Comparison

JournalWrite vs Goodwhile

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

Head to head
About

JournalWrite

This app offers a private and distraction-free space for writing journal entries. It helps users build consistent habits by tracking streaks and visualizing progress with clear insights, all while remaining fully offline and ad-free.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free writing experience
  • Offline journaling
  • No ads or accounts required
  • Track journaling streaks
  • Visualize progress with insights
  • Explore entry trends
Features
Read full description

JournalWrite provides a clean, distraction-free journaling experience designed to help you stay consistent, reflect privately, and visualize your progress over time. Track streaks, view meaningful insights, and build a stronger journaling habit - all without ads, accounts, or clutter. SIMPLE BY DESIGN - Clean, distraction-free writing experience - No ads, no clutter, no paywalls - Focused journaling for capturing your thoughts and reflecting clearly POWERFUL STATS - Track your journaling streaks and records - Visualize your progress with clean insights - Explore trends across all journal entries - Stay motivated with clear progress over time PRIVATE & OFFLINE - Your entries stay on your device - Fully offline journaling - No account required - No personal data collected If you enjoy journaling, tracking your growth, and keeping your thoughts private, JournalWrite is built for you.

About

Goodwhile

This app helps you break digital habits by letting you set promises to block chosen apps and websites for a set duration. It offers various strictness levels and features like recurring promises and saved batches to support your goals. Track your progress and reclaim your time with this privacy-focused tool.

Highlights
  • Block apps and websites
  • Set custom durations
  • Choose strictness levels
  • Stack multiple promises
  • Save and reuse promise batches
  • Schedule future promises
  • Set recurring promises
Features
Read full description

Goodwhile is an app blocker built around a simple idea: a promise. Pick the apps and websites you want a break from. Pick how long — an evening, a weekend, a whole month. Pick how strict. Then make your promise, and Goodwhile keeps your word with Apple’s Screen Time technology: your chosen apps are shielded until the time you set, and the shield lifts on its own the moment your promise is kept. No accounts. No tracking. Your list of apps never leaves your phone. WHY PROMISES WORK Willpower runs out; a promise doesn’t have to. Deciding once — calmly, ahead of time — beats deciding a hundred times a day with the feed one tap away. Goodwhile turns that one good decision into a quiet shield that lasts exactly as long as you chose. CHOOSE YOUR STRICTNESS • Flexible — release your promise anytime. A gentle nudge. • Steady — ask to release, then a 24-hour cooling-off before you can confirm. Enough friction to outlast the craving. • Ironclad — no way to release in the app until your promise is done. Your word, given once. MAKE IT FIT YOUR LIFE • Stack up to 10 promises, each with its own apps, duration, and strictness — social apps for a week, games for a month. • Exact durations from 15 minutes to a year — not just preset chips. • Block websites too, right alongside apps. • Saved batches — reuse your “doomscroll bundle” with one tap. • Start-later promises — commit tonight to a promise that starts Monday morning. • Recurring promises — the same quiet windows every week, like evenings after 9pm. SEE WHAT YOU’VE GAINED • Days kept — your streak of promises honored. • Time given back — the hours your shields have quietly returned to you. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything about your promises stays on your device. Apple’s Screen Time technology means Goodwhile never even sees a readable list of your apps — and nothing about them is ever transmitted anywhere. Beyond standard purchase information if you subscribe, the only thing that leaves your phone is anonymous usage statistics (like how many promises are made), tied to a random identifier — never to you. No accounts, no third-party trackers. GOODWHILE PRO Shaping a promise is free — starting one requires Goodwhile Pro: $4.99/week with a 3-day free trial, $29.99/year, or $79.99 once, forever. Every Pro feature is included: promises up to a year, stacked promises, recurring promises, start-later promises, and unlimited batches. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends; manage them in your Apple account settings. A note on honesty: Goodwhile uses Apple’s Screen Time system, and you always stay in control of your own device — we don’t claim to be impossible to get around. What we offer is a promise that’s hard enough to break that you’ll usually decide to keep it. That turns out to be enough. Step away for a good while. We’ll keep your word. — Terms of Use: https://vikicorehq.github.io/goodwhile/terms/ EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://vikicorehq.github.io/goodwhile/privacy/

Screenshots

JournalWrite4 screens
Goodwhile4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: JournalWrite at none against Goodwhile's 3. JournalWrite also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1). Goodwhile's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). On price, rating, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Goodwhile sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. JournalWrite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for JournalWrite against 5.0 for Goodwhile. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

JournalWrite ships an update every 2 months, Goodwhile every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 5 level
JournalWrite versus Goodwhile: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterJournalWriteGoodwhile
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJacob KapplerJoseph Ernst

Customer experience

JournalWrite

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Goodwhile

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

JournalWrite

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Goodwhile

Subscriptions2
  • Goodwhile Pro Weekly3 Days trial$4.997 Days
  • Goodwhile Pro Annual$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Goodwhile Pro Lifetime$79.99

Questions

Is JournalWrite free?
JournalWrite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Goodwhile free?
Goodwhile is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, JournalWrite or Goodwhile?
JournalWrite and Goodwhile are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do JournalWrite or Goodwhile have ads?
Neither JournalWrite nor Goodwhile shows ads.
Which is updated more often, JournalWrite or Goodwhile?
JournalWrite ships an update every 2 months, and Goodwhile every 3 weeks. Most recently, JournalWrite was updated on October 31, 2026 and Goodwhile on October 15, 2026.

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