---
title: "The Sealed Journal vs Reflectly"
description: "Reflectly interviews you with AI prompts and mood sliders. The Sealed Journal waits in silence. A comparison of two opposite journals."
canonical: "https://sealedjournal.com/j/vs-reflectly"
updatedAt: "2026-08-11"
category: "Comparisons"
---

# The Sealed Journal vs Reflectly.

_One asks you questions. One waits for you to speak._

Reflectly calls itself an AI-powered companion: it asks how your day was, offers sliders for your mood, serves quotes and encouragement, and shapes your answers into a colorful record. For someone who has never journaled, being asked a question can genuinely help you begin.

But an interview is led by the interviewer. Prompted writing produces answers; unprompted writing produces discoveries — and only one of those was worth locking up. Meanwhile, an app whose intelligence comes from reading your entries is, definitionally, reading your entries.

The Sealed Journal asks nothing. No prompts, no sliders, no quotes, no model reading your writing to generate insights about you. A cursor, centered and patient, until you have something to say. The silence is the method.

## The facts, side by side

| | Reflectly | The Sealed Journal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Free tier plus Premium subscription | One-time purchase |
| Current price | Premium (iOS): $9.99 / month · Premium (iOS, annual): $59.99 / year · Premium (Android, annual): ~$19.99 / year | One purchase: $24 (rising to $29) once |
| Free tier | Free tier with limited features | No — a live demo, then one price |
| Platforms | iOS, Android | Any modern browser, any operating system |
| Account required | Yes — Account required | No — no account, ever |
| Cloud sync | Required — AI-guided prompts read entries to generate insights | No sync, no server — a single offline HTML file |
| Encryption | Not a client-side passphrase model | AES-256-GCM client-side, PBKDF2 at 600,000 iterations |

iOS and Android prices differ substantially.

Reflectly prices verified 11 August 2026. Source: https://apps.apple.com

## Questions

### I don't know what to write without a prompt.

Sit with the blinking cursor for one uncomfortable minute. Something under the surface shows up — it always does. That minute is the practice; a prompt would have talked over it.

### Does anything read my entries?

Nothing and no one. Not for insights, not for training, not for features. Entries are encrypted with your passphrase before they reach the disk.

### What replaces the streaks and encouragement?

Nothing, and that's the honest answer. Streaks lend you motivation at interest. The practice, once it's yours, pays for itself.

## Price

The Sealed Journal is a one-time purchase of $24 (introductory price, rising to $29). No subscription, no account, lifetime updates, 30-day refund. Buy at https://sealedjournal.com/#pricing

## Elsewhere

- Hub: Comparisons — https://sealedjournal.com/journals/comparisons
- All journals — https://sealedjournal.com/journals
- HTML version of this page — https://sealedjournal.com/j/vs-reflectly