Compare

What each one asks of you.

Every app, every question worth asking, and the honest answer — including the places where one of mine has to admit to something.

Free on the App Store

Day and Night Journal Plain and Simple Toddler Plain and Simple Games Plain and Simple Tools Plain and Simple Thoughts Plain and Simple Health

The promise, held to every app

The questions where all nine give the same answer — so the apps stop being columns, and the space goes to whoever is being compared.

Not there at all
There, with a reason stated
What it usually costs you elsewhere

The 7 questions all 10 Plain and Simple apps answer identically, set against what a free app in these categories usually does.
Measure	Plain and Simple	The usual free app	Day OneBloom Built Inc · read 16 August 2026
What it costs you
AdsWill I be shown advertising?	All 10 appsNone	Yes	The listing doesn’t say
In-app purchasesIs there anything to buy once I'm inside?	All 10 appsNoneNothing is held back for a payment. There is no paid tier, no unlock, and no feature sitting behind one — what you install is the whole app.	Yes	Yes — $8.99 to $74.99Day One Gold $74.99, Silver Yearly $49.99, Premium Yearly $49.99.
SubscriptionWill this start charging me monthly?	All 10 appsNone	After a trial	Yearly tiers listed
PriceWhat does it cost?	All 10 appsFreeFree to install and free to keep. There is no trial that ends, no upgrade, and no price that arrives later.	Free to install	Free to install
What it takes from you
AnalyticsIs my usage being measured and sent somewhere?	All 10 appsNone	Yes	Usage Data, linked to youApple's label lists Usage Data among the categories linked to your identity.
Third-party codeWhose code is running inside the app besides yours?	All 10 appsNo SDKsNo third-party SDKs and no trackers of any kind. The only code running in these apps is mine and Apple's.	Several SDKs	The listing doesn’t say
Sold or sharedDoes my data end up with anyone else?	All 10 appsNeverI don't have it to sell. Nothing about you reaches me in the first place, so there is nothing here to pass on, trade, or lose.	Commonly	No tracking declaredApple's "Data Used to Track You" section is absent from the listing.

AdsWill I be shown advertising?: Every appNone
The usual free appYes
In-app purchasesIs there anything to buy once I'm inside?: Every appNoneNothing is held back for a payment. There is no paid tier, no unlock, and no feature sitting behind one — what you install is the whole app.
The usual free appYes
Day OneYes — $8.99 to $74.99Day One Gold $74.99, Silver Yearly $49.99, Premium Yearly $49.99.
SubscriptionWill this start charging me monthly?: Every appNone
The usual free appAfter a trial
Day OneYearly tiers listed
PriceWhat does it cost?: Every appFreeFree to install and free to keep. There is no trial that ends, no upgrade, and no price that arrives later.
The usual free appFree to install
Day OneFree to install
AnalyticsIs my usage being measured and sent somewhere?: Every appNone
The usual free appYes
Day OneUsage Data, linked to youApple's label lists Usage Data among the categories linked to your identity.
Third-party codeWhose code is running inside the app besides yours?: Every appNo SDKsNo third-party SDKs and no trackers of any kind. The only code running in these apps is mine and Apple's.
The usual free appSeveral SDKs
Sold or sharedDoes my data end up with anyone else?: Every appNeverI don't have it to sell. Nothing about you reaches me in the first place, so there is nothing here to pass on, trade, or lose.
The usual free appCommonly
Day OneNo tracking declaredApple's "Data Used to Track You" section is absent from the listing.

Where the apps differ

The questions where they don’t, and the exceptions are the point. Apps giving the same answer are named together; each one that differs gets its own line and its reason, in full.

