Comparison

DoddleDiary vs Five Year Diary

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

Head to head
About

DoddleDiary

Features
Read full description

DoddleDiary is a simple drawing journal for saving ideas, sketches, and daily notes. Create lightweight entries, organize your thoughts, and keep a visual record of your day.

About

Five Year Diary

Features
Read full description

Write today, and the same day last year and the year before appear right underneath. Gonen Diary shows five years on one page. NO ACCOUNT, NO NETWORK - No sign-up. No email address. - Your diary lives on this device only. It is never sent to a server. - So it still opens when a service is down or you have no signal. MEET YOURSELF A YEAR AGO - Five years of the same date, stacked on one page - A few lines a day is enough, which makes it easy to keep going ONE PHOTO A DAY - Keep one photo for the day, free - Photos stay on this device. They are shrunk before saving and location data is removed - Last year's photo for the same day appears under what you wrote QUIET BY DESIGN - No streak counts, no "you did it" badges - Days you skipped are left alone, with no empty marks - No ads, so nothing ever makes a sound YOUR DIARY IS LOOKED AFTER - A previous copy is kept on the device, so it can come back if a save cannot be read - Export and import are free. You can always take your diary with you - Face, fingerprint or passcode can lock the app WHAT IT COSTS - Writing, reading, searching, exporting and importing are all free - The one-time purchase adds one thing only: export to PDF (save, print, share) - There is no monthly charge Nine languages (Japanese, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Vietnamese, Traditional Chinese), switchable in Settings.

Screenshots

DoddleDiary1 screens
Five Year Diary3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Five Year Diary at 15.0 against DoddleDiary's 18.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DoddleDiary ships an update every 6 days, Five Year Diary weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
DoddleDiary versus Five Year Diary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDoddleDiaryFive Year Diary
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 days โ€” betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS18.015.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size8 MB30 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGoBuildFast, LLCAKIHIRO MATSUYAMA

In-app purchases

None

DoddleDiary

No in-app purchases

None

Five Year Diary

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is DoddleDiary free?
DoddleDiary is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Five Year Diary free?
Five Year Diary is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do DoddleDiary or Five Year Diary have ads?
Neither DoddleDiary nor Five Year Diary shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DoddleDiary or Five Year Diary?
DoddleDiary ships an update every 6 days, and Five Year Diary weekly. Most recently, DoddleDiary was updated on October 9, 2026 and Five Year Diary on October 3, 2026.

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