Comparison

Mealyn vs Palate Journal

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

Head to head
About

Mealyn

Read full description

Remember the meal. Keep the moment. Mealyn is a private-first food diary built around photos, not spreadsheets. Capture what you eat, save it quickly, and revisit the tastes, places, and small moments that make up your everyday life. CAPTURE A MEAL Take a photo or choose from your library. Keep multiple photos together, add a personal note, and organize meals by date and time. Optional AI-assisted descriptions help put a moment into words. REVISIT YOUR MEMORIES Browse your Moments timeline or zoom through your personal photo wall. As your journal grows, explore preset questions about your saved meals, favorite places, and recorded spending. REMEMBER PLACES AND EXPENSES Keep lists of restaurants you have visited or want to try. Attach a receipt to a meal or enter its cost manually. Save everyday shopping receipts, review recognized details, and make corrections before confirming. SHARE ON YOUR TERMS Your diary is private by default. Choose meals or restaurants to share with friends, enjoy their posts, or create a photo card to save and share elsewhere. There is no public community feed. MADE FOR IPHONE Use Home Screen widgets to revisit a meal or jump into the camera. Control Center and Lock Screen shortcuts make it easier to capture the next moment. FREE AND MEALYN PLUS Mealyn offers a Free plan and optional monthly or yearly Mealyn Plus auto-renewable subscriptions. Plus includes higher allowances for meal recording, AI descriptions, and related food tools. Current benefits, prices, and billing periods are shown before purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled; manage or cancel them in your iPhone subscription settings. AI features require an internet connection. Generated descriptions and food estimates are informational, not medical or nutritional advice. Privacy Policy: https://api.mealyn.net/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://api.mealyn.net/terms/ Apple Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Palate Journal

Create a private, personal guide to your favorite dining experiences. Log meals, dishes, and companions with custom tier marks. Generate an annual PDF summary of your culinary year.

Highlights
  • Editorial tier system
  • Visit log with details
  • Dish-of-the-year highlighting
  • Annual PDF guide generation
  • Cross-device sync
  • Private by design
Features
Read full description

Palate Journal is a private restaurant journal — a place to keep a record of the meals worth remembering, the dishes that surprised you, and the rooms you'd return to. No reviews to publish. No followers. Just your own quiet guide to the places you love. Each restaurant earns a tier mark — three stars for a journey, two for a detour, one for a very good meal in its category, plus Bib, Plate, Watching, and a private Blocklist. The system is yours; the marks are yours; nobody else sees them. Add a place in seconds: tap +, find the restaurant from a search or a dropped pin, give it a tier, and write as much or as little as you like. Photograph the dishes. Tag the companions. Note the occasion. Each visit becomes a card in your guide. Every December, Palate Journal renders your year as a beautifully typeset PDF — a print-ready volume of the restaurants you visited, the dishes of your year, and the patterns hidden in twelve months of eating. Print it. Share it. Shelve it. FEATURES • Editorial tier system: three star, two star, one star, Bib, Plate, Watching, Blocklist • Visit log with companions, occasions, photos, and per-visit tier marks • Dish-of-the-year highlighting • Map view across every city you've eaten in • Annual PDF guide auto-generated each December • Trips: group restaurants by city and dates • Cross-device sync via iCloud • Sign in with Apple, Google, or email • Private by design — your guide is never published, ranked, or shared without your asking Palate Journal is for people who keep track of where they've eaten the way they used to keep ticket stubs and theatre programs. A guide to the places you love — by you, for you. Terms of Use: https://www.palate-journal.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.palate-journal.app/privacy

Screenshots

Mealyn4 screens
Palate Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mealyn at none against Palate Journal's 2. Palate Journal's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Palate Journal sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. Mealyn asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Mealyn ships an update every 3 weeks, Palate Journal every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Mealyn versus Palate Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMealynPalate Journal
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB45 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperGUOHUA DINGThe Ivy Studios LLC

Customer experience

Mealyn

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Palate Journal

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

In-app purchases

None

Mealyn

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Palate Journal

Subscriptions1
  • Palate Pro$4.991 Year
One-time1
  • The 2026 Edition$9.99

Questions

Is Mealyn free?
Mealyn is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Palate Journal free?
Palate Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Mealyn or Palate Journal have ads?
Neither Mealyn nor Palate Journal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Mealyn or Palate Journal?
Mealyn ships an update every 3 weeks, and Palate Journal every 4 days. Most recently, Mealyn was updated on October 7, 2026 and Palate Journal on October 14, 2026.

Other comparisons