The 12 questions where the 10 Plain and Simple apps differ from each other, with every exception and its reason.
Measure	Plain and Simple	The usual free app
What it takes from you
Sent to a Plain and Simple serverWhat do you receive about me?	Journal, Toddler, Games, Tools, Thoughts, Health, Planes, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNothingThere is no server. Nothing about you reaches me, because there is nowhere for it to arrive — no account, no endpoint, no log. PerksNothing about youNothing leaves your phone for me — not which cards you hold, not what you confirmed, not that you opened the app at all. What this app does have is somewhere I publish: a short list of corrections to its own catalog, in a public database in my iCloud, which the app reads. A read of it carries no account and no identifier, so it is the app asking a question rather than telling me anything.	Yes
Downloaded after installDoes it fetch anything once I've installed it?	Journal, Toddler, Games and ToolsNothing ThoughtsPages you saveNothing the app is arrives later. What it fetches is the title and the preview picture of a link you chose to keep, from that site and no other — so a saved link reads as the thing it is instead of as a web address. It talks to no service of mine, because there isn't one. HealthNothingEven the food database ships inside the app, which is most of its size. Scanning a barcode looks nothing up, and works with the phone in flight mode. PlanesLive aircraft positionsEverything the app is ships in the bundle — no content arrives later. What it fetches is the answer to your question, from two outside services and only two: adsb.lol for what is overhead, and adsbdb to turn a flight number into a route. The app has a test that fails the build if a third address is ever added. PerksCatalog correctionsThis is the one app of mine that fetches anything for itself, and the narrowness is the whole permission. The catalog — every card, every credit, every reset date — ships inside the app and is complete the day you install it. What can arrive later is only a correction to a row that is already there: it cannot add a card, cannot remove one, cannot be the reason a screen is empty, and never overwrites a row you edited yourself. It reads a published list from my own iCloud, sends nothing, and needs no account. Card terms change without notice, and the alternative is a wrong row that sits there until an app update. Lunch MoneyYour own balancesIt reads them from your own Lunch Money account on the schedule you set. Nothing else is fetched, and nothing passes through me. App Store ConnectYour own App UnitsIt reads them from your own App Store Connect account on the schedule you set. Nothing else is fetched, and nothing passes through me.	Usually
Account requiredDo I have to create an account?	JournalApple sign‑inSign in with Apple, and it is a lock on the journal rather than an account with me. It asks Apple for no name and no email, and what it leaves behind is an anonymous identifier stored on your own device. There is no server behind it. Toddler, Tools, Thoughts, Health, Planes, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone GamesOptionalIt does one thing: notices that a different person has picked up a device that already holds someone's games. The app requests no scopes at all, and every game works signed out.	Email and password
What it can see
Health dataDoes it read Apple Health, and where does that go?	JournalReads, if allowedSleep, steps and exercise minutes, so that you are not retyping what your devices already recorded. It only ever reads from Health — it never writes — and what it reads stays in your journal, on your device and in your own iCloud. Toddler, Games, Thoughts, Planes, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone ToolsStep count onlyThe Steps to HA tool, and only the daily step count — it reads nothing else from Health and never writes to it. The number goes to the Home Assistant running in your own house, where it becomes an ordinary sensor. It reaches no server of mine, because there isn't one. HealthReads itReading Health is what this app is for. It reads what Health already holds on your phone, and none of it leaves the device. It writes back exactly one thing: the food you type in, and a run you recorded on the watch. Nothing it calculates is ever written. It also reads your date of birth and your biological sex, because the national reference table it compares you against is tabulated by both — it stores neither, and neither goes anywhere.	Read, and uploaded
LocationDoes it know where I am?	Journal, Toddler, Games, Tools, Thoughts, Health, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone PlanesRounded, ~1 kmIt has to know roughly where you are standing to say what is above you. What leaves your phone is that rounded coordinate and nothing else — no name, no device or advertising identifier. It goes straight to adsb.lol, the volunteer network that answers the question. Nobody stores it, including me.	Precise
CameraDoes it use the camera, and does anything get kept?	JournalYour daily photoOnly if you choose to take one rather than pick one you already have. The photo goes straight into your journal and travels through your own iCloud — it is never uploaded anywhere. Toddler, Games, Thoughts, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone ToolsTwo toolsTwo of them, for unrelated reasons. Negatives looks at a film negative and turns it into a photograph on the phone. Steps to HA reads the pairing code your Home Assistant shows you, once, during setup — and you can skip the camera entirely and paste the link instead. In both cases the camera is on only while that tool is the screen you are looking at, and a tool you have never opened never starts it. Nothing is recorded. HealthBarcode scanningOnly in the food scanner, to read the barcode on a packet so you do not have to type the product in by hand. Nothing is photographed or kept, and because the food database is inside the app, nothing about what you scanned is looked up anywhere. PlanesA viewfinderPoint your phone at the sky and it labels what is up there. Nothing is photographed, recorded, or kept.	Yes
PhotosDoes it get at my photo library?	JournalOne a dayA photo of the day is one of the fields you can put in a prompt — and the app never gets your library to look through. It asks iOS for a picker, iOS hands back the one picture you chose, and that is all it ever sees. It stays in your journal and travels only through your own iCloud. Toddler, Games, Thoughts, Health, Planes, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone ToolsAdd onlyNegatives puts the photograph it makes into your library and cannot see anything already in there. That is iOS's add-only permission, and it is the least the app could ask for — the cost is that it cannot file its own results into an album, which was accepted rather than asking for more.	Full library access
What you keep
Works without the internetDoes it need a signal to be useful?	Journal, Toddler, Games and HealthYes ToolsAll but oneCharge and Negatives need no signal at all, and neither does the Lock Screen tile — none of them can reach the network even if they wanted to. Steps to HA has to reach the Home Assistant you pointed it at, which is usually a machine in your own house. ThoughtsReading needs itSaving a link works with no signal at all, and your library is readable offline. Opening the page itself is the internet's job, and fetching a title and picture waits until there is a connection. PlanesNeeds itThe only Plain and Simple app that does. Where aircraft are right now is not something a phone can know on its own. PerksYesEvery card, every credit and every reset date is in the app when you install it, so it answers the question it exists to answer with no signal at all. Two things use a connection when there is one and neither is needed: correcting a catalog row it already has, and — only if you connect it — reading your own Lunch Money account. Lunch MoneyReaches Lunch MoneyIt reads your balances from your own Lunch Money account, using a token you issued. Nothing passes through me. App Store ConnectReaches App Store ConnectIt reads App Units and build state from your own App Store Connect account, using a key you issued. Nothing passes through me.	No
Syncs through your own iCloudHow does it reach my other devices?	Journal, Games, Thoughts and PerksYes ToddlerYour settings Tools, Health and PlanesNothing to sync Lunch Money and App Store ConnectIn Home AssistantIt is not an iPhone app. It runs inside the Home Assistant in your own house, so there are no other devices for it to reach and nothing to sync between them.	Their cloud
Open sourceCan I read the code myself?	Journal, Toddler, Games, Tools, Thoughts, Health, Planes and PerksNo Lunch Money and App Store ConnectYes	No
Getting your data outIf I want to leave, can I take it with me?	JournalCSV, PDF, backupSettings hands the whole journal back three ways — a CSV for a spreadsheet, a printable PDF book of your days, and a full backup you can put a password on. And a delete that genuinely deletes. ToddlerNothing is recordedThere is nothing about your child to take out, because none of it was ever written down — not which pictures they finished, not how long they spent. GamesNo export yetYour stats and half-finished boards live on your device and in your own iCloud, so they are not locked to one machine — but there is no button that hands them to you as a file. That is a fair thing to ask for and it isn't built. ToolsNothing held backNegatives saves each photograph straight into your own library as it makes it, so those are yours already. Charge remembers the last charger you tested for the Lock Screen tile, and there is no button that hands that to you as a file. ThoughtsNo export yetYour library lives on your device and in your own iCloud, so it is not locked to one machine — but there is no button that hands it back as a file of links. That is a fair thing to ask for and it is not built. HealthCSV or JSONLAny metric, over whatever range you pick — a CSV for a spreadsheet, or JSON Lines (JSONL) for a script. PlanesNothing is stored PerksNo export yetThe cards you added and the credits you confirmed live on your device and in your own iCloud, so they are not locked to one phone — but there is no button that hands them back as a file. That is a fair thing to ask for and it is not built. Lunch Money and App Store ConnectAlready yours	Hard to find
Where your data goesWhen all of that is said — where does it actually end up?	Journal, Games, Thoughts and PerksYour own iCloud Toddler and HealthYour own device ToolsYour own device, your own Home Assistant, or your own Apple Home PlanesNowhere — nothing is stored, by anyone Lunch Money and App Store ConnectYour own Home Assistant	Their servers

