Comparison

cal vs Micro Journal

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

Head to head
About

cal

Capture and revisit your daily memories with photos and notes. This app presents your month as a visual calendar, allowing you to easily view past moments. Your data remains private and stored solely on your device.

Highlights
  • Add photos to any day
  • Jot down notes for each entry
  • View month as a photo calendar
  • Full-screen view of daily memories
  • Export entries for sharing
  • Private, on-device storage
Read full description

Life moves fast. CalDiary helps you slow down and remember it — one photo, one day at a time. Add a photo to any day, jot a little note, and watch your month fill up with memories. The calendar view lets you see your whole month at a glance — every day a tiny window into your life. Tap any day to see your photo full-screen, with your note tucked underneath just the way you wrote it. What you can do: * Add a photo to each day — from your library or straight from your camera * See your whole month as a photo calendar at a glance * Tap any day for a full-screen photo and your personal note * Export your month view or a single day to keep or share Your memories stay yours. No accounts, no cloud, no servers. Everything lives on your phone — completely private, always. Free forever. No ads. No subscriptions. Just your days. Clean, minimal, and made for the little moments worth remembering.

About

Micro Journal

Effortlessly capture your daily thoughts with a simple, private journal. Focus on writing one entry per day without pressure from streaks or notifications. An optional one-time purchase allows for lifetime export of your entries.

Highlights
  • Private journaling
  • One entry per day
  • No streaks or notifications
  • Automatic saving
  • Lifetime export option
  • No account required
Features
Read full description

Micro Journal is a private daily journal for people who will not keep a long one. Write one sentence or a full page, mark how the day felt, and find it again later. Nothing leaves your device. There is no account, no social feed, no ads, and no behavioral analytics. WRITE TODAY IN UNDER A MINUTE Open the app and the page for today is already waiting. Start from a blank page or a writing prompt. Your entry saves itself as you type, when you leave the editor, and when you background the app. ADD AS MUCH OR AS LITTLE AS YOU WANT Mark the day bright, good, even, low, or hard. Add themes such as Family, Rest, Work, Health, or Growth. Both are optional, and an entry is complete without them. FIND ANY DAY AGAIN Browse the calendar, search the full journal, filter by mood or theme, favorite the entries that matter, and write for a past day you missed. NO STREAKS, NO SCORES, NO GUILT Micro Journal never counts the days you skipped. The daily reminder is a gentle one, and you can turn it off. THE FREE JOURNAL HAS NO ENTRY LIMIT Writing, back-dated entries, moods, themes, the calendar, search, favorites, light and dark appearance, and sharing a single entry are free forever. MICRO JOURNAL PLUS Plus adds weekly summaries and week-over-week comparisons, mood and theme counts, your most active writing days, entries from this day in past years, the complete prompt library, more app colors, and full-journal exports as plain text or Markdown. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Journal entries live in on-device storage, and every insight is calculated on your device. Micro Journal has no journal server and never uploads what you write. You can lock the app behind Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode, back up to a JSON file you control, and erase everything from inside the app. Micro Journal Plus is an optional auto-renewing subscription: $2.99 per month or $19.99 per year. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription renews automatically unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://ankit013002.github.io/micro-journal-legal/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://ankit013002.github.io/micro-journal-legal/privacy/ Write today. Find it later.

Screenshots

cal4 screens
Micro Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: cal at none against Micro Journal's 3. Micro Journal's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.4). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Micro Journal sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. cal 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 cal against 5.0 for Micro Journal. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

cal ships an update every 10 days, Micro Journal weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
cal versus Micro Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametercalMicro Journal
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings12 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.415.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB43 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBegimay AhmatovaPETALFORM LLC

In-app purchases

None

cal

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Micro Journal

Subscriptions2
  • Micro Journal Plus Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Micro Journal Plus Annual$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Micro Journal Plus$1.99

Questions

Is cal free?
cal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Micro Journal free?
Micro Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, cal or Micro Journal?
cal and Micro Journal are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do cal or Micro Journal have ads?
Neither cal nor Micro Journal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, cal or Micro Journal?
cal ships an update every 10 days, and Micro Journal weekly. Most recently, cal was updated on October 24, 2026 and Micro Journal on October 25, 2026.

Other comparisons