Comparison

DiaryThreads vs footnotes

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

Head to head
About

DiaryThreads

Transform your life into a series of shareable posts, just like social media. Capture thoughts, photos, videos, or voice notes in short entries organized into a private timeline. Gain insights into your journaling habits and revisit memories with customizable widgets.

Highlights
  • Post thoughts, photos, videos, voice notes
  • Private timeline organization
  • Insights into journaling habits
  • Home Screen widgets for memories and new posts
  • App Lock for enhanced privacy
  • No account required, local storage
Features
Read full description

DiaryThreads offers a new way to journal: capture life as easily as posting and let every entry become part of a timeline that is entirely your own. 【As Easy as Posting—Reply to and Quote Your Past Self】 -- Capture a thought, a photo, or a voice recording in the moment. A flexible editor helps you preserve life in richer detail. -- Find an earlier entry, reply to it or quote it, and see what has changed. -- When you have more to say, use an Article to publish a polished long-form card on your timeline. 【Understand Your Life】 -- Analytics brings together days recorded, total characters, posting frequency, and changes over the last 30 days. -- Your private trending list highlights the keywords and topics you have been returning to lately. -- State of Mind entries you choose to add also appear in Analytics, helping you look back on emotional changes. -- Topic Insights show when and how often each topic appears. 【Let Widgets Bring the Past Back】 -- The “Random Entry” widget brings an older entry to your Home Screen. Tap to shuffle or open its details. -- The “Write an Entry” widget puts writing on your Home Screen, so a new entry is always one tap away. Past and present stay close at hand. -- The “Photo Memory” widget brings treasured photos back into view. 【Light, Simple, and Entirely Yours】 -- DiaryThreads requires no account. Content is stored locally first; Premium can sync it across your Apple devices through your private iCloud. -- No ads, third-party analytics, or cross-app tracking. -- Premium imports and exports are processed locally on your device, keeping your content in your hands. 【Diary Threads Premium】 -- The free version keeps up to 30 current entries. -- Diary Threads Premium unlocks unlimited entries, share posters, keyword trends, private iCloud sync, local import and export, and all three Home Screen widgets. -- Premium is available as a monthly or annual subscription, or as a one-time lifetime purchase. Actual prices are shown in the App Store. Privacy Policy: https://foggy-bellflower-ae3.notion.site/Diary-Threads-Privacy-Policy-3aa1a28522d98112b480d81a7b2f74db?source=copy_link EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

footnotes

Capture the full texture of everyday moments with words, photos, video, and voice. Organize these memories into notebooks and create a timeline of your life. Share your moments as little stories.

Highlights
  • Capture moments with text, photos, video, and voice
  • Organize notes into different notebooks
  • Build a timeline of life's moments
  • Create shareable stories from moments
  • Edit and add to old notes
Read full description

footnotes is a quiet notebook for the photographs, voices, passing thoughts, ideas, and ordinary moments that make up a life. you can: - capture the full texture of a moment: in words, photos, video, and voice, all together. - return to old notes, add new moments, and watch a timeline of your life slowly take shape. - make notebooks for different parts of your life, and - turn moments into little stories to share. slices of light sizzling on a wall. laughter of friends sloppy and gold. the loosey goosey fragments. all of which you look back on with tenderness, kept whole. footnotes makes space for the footnotes of a life. the little things that become the story of who you are.

Screenshots

DiaryThreads4 screens
footnotes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: footnotes at none against DiaryThreads's 2. footnotes also leads on ratings volume (142 vs 3). DiaryThreads's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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. DiaryThreads sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. footnotes asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

DiaryThreads holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: footnotes has 142 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of DiaryThreads's written reviews are positive against 97% of footnotes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly daily. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
DiaryThreads versus footnotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDiaryThreadsfootnotes
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.8 (142 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better96.9% of reviews
Number of ratings3142 — better
Update frequencyDailyDaily
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer世杰 戴Doppler HQ, Inc

Customer experience

DiaryThreads

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

footnotes

All ratings142 ratings
Positive96.5%
Neutral0.7%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews32 reviews
Positive96.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.1%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

DiaryThreads

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly Premium$2.991 Month
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$6.99
None

footnotes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is DiaryThreads free?
DiaryThreads is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is footnotes free?
footnotes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, DiaryThreads or footnotes?
DiaryThreads is rated higher. DiaryThreads averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while footnotes averages 4.8 from 142 ratings.
Do DiaryThreads or footnotes have ads?
Neither DiaryThreads nor footnotes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DiaryThreads or footnotes?
DiaryThreads ships an update daily, and footnotes daily. Most recently, DiaryThreads was updated on October 6, 2026 and footnotes on October 11, 2026.

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