Comparison

Progress 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

Progress

Features
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Use Progress, Make Progress. Progress is an all-in-one fitness tracker that actually helps you improve. Log your workouts, monitor your recovery, track your nutrition, watch your weight trends, and use the built-in AI Coach for personalised insights from your data. Progress has 6 modules: GYM - Log every set, rep, and weight in seconds - Built-in rest timer with Live Activity so you rest enough between sets - Track your PRs, top lifts, and weekly volume per muscle group over time - Post-workout debrief: top sets, estimated 1RM progress, and muscle volume vs your last session - Share your workout with a visual breakdown of the muscles you trained - Let the AI Coach build gym templates tailored to your goal - Auto-import your workout history and templates from other apps so you can pick up where you left off CARDIO - See your weekly distance, time, activities, and calories burned - Tap any workout to see average pace, time in heart rate zones, and more - Filter your progress by sport (run, ride, swim, row, walk, hike) - Auto-link cardio activities recorded by Apple Watch or Strava to your gym sessions RECOVERY - Recovery score based on your HRV, resting HR, and sleep - Know when to push and when to rest - Synced from Apple Health - Garmin users can add HRV manually - Insights into sleep, HRV, and resting HR trends - See daily steps, SpO2, and respiratory rate when available NUTRITION - Log meals using the barcode scanner or food database - Track calories, protein, carbs, and fat - Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) from your body profile - Daily targets based on your goal (weight loss, bulking, maintenance) - See calories eaten, calories burned, and what's left in your daily budget - Build meals with multiple ingredients, save favourites, or add custom foods WEIGHT - Track your weight over time - Set goals with pace tracking and weekly progress - See BMI and log body measurements - Connects to your smart scale through Apple Health - Weekly averages with phase tracking (Cutting, Bulking, Maintenance) - Import and export your weight data as CSV - Track your transformation with progress photos (front, back, side) AI COACH - Personalised coach that uses your data to give tailored advice - Morning Brief: a daily summary with today's plan, recovery, weight trend, and what to focus on - Sunday weekly recap with adherence rings, standouts, stalls, and clear takeaways for the week ahead - Ask for workout plans, nutrition advice, progress analysis, or weekly summaries - Builds workout templates you can save and reuse - Quick button on every screen for instant questions - Turn off any data you don't want the AI to use in its advice ABOUT WEEKLY PLAN - Build hybrid gym + cardio plans in a few taps - Sport-specific templates for runners, riders, swimmers, and rowers - Periodised distance plans from Couch to 5K up to Marathon - Pace and heart-rate zone targets derived from your PRs - Smart two-a-day pairing that protects your rest days - Today's session is one tap away on the dashboard - Multi-week arc with progressive long runs and deload weeks MORE - Apple Health sync (weight, workouts, calories, HRV, sleep, steps, and more) - Custom themes with your own accent colour - Set weekly workout goals and build streaks - Home Screen widgets for stats at a glance - Dashboard with quick info from every module plus a weekly recap Progress PRO unlocks the recovery score, the full daily brief throughout the day, deeper sleep and HRV insights, and unlimited AI Coach questions. Most features stay free. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

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

Progress4 screens
Private Diary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Private Diary at 15.1 against Progress's 26.2. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Progress sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Private Diary sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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

Scorecard1 real difference Ā· 5 level
Progress versus Private Diary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterProgressPrivate Diary
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS26.215.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size27 MB42 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperPim CroonANNR Studio

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Progress

Subscriptions2
  • Progress PRO$3.991 Month
  • PRO Yearly$24.991 Year
3 purchases

Private Diary

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

Questions

Is Progress free?
Progress is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Private Diary free?
Private Diary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Progress or Private Diary have ads?
Neither Progress nor Private Diary shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Progress or Private Diary?
Progress ships an update every 2 weeks, and Private Diary weekly. Most recently, Progress was updated on September 8, 2026 and Private Diary on September 17, 2026.

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