Grid Diary vs Zinnia

Grid Diary

• People who find a blank page hard and prefer answering prompts
• Weekly, monthly and yearly reviews alongside a daily diary
• Building a custom journal or planner from templates

Zinnia

• Bullet journal fans who want paper-style pages on an iPad
• Decorating planners with stickers, washi tape and lettering
• Apple users who plan across iPad, iPhone and Mac

Grid Diary

• Sync between devices, the passcode lock and extra color themes require the paid membership.
• The vendor's site quotes $2.99 monthly and $22.99 annual, while the US App Store lists $4.99 and $29.99.
• Apps are listed for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android; no Windows app is offered.
• The App Store version requires iOS 26, iPadOS 26 or macOS 26 or later.

Zinnia

• Apple only: the vendor lists iPad, iPhone and Mac, with no Android, Windows or web version.
• The free version has limited content; full access is a subscription, and no one-time purchase is listed.
• Vendor prices disagree: the in-app purchase list shows $9.99 a month and $39.99 a year, while the App Store description says $8.99 and $34.99.
• The vendor's own site shows only per-week figures ($3.99, $2.23 and $0.76 a week) instead of the amounts billed.

Grid Diary

Grid format with prompts

An entry is a customizable grid of prompted boxes on a single page. Prompts come from a built-in library, or you can write your own.

Day, week, month and year entries

Separate daily, weekly, monthly and yearly entries let you plan and review at each time scale within the same journal.

Templates

Customizable templates cover a gratitude journal, a goal tracker, a weekly planner and more, so the app can double as a planner.

Mandala layout

A 9-grid layout inspired by the mandala keeps a fixed center cell, which the vendor compares to journaling as a mind map.

Markdown editor and attachments

The editor supports Markdown with rich preview, inline images and to-dos, and photos can be attached to entries.

Multiple journals, tags and export

Keep dedicated journals for areas such as family, work and travel, organize entries with tags, and export in PDF, Markdown, JPG and other formats.

Zinnia

Handwriting and drawing tools

Write, sketch, highlight, paint and color with tools that have adjustable size, opacity and color. The iPad app supports Apple Pencil and Scribble.

Zinnia Studio content

A catalog of ready-made journals, planners, trackers, stickers, washi tape, frames and templates, with new content each month. The free version includes a limited selection.

Planner and calendar layouts

Calendar layouts and auto-dated templates turn a journal into a planner, and events can sync to digital calendars such as Google Calendar.

PDF import and links

Import PDFs to mark up, including linked and tabbed planners bought on Etsy, and add links to web pages or to other journal pages.

Sync across Apple devices

Journals sync between iPad, iPhone and Mac through iCloud, and the vendor lists offline access to journals on iPad.

Export and sharing

Save a spread as a PDF or share it directly to Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and other social networks.

Grid Diary

• Free$0

  Many of the app's features without a subscription. Sync between devices, the passcode lock and extra color themes are excluded.

• Membership$4.99

  per month, or $29.99 per year (US App Store)

  One in-app subscription covering all your devices: sync, passcode lock, more color themes and future member-only features.

Zinnia

• Free$0

  The journal and drawing tools with a limited selection of Studio content.

• Zinnia Premium Weekly$3.99

  per week

  Full content access billed weekly. The vendor's site, the App Store description and the in-app purchase list all give $3.99.

• Zinnia Premium Monthly$9.99

  per month

  Full content access billed monthly. Listed at $9.99 as an in-app purchase; the listing's description says $8.99 and the vendor's site shows $2.23 a week.

• Zinnia Premium Yearly$39.99

  per year

  Full content access billed yearly. The in-app list shows $39.99 and also $34.99; the description says $34.99 and the vendor's site shows $0.76 a week.

Grid Diary

• Annual discount

  About 50% less with the annual membership

  The US App Store lists the membership at $4.99 monthly or $29.99 annual, which is about 50% less than twelve monthly payments.

Zinnia

• Annual discount

  Yearly billing costs far less than weekly or monthly

  At the in-app prices of $3.99 a week, $9.99 a month and $39.99 a year, a year costs $207.48 paid weekly or $119.88 paid monthly, so the yearly plan is about two thirds cheaper than monthly.