Apple Journal vs Natus: free storage or a journal that reads back
Apple Journal vs Natus is a choice between free storage and a journal that reads you back. Apple Journal is free, private and already on your iPhone. Natus builds a First Reading from your details, keeps a private journal, and every Sunday reads your actual week back in your own words. If you want a simple place to write that costs nothing, Apple Journal is it. If you want your entries to turn into something you can recognise yourself in, Natus is built for that.
What Apple Journal users say in their own reviews
Verbatim from public 1 and 2 star App Store reviews. Apple Journal is rated 4.8 on the App Store across 320,946 ratings (checked 16 September 2026) overall, so plenty of people are happy. These are the ones who were not.
New phone, all entries gone1 star review
I got a new phone backed everything up like I always do. Opened journal on the new phone and all my entries were gone. I was heartbroken. Turns out you have to use a computer and go through a few steps to back...
90 percent of the entry disappears1 star review
After I've written a bunch, I click the purple arrow to save it. Then, if I click to edit it, literally 90% of it disappears. It has happened to me twice where the entire entry is just gone without me clicking...
No automatic iCloud backup1 star review
I used this app for a year and a half and thought it was the best thing ever. What is never mentioned is that this app doesn't automatically store the entries into iCloud.
Half the writing gone after switching apps1 star review
It doesn't automatically save my work all the time. When I switched to another app while writing, half of my article disappeared when I came back.
Side by side
| Feature | Apple Journal | Natus |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Apple's free built-in journal with suggested topics. | A private journal that reads your real week back to you. |
| How it starts | Open the app and write, with photo and moment suggestions. | A First Reading from your name and birth details, then your journal. |
| What you get back | Your entries, stored. Nothing reads them. | A Sunday read-back of your week, and Ask when you need it. |
| What it costs | Free forever, included with the iPhone. | Free First Reading, Preview, private journal, and first Sunday letter. Paid plans after that. |
| The common complaint | Entries disappearing between phones, updates or edits. | It is new, iPhone only, and not free forever for the paid parts. |
| Who it fits | People who want a free, private, no-frills place to write. | People who journal to understand themselves, not just to record. |
Where Apple Journal still wins
It is free, it is already on your phone, and its suggested topics are genuinely good at beating the blank page. Even its 2 star reviews admit the suggestions are the best part. If cost is the constraint, this is the right default.
Where people get burned
One complaint dominates: lost entries. New phones, edits that cut most of an entry, an iCloud backup that is not automatic. People describe losing a year and a half of writing because the backup steps were never obvious. A journal you cannot trust is worse than no journal, so if you stay, learn the export steps now.
Where Natus is different
Natus assumes the point of journaling is not keeping the entries but seeing them. Your week is read back every Sunday in your own words, set against a First Reading of how you operate. It is not free forever for everything, and it is not trying to be. It is for the version of journaling where you want something back.
Common questions
- Is Natus just a better Apple Journal?
- Different job. Apple Journal is a storage app: it holds what you write. Natus is a reflection app: it reads what you write back to you every Sunday. If you only need storage, free and built-in is hard to beat.
- Does Apple Journal back up automatically?
- Not the way most people assume. Its 1 star reviews are dominated by entries lost between phones, because the iCloud backup requires manual steps. Whatever app you use, keep a periodic export.
- What does Natus do that Apple Journal cannot?
- Read back. Apple Journal can suggest what to write about, but nothing in it ever tells you what you keep writing about. Natus does that every Sunday, plus Ask for questions that use your own context.