fonts
- Daily reminders and local notifications
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Terminal Journal is a focused, offline-first journaling app with a retro terminal feel. Write daily entries with guided prompts, track goals and habits, and review progress with clear insights. Keep private reflections in your Vault, protected with Face ID/Touch ID/passcode. DISCLAIMER Due to the nature of the app being fully client-side and offline with zero tracking and minimal storage function, your data will be reset/lost if you delete and reinstall the app. Storage restoration features may be added in a near-future update. FEATURES • Guided and free journaling modes • Goal tracking with step progress • Habit tracking with calendar view • Insights graphs for consistency and trends • Vault for protected entries • Daily reminders and local notifications • Custom themes, fonts, and haptics • Fully offline, on-device experience PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your data stays on your device. No account required.
ZenNotes
This app allows you to write, organize, and connect ideas using plain markdown files. It offers a local-first approach with optional cloud sync for cross-device access, backups, and web publishing. Enjoy a rich editing experience with offline previews of various content types.
- Local-first markdown notes
- Optional cloud sync and backup
- Rich markdown editor
- Offline preview for math and diagrams
- Organize with folders and tags
- Quick capture via share sheet
- Home screen widgets
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ZenNotes is a local-first markdown notes app for writing, organizing, and connecting ideas without giving up ownership of your files. YOUR NOTES, YOUR FILES Every note is a plain .md file in a vault you control. Start with storage on your iPhone or iPad, use iCloud Drive, or open a folder through the system document picker. Local and iCloud vaults work without an account. ZENNOTES CLOUD Connect an optional ZenNotes Cloud plan to: • Sync a vault across ZenNotes desktop and mobile • Sync notes and attachments • Create manual and automatic daily backups • Restore a full vault or a single note from a backup • Publish notes to the web and manage their public links Cloud never replaces the free local-first workflow. Use it only when you want hosted sync, backup, or publishing. WRITE IN MARKDOWN Use a focused editor with headings, lists, tasks, tables, code, links, wikilinks, tags, callouts, footnotes, and frontmatter. A mobile formatting bar keeps common actions close to the keyboard, and a pinch resizes the text to your eyes. RICH, OFFLINE PREVIEW Render KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, JSXGraph, function plots, tables, callouts, and more directly on your device. ORGANIZE YOUR WAY Pin your go-to notes and folders to the top, swipe rows to act on them, create and rename nested folders, browse tags, search the full vault, manage tasks, create periodic notes, and work with table databases stored as CSV. CAPTURE QUICKLY Create a quick note from the app or send text and links to ZenNotes from the iOS share sheet. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Start a note, open a recent one, or check today's tasks without opening the app. New Note also lives on the Lock Screen, and the widgets wear your theme. PRIVACY BY DEFAULT ZenNotes has no advertising or tracking. Local and iCloud notes stay in the storage you choose. When you enable ZenNotes Cloud, the account identity, connected-device information, and vault content needed for the Cloud features you use are sent to the ZenNotes service. Payment details are handled by Stripe. ZenNotes is open source. Your vault remains useful outside the app because it is made of ordinary files.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: ZenNotes at 12 against Terminal Journal's 1. ZenNotes also leads on device support and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.2). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Terminal Journal against 4.9 for ZenNotes. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ZenNotes has 12 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | Terminal Journal | ZenNotes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.9 (12 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 12 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 2 days |
| Ads | — | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | — | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.2 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 93 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | DANIEL NIKOLAS SZTURM | Lumary Labs LLC |
In-app purchases
Terminal Journal
No in-app purchases
ZenNotes
No in-app purchases









