Comparison

Kartka Journal vs Daily Diary Notes

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

Head to head
About

Kartka Journal

Features
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Kartka is a journal that looks like paper and behaves like a notebook: one page per day, text, photos, handwriting. No account, no ads, no subscription. WRITE THE WAY YOU WANT Text with a title and paragraphs, photos between sentences, a mood with one tap. On iPad and on an unfolded iPhone Duo every day has a second, handwritten page: pen, eraser, colours, photo stickers. On iPhone you read it just as it was written. YOUR PAPER Blank, dots, lines, grid or isometric dots; for handwriting also margin lines, graph paper, Cornell, music staves, calligraphy, a day planner and letter paper. Themes: Paper, Verdant, Sepia, Indigo, Mono, Cerulean, Phosphor. Three typefaces. DAY BY DAY Calendar, a timeline with a photo gallery, Lists with Yesterday Ā· Today Ā· Tomorrow planning and ready-made templates. A daily reflection question, reminders, widgets, Shortcuts and Siri, Focus filters. A time capsule – a letter from your future self. YOURS AND YOURS ONLY Face ID, iCloud sync with end-to-end encryption – the key lives only on your devices. No accounts, no tracking, no analytics. FULL VERSION – ONE-TIME 7 days free, then one purchase for good: unlimited journals, search, tags, moods, a PDF or EPUB book from your entries, statistics and insights, On This Day and memories, voice notes, the Memoir, your own list templates and day notes, premium themes and papers. The free version keeps three journals, handwriting, four papers, five themes and everything you have written – forever.

About

Daily Diary Notes

Features
Read full description

A private diary that behaves like a real book. Paper has grain. Ink sits on the line. Leaves turn in 3D with weight and a whisper of haptics. Every volume is bound differently, with its own paper stock, its own ink and its own foil stamping on the cover. Nothing ever leaves your phone. No account. No sync. No server. No analytics. Your diary is a file on your device and nowhere else. BOUND, NOT TEMPLATED • Fourteen bindings: Midnight Velvet, Rose Gold, Sakura, Emerald Library, Vintage Parchment, Nordic Frost and more • Six paper textures and five rulings, from single line to dotted to blank • Foil-stamped titles, raised spine bands, silk ribbon markers • Bind as many volumes as you like, one for each part of your life WRITING THAT FEELS LIKE WRITING • Real page turns, with perspective, weight and haptics • Ink that sits on the ruled line rather than floating between • Write straight onto the paper, with no forms and no boxes • 42 prompts for the days you do not know where to start WHAT A DAY HOLDS • Mood and weather, place and tags • Photographs, and 32 decorations to place, drag and resize • Bookmark any page, favourite any entry • Per-page paper and ruling, when one entry wants its own FIND IT AGAIN • Search every volume at once, each result cut from its own book's paper • A calendar with a mood-coloured dot on every day you wrote • Streaks, word counts, a mood line and a 91-day heat map YOURS ALONE • Face ID or Touch ID lock • A daily reminder at whatever hour suits you • Export everything as plain text, whenever you want • Use your own photograph for the home screen and arrange it how you like Built entirely in SwiftUI, with no third-party code, no trackers and no ads.

Screenshots

Kartka Journal4 screens
Daily Diary Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Daily Diary Notes at none against Kartka Journal's 1. Kartka Journal's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Kartka Journal sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Daily Diary Notes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Kartka Journal ships an update every 2 weeks, Daily Diary Notes every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
Kartka Journal versus Daily Diary Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKartka JournalDaily Diary Notes
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMichal MilczarskiOfficial Vishwateja

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Kartka Journal

One-time1
  • Full Version$6.99
None

Daily Diary Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Kartka Journal free?
Kartka Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Daily Diary Notes free?
Daily Diary Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Kartka Journal or Daily Diary Notes have ads?
Neither Kartka Journal nor Daily Diary Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Kartka Journal or Daily Diary Notes?
Kartka Journal ships an update every 2 weeks, and Daily Diary Notes every 6 weeks. Most recently, Kartka Journal was updated on October 29, 2026 and Daily Diary Notes on October 9, 2026.

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