Comparison

Diary, Journal, Notes vs Lifely

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

Head to head
About

Diary, Journal, Notes

Record daily activities, thoughts, and memories securely. Organize entries with tags, locations, and folders. Sync across devices and export your data easily. Features include mood tracking, photo attachments, and a calendar view.

Highlights
  • Secure PIN and fingerprint lock
  • Customizable themes and 30+ languages
  • Powerful search and filtering
  • Mood tracker and Atlas view
  • Backup, restore, import, and export options
  • Cloud sync via Dropbox
  • Attach unlimited photos
Features
Read full description

Diaro is a multi-platform diary, journal, notes app designed to record your activities, daily events, appointments, experiences, thoughts, feelings, secrets and ideas throughout the day and sync data across all your devices & PC. It helps you organize your daily diary/journal entries or notes from the past in the easiest way. Preserve your special memories, store personal moments & memories or keep track of your life with help of Diaro. DIARO FEATURES SECURE & PRIVATE Lock & Protect your private diary entries with a PIN, Security code or fingerprint. Protect Privacy with data encryption & passcode THEMES & LANGUAGES Personalize UI with different UI colors & Themes. Multilingual UI(30+ languages), adapted for phones, tablets and web. Simple and intuitive interface SEARCH & ORGANIZE Powerful search and filter functions. Organize diary / journal entries using folders, tags, locations and find records by keyword, filter them by date, tags, folder or even location MOOD TRACKER ,ATLAS & THROWBACK Daily Diary Mood tracker, On this day diary memories / daily diary throwback, Weather info & beautiful Atlas view BACKUP & RESTORE Backup diary entries for easy recovery & restore easily IMPORT & EXPORT Export to PDF, Docx or Txt and print or share them via Diaro App or Diaro Online (PDF, DOCX, CSV & TXT). Import data from other popular diary apps : Journey, Evernote, Catch Notes, Flava, Google Keep, Momento, Day One apps SYNC Using Dropbox you can seamlessly sync between the Diaro app on all of your devices and Diaro Online using any web browser STATISTICS Detailed interesting statistics about your diary entries and mood OTHER FEATURES • Automatic Geotagging for new diary entries • Calendar view for easy navigation & overview of daily entries • Attach & store unlimited amount of photos in your diary • Cloud storage & Sync (via Dropbox) • Share diary entries and photos via Email, SMS, Twitter, Whatsapp etc. • Quickly create a new diary entry from the notification bar icon or widget • Multi-window mode (if supported by device) • Swipe between your diary entries • Speak to write, voice to text DIARO ONLINE You can access your Diaro diary entries online on any device using your web browser ABOUT DIARO Trusted by millions of users worldwide, Diaro is the smart, intuitive and most secure way to keep a personal diary. Download now for free and keep your secret diary, diet diary logs, travel diary with stories, sleep journal, photos and maps , wish lists, daily expenses, autobiography or daily life diary notes, securely. You can organize your receipts, invoices, or use it as a homework tracker or assignment planner, organizer, notebook or as simple note-taking app. Keep A Beautiful, Orderly, and Private Journal Of Your Thoughts and Days With Diaro! Find the FAQs in the Help & Support or contact us at support@diaroapp.com DIARO PRO FEATURES Diaro PRO membership is an auto-renewing subscription. Pricing: US$5.99/year. Price may vary by location and are clearly displayed in the app. • Sync your diary across all your devices and Diaro Online using your Dropbox account • Export to PDF & other formats • Ad-Free Premium Experience • Priority Customer Support + Payment will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. + Your 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, and identify the cost of the renewal. + You can manage your subscription and switch off auto-renewal by accessing your Account Settings after purchase. + Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited if you purchase a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Privacy policy: https://www.diaroapp.com/privacy-policy Terms of use: https://www.diaroapp.com/terms

About

Lifely

This app helps you record life's important moments, achievements, and memories in a chronological timeline. It offers secure data encryption and synchronization, allowing you to easily navigate and revisit past events.

