Comparison

Orca vs Journal

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

Head to head
About

Orca

This app is a daily photo and video journal focused on gratitude and positive memories. It helps users reflect on good things to boost happiness and offers private or group sharing options. Features include daily prompts, memory recaps, and secure storage.

Highlights
  • Daily photo and video journaling
  • Gratitude prompts and quotes
  • Private and group memory sharing
  • Daily throwbacks and widgets
  • Gratitude Jar for random memories
  • Passcode and biometric lock
  • PDF/CSV export (Plus only)
Features
Read full description

Orca (formerly Happyfeed) is a gratitude journal that focuses on beautiful photos, short videos, and sharing options. Record positive moments every day to improve your mood and remind yourself of all the good. Plus, you'll be creating an record of all your best memories. Keep it private or use groups like a micro social network by sharing select memories with friends and family. • Add multiple photos, video & location • Widgets: Daily throwbacks and shared memories • Group sharing for couples, friends & family • Unique prompts, quotes, and fun facts every day • Gratitude Jar to view random past posts • All posts are 100% private by default • Tag your best days with an emoji • Unlimited days you can post for free • Passcode & lock screen with Face ID • PDF/CSV Export for printing (Plus only) Explore Your Past Memories - After one week, you can view memories in your gratitude journal from a week ago. This period grows to months and even years. You can also see random moments using the Gratitude Jar. Each month, create a recap video of your favorite photos and clips. Journaling Together - Pods are private groups for sharing memories and send emoji reactions. Send only selected photos, videos, and text to your friends, partner, or family. It's perfect for long distance relationships and faraway family. Unique Reminders Each Day - Every day we write a custom prompt to help you remember to record your feelings. It could be a quote about happiness, a fact about the day, or a joke to brighten your day and put you in a happy mood. Benefits of Gratitude Journaling - Gratitude journaling is a simple and easy self-care practice that helps reduce stress and anxiety while improving your overall happiness. In even a few seconds, the practice of actively reflecting on 3 good things or what you are grateful for can help you refocus on the positives in life. Private Diary On All Your Devices - We also offer a web version where you can upload and view your past moments. Your moments and photos are privately synced to your account so you’ll never lose them. Plus Subscribers can download their journal in PDF or CSV format. Secret & Secure Self-Love - Your moments are only visible to you and never posted publicly. All cloud syncing is securely encrypted using HTTPS endpoints. You can create a passcode lock for extra security (Face ID supported). Your Account - An account is required to keep your moments safe and to allow you to view and manage them across multiple devices. If you lose your device, you won’t lose all your happy memories. You may choose to share your location to provide you with meaningful data on the places, people, and things that help you find happiness. Orca Plus Subscription - Our Plus subscription provides ongoing access to features like: • Unlimited Calendar with map and photo diary grid • Journal export and download as PDF or CSV • Search - Find keywords in your memories • Post up to 10 good things per day • Add up to 4 photos per post • 30 second videos • Unlimited editing Plus is available as a monthly (charged once per month) or yearly (charged once per year) subscription. After the free trial, payment will be charged to your iTunes Account. This subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period at $3.99 USD for monthly or $39.99 USD for yearly subscriptions. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription plan. Have questions, problems, or feedback? Reach out to us directly at hello@okorca.com or message @ok_orca on Instagram Terms of Use: https://www.okorca.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.okorca.com/privacy

About

Journal

Capture and reflect on life's moments with rich media like photos, videos, and audio. Intelligent suggestions and prompts help you start writing, while multiple journals and goal tracking support a consistent practice. Sync across devices for seamless access.

Highlights
  • Journaling suggestions and prompts
  • Rich media attachments (photos, video, audio)
  • Handwriting and sketching support
  • Multiple journal organization
  • Streaks and insights for habit tracking
  • Cross-device iCloud sync
Read full description

