Comparison

Softly vs Tsom Guide

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

Head to head
About

Softly

A private journaling app focused on reflection and emotional well-being. It offers multiple writing styles, a visual emotional calendar, and word pattern analysis. All data is stored locally for complete privacy.

Highlights
  • Multiple writing styles
  • Visual emotional calendar
  • Word constellation analysis
  • Time capsule feature
  • On-device data storage
  • Face ID protection
Features
Read full description

Softly is a private journal for your days. No achievements. No streaks. No productivity metrics. Just you, a word when you want one, and a space that comes back every night to receive you the way you arrived. WRITE HOWEVER FEELS RIGHT Free diary, gratitude in three lines, a mood with a tap of a moon, or an affirmation when you need to hear it. Four ways to leave the day without losing it. YOUR MONTH IN WATERCOLOR Each day lights up with the color of how you felt. A hand-painted emotional calendar — not a bar chart. YOUR CONSTELLATION OF WORDS The words that return most to your writing appear as a constellation that shifts with you. You see patterns without anyone interpreting them for you. TIME CAPSULES Seal a piece of writing today (AES-GCM encrypted). Open it in a month, a year — whenever you're ready to listen to yourself again. TOTAL PRIVACY Everything lives on your device. On-device speech recognition. Face ID for your space. No tracking, no accounts, no server watching. WATERCOLORS THAT BREATHE Each time you return, a new variant of a sprig, flower, or lavender greets you. The notebook changes with you. Softly is for the days you want to write — and for the days you only wanted to open the app. Here, both count.

About

Tsom Guide

Features
Read full description

What may you eat today? Tsom Guide answers the question every fasting member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church asks each morning — not just "is today a fast?", but exactly which foods are permitted: strict vegan, fish permitted, or no restriction at all. A TRUE FASTING-RULE ENGINE, NOT A DATE LIST At the heart of Tsom Guide is a genuine per-day engine for the Ge'ez calendar. It computes the moveable feasts and fasts from first principles — Fasika (Easter) and everything that hangs from it: the Great Lent (Hudadi), the Fast of Nineveh, the Apostles' Fast, Peraklitos — alongside the fixed observances: Advent, Genna, Timkat, Meskel, Filseta (the Fast of the Assumption), the weekly Wednesday and Friday fasts, Gahad, and the great feasts of the year. Because every day is computed by the same engine, the calendar, the season countdowns and the daily verdict can never disagree. YOUR OBSERVANCE, YOUR RULING Choose Strict or Standard observance in Settings, and every ruling follows it — including the contested question of fish on the Wednesday and Friday fasts. Switch observance and watch the same day re-rule itself. EVERYTHING THE FAITHFUL NEED, IN ONE PLACE • Today — this morning's ruling at a glance: the fasting level, the reason the day is kept, and plain lists of what is permitted and what to avoid. • Day Detail — every fast explained: its meaning, its hours (one meal after 3 p.m. where the canons ask it), and the foods that belong on the table. • Calendar — the whole Ge'ez month at a glance, every day colour-coded: green for no restriction, ochre for fish permitted, crimson for strict fast, gold for the great feasts. • Seasons — the year ahead in order, counting down the days to each coming fast and feast, from Enkutatash to Fasika. • Daily reminder — a quiet morning notification carrying the day's ruling, at the hour you choose. • English and Amharic together — every observance named in both tongues, as it is in the life of the Church. Tsom Guide is dressed as a page from a Ge'ez manuscript: parchment, ox-blood and gold, serif lettering, and the hand-drawn cross of the Ethiopian tradition. Reverent, calm, and made to be opened every morning. The fasting rules encoded here are drawn from public sources on the Tewahedo tradition. Where practice varies between parishes and households, follow the counsel of your priest.

Screenshots

Softly4 screens
Tsom Guide4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Softly at none against Tsom Guide's shown. Tsom Guide's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Softly versus Tsom Guide: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSoftlyTsom Guide
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days—
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size60 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJean MillanVahan Dag

In-app purchases

None

Softly

No in-app purchases

None

Tsom Guide

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Softly free?
Softly is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tsom Guide free?
Tsom Guide is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Softly or Tsom Guide have ads?
Tsom Guide shows ads; Softly does not.

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