Highlights
  • Chronological timeline of memories
  • Secure data encryption
  • Server synchronization
  • Event tracking by category
  • Zoom and scroll navigation
  • Password protection
Features
Read full description

Your whole life on one timeline. Lifely is a personal diary and journal for everyday memories and the moments that change your story. Keep the same diary on your phone and in your browser. Install Lifely on iPhone and iPad. On a Mac with Apple silicon, get the iPad app from the Mac App Store (Apple M1 or later, macOS 12 or later). You can also use the same diary in your browser. Write about today, add a memory from years ago, or record a milestone you want to look back on. Give each event a date and keep your thoughts, the people involved and the details together. SEE YOUR LIFE AT EVERY SCALE Zoom out to see years and decades, then zoom in to a single day. Follow the connections between everyday entries, important events and the different chapters of your life. The life calendar gives you another view of your years and weeks. On your phone, swipe to scroll through your timeline and pinch to change its scale. GIVE MEMORIES THEIR CONTEXT Add photos, a place, a mood or a song to an event. Keep a travel memory, a family celebration or an ordinary afternoon with someone you love. A short note can hold the details you would otherwise forget. FIND THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER Organize your diary with tags, people, life periods and importance levels. Revisit your time at school, the years in a particular city or the memories you share with one person. Search your entries when you want to find a specific moment. RETURN TO YOUR STORY Rediscover past events through memories, look back at how your life has unfolded and share selected moments as designed cards. Write as much or as little as you want, whenever you have something to remember. YOUR DIARY ON YOUR PHONE AND IN YOUR BROWSER Open your online diary in a browser with the same account you use on your phone. Your entries sync when you are connected. On your phone, write entries offline and sync when you reconnect. Protect access to the app with a passcode or biometric unlock on a supported device. Lifely includes ads and in-app purchases. Photo attachments and some organization features are part of Premium. Start with one moment that matters to you. Let the next entries become part of your life story. Terms of Use: https://sheep-apps.com/lifely/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://sheep-apps.com/lifely/privacy-policy

Screenshots

Diary, Journal, Notes4 screens
Lifely4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Diary, Journal, Notes at 4.7 against Lifely's 3.8. Diary, Journal, Notes also leads on review sentiment (70% vs 33%) and ratings volume (4.5K vs 6). Lifely's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Diary, Journal, Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per year and Lifely sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Diary, Journal, Notes holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Diary, Journal, Notes has 4.5K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Diary, Journal, Notes's written reviews are positive against 33% of Lifely's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Diary, Journal, Notes ships an update weekly, Lifely every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Diary, Journal, Notes versus Lifely: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDiary, Journal, NotesLifely
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (4.5K ratings) — better3.8 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews70.1% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings4.5K — better6
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 10 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB76 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAbhishek KumarSheep Apps Inc

Customer experience

Diary, Journal, Notes

All ratings4,483 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral3.4%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews345 reviews
Positive70.1%
Neutral7.8%
Negative22.0%

Lifely

All ratings6 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%

Bugs and requests

Diary, Journal, Notes

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Reminders broken on iOS
  • Crashes after activating Touch ID
  • Stuck on blue logo page after Touch ID stopped working
  • Sync issues between devices
  • Entries disappearing or not saving properly
Show 1 more
  • Inability to export entries as PDF

Requested features

5 requests
  • 💡 Add bold, underline, italics formatting
  • 💡 Add ability to add captions to images
  • 💡 Add ability to customize moods
  • 💡 Add Face ID, iCloud sync, and additional fonts
  • 💡 Add ability to format text, add bullet points, link to calendars

Lifely

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Diary, Journal, Notes

Subscriptions1
  • Diaro Pro 1 Year$8.991 Year
One-time1
  • Diaro PRO$39.99
2 purchases

Lifely

Subscriptions2
  • Full access for 1 month$4.991 Month
  • Full access for 1 year3 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Diary, Journal, Notes free?
Diary, Journal, Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lifely free?
Lifely is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Diary, Journal, Notes or Lifely?
Diary, Journal, Notes is rated higher. Diary, Journal, Notes averages 4.7 out of 5 from 4.5K ratings, while Lifely averages 3.8 from 6 ratings.
Do Diary, Journal, Notes or Lifely have ads?
Diary, Journal, Notes shows ads; Lifely does not.
Which is updated more often, Diary, Journal, Notes or Lifely?
Diary, Journal, Notes ships an update weekly, and Lifely every 10 days. Most recently, Diary, Journal, Notes was updated on November 1, 2026 and Lifely on November 3, 2026.

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