Take a moment to reflect on your day. Capture and write about the details of everyday moments and special events using photos, videos, audio recordings, places, your state of mind, and more. Journaling suggestions make it easy to remember your daily experiences—so you can add them to your journal and never have to start with a blank page. Organize your entries by creating multiple journals for different aspects of your life, keep track of your journaling goals with insights and streaks, and sync your journal between iPhone, iPad, and Mac using iCloud. Get started writing with journaling suggestions • Choose from suggested moments to start your journal entry with intelligently grouped outings, photos, workouts, media and more. • Get a writing prompt to guide your insights. • Find inspiration with reflection prompts to focus on gratitude, kindness, purpose, and more. • Journaling suggestions are created using on-device intelligence based on how you use your iPhone. Choose what information you want to enable for suggestions. • Suggestions created on your iPhone sync securely to iPad. Preserve powerful memories in rich detail • Illustrate your entries with the photos, videos, and places that tell your story. Customize the layout by placing attachments seamlessly within the text you write. • Get inspired to keep writing by asking for prompts tailored to the contents of your entry. • Get creative and express yourself with lettering, sketches, and doodles using your finger, or Apple Pencil on iPad. And you can make your journal even more personal with entries in your own handwriting. • Record your voice directly into your journal and have it transcribed automatically, or record your surroundings to add context to your entry. • Express yourself with text formatting options, including lists, quotes, and various text styles. • Add a widget to your Home Screen or Lock Screen that shows your current streak at a glance or presents writing prompts that change throughout the day so you can reflect on what’s going on in the moment. • Start a new entry and add content from other apps like News, Music, or Safari. • Keep your entries organized by creating multiple journals for different aspects of your life, and add a custom name and icon for each. Enjoy past moments • Browse, search, and sort your journal to look back and reflect on key moments in your life. • Easily find past entries using the calendar. • See entries written at a specific location or find entries you made nearby in the new Places view. • View each entry and its attachments in a beautiful fullscreen view. • Print or export your entries. Build a good habit • View your journaling streaks, the days you journaled, and other fun stats in the new Insights view. • Set a schedule or receive notifications at convenient times based on how you use the app. You’ll get reminders when it’s time to write, or when new journaling suggestions are ready, so you can keep a consistent journaling practice. Journal for wellbeing • Log your state of mind right from within Journal and save it to the Health app. • Automatically save your writing time as Mindful Minutes in Health. • Keep your journal private and secure • Protect your journal with your device passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, so no one but you can access it. • Store your entries safely in iCloud so they’re automatically backed up. Certain features are available only in select languages and regions.

Screenshots

Orca4 screens
Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Journal at none against Orca's 2. Journal also leads on ratings volume (338K vs 4.1K). Orca's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 months) and review sentiment (93% vs 80%). On price, rating 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. Orca sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Journal asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Orca against 4.8 for Journal. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Journal has 338K ratings behind it against 4.1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 93% of Orca's written reviews are positive against 80% of Journal's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Orca ships an update every 9 days, Journal every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Orca versus Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrcaJournal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4.1K ratings) — better4.8 (338K ratings)
Positive reviews93.2% of reviews — better79.7% of reviews
Number of ratings4.1K338K — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better17.2
Further details — not scored
Size55 MB6 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperHappyFeed Inc.Apple Inc.

Customer experience

Orca

All ratings4,050 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral2.0%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews324 reviews
Positive93.2%
Neutral3.4%
Negative3.4%

Journal

All ratings333,558 ratings
Positive95.0%
Neutral2.7%
Negative2.3%
Written reviews5,572 reviews
Positive79.7%
Neutral7.4%
Negative12.9%

User reviews

Orca

From 4.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • ❤️ Gratitude journal
  • 📷 Ability to add photos
  • 🗓️ Ability to look back on past entries
  • 🙂 Helps focus on the positive
  • 🤗 Brings joy and happiness

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Limited free version
  • 💰 Subscription model
  • 🗓️ Limited calendar view in free version
  • 📝 Character limit for entries
  • 🤖 Distracting prompts

Journal

From 338K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Journaling made easy
  • 🔒 Private and secure
  • 👍 Organized and intuitive
  • 👍 Helpful suggestions and prompts
  • 👍 Convenient voice recording

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Cursor jumps around while typing
  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and freezes
  • 🔍 Lack of search and filtering options
  • 🔍 Inability to organize entries into folders or tags
  • 🔍 Limited customization options for fonts, colors, etc.

Bugs and requests

Orca

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Widget not working properly
  • Entries not saving correctly
  • Crashes on older devices

Requested features

8 requests
  • Ability to add more than 3 entries per day
  • Offline mode
  • More customization options
  • Advanced search and filtering
  • Ability to comment on others' entries
Show 3 more
  • Exporting/printing entries
  • Mood tracking
  • Video support beyond 3 seconds

Journal

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Cursor jumping to top/bottom of entry while typing
  • App freezing or crashing when adding multiple photos
  • Inconsistent behavior when editing existing entries

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add search and filtering capabilities
  • Implement tagging and folder organization
  • Provide more customization options
  • Expand to iPad and Mac platforms
  • Integrate with Health app for mood tracking
Show 1 more
  • Add option to share/export journal entries

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Orca

Subscriptions2
  • Video Diary & Log - Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Daily Photo Journal - Yearly7 Days trial$39.991 Year
None

Journal

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca free?
Orca is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Journal free?
Journal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Orca or Journal?
Orca is rated higher. Orca averages 4.8 out of 5 from 4.1K ratings, while Journal averages 4.8 from 338K ratings.
Do Orca or Journal have ads?
Neither Orca nor Journal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca or Journal?
Orca ships an update every 9 days, and Journal every 3 months. Most recently, Orca was updated on October 29, 2026 and Journal on October 30, 2026.

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