Light Diary vs Notes for Life
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Light Diary
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Light Diary is a clean, simple and private journal for capturing everyday thoughts, moods, photos and voice notes. Write freely, add pictures, record audio, review entries by date, and search past memories with keywords or tags. With privacy mode and customizable themes, Light Diary helps you keep a personal space that feels calm, organized and truly yours. Key Features: Text Journaling Write daily thoughts, reflections, plans, memories and small moments. Photo Entries Add pictures to your journal and make your memories more vivid. Voice Notes Record short audio notes when typing is not enough. Calendar View Browse your entries by date and build a gentle journaling habit. Fast Search Find past notes by keyword, date or tag without scrolling forever. Privacy Mode Protect your private journal with a passcode. Personal Style Choose themes, fonts and sound settings to make the journal feel like yours. Writing Prompts Start quickly with simple prompts when you do not know what to write. Light Diary is perfect for daily reflection, mood tracking, travel memories, study notes, gratitude journaling, personal thoughts and everyday life records. Turn your life into a gentle daily record.
Notes for Life
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Life is a focused app for managing long-term life goals. Write what truly matters as checkable items and move forward step by step, like using a real life notebook. Key features: Life Notebook Home: a single, realistic notebook-style home view with clear focus. Checkable life items: completed items are automatically archived to your completion log. Task management: create tasks, add notes, complete, and reopen. Completion log: see what you actually finished, organized by completion time. Task comments: each task has its own comment thread for reflection and context. Multi-line notes: edit detailed notes directly in task detail. iCloud sync: keep data consistent across devices. Daily reminders: get notified at your preferred time. Widget: view your next life item from the Home Screen. Life is designed for steady long-term progress, not complexity. Check off one meaningful step each day, and let time compound your growth.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Notes for Life at daily against Light Diary's every 3 weeks. Light Diary's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Light Diary ships an update every 3 weeks, Notes for Life daily. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Light Diary | Notes for Life |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 海涛 张 | 恩澄 许 |
In-app purchases
Light Diary
No in-app purchases
Notes for Life
No in-app purchases