Sent to a Plain and Simple serverWhat do you receive about me?: Journal, Toddler, Games, Tools, Thoughts, Health, Planes, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNothingThere is no server. Nothing about you reaches me, because there is nowhere for it to arrive — no account, no endpoint, no log.
PerksNothing about youNothing leaves your phone for me — not which cards you hold, not what you confirmed, not that you opened the app at all. What this app does have is somewhere I publish: a short list of corrections to its own catalog, in a public database in my iCloud, which the app reads. A read of it carries no account and no identifier, so it is the app asking a question rather than telling me anything.
The usual free appYes
Downloaded after installDoes it fetch anything once I've installed it?: Journal, Toddler, Games and ToolsNothing
ThoughtsPages you saveNothing the app is arrives later. What it fetches is the title and the preview picture of a link you chose to keep, from that site and no other — so a saved link reads as the thing it is instead of as a web address. It talks to no service of mine, because there isn't one.
HealthNothingEven the food database ships inside the app, which is most of its size. Scanning a barcode looks nothing up, and works with the phone in flight mode.
PlanesLive aircraft positionsEverything the app is ships in the bundle — no content arrives later. What it fetches is the answer to your question, from two outside services and only two: adsb.lol for what is overhead, and adsbdb to turn a flight number into a route. The app has a test that fails the build if a third address is ever added.
PerksCatalog correctionsThis is the one app of mine that fetches anything for itself, and the narrowness is the whole permission. The catalog — every card, every credit, every reset date — ships inside the app and is complete the day you install it. What can arrive later is only a correction to a row that is already there: it cannot add a card, cannot remove one, cannot be the reason a screen is empty, and never overwrites a row you edited yourself. It reads a published list from my own iCloud, sends nothing, and needs no account. Card terms change without notice, and the alternative is a wrong row that sits there until an app update.
Lunch MoneyYour own balancesIt reads them from your own Lunch Money account on the schedule you set. Nothing else is fetched, and nothing passes through me.
App Store ConnectYour own App UnitsIt reads them from your own App Store Connect account on the schedule you set. Nothing else is fetched, and nothing passes through me.
The usual free appUsually
Account requiredDo I have to create an account?: JournalApple sign‑inSign in with Apple, and it is a lock on the journal rather than an account with me. It asks Apple for no name and no email, and what it leaves behind is an anonymous identifier stored on your own device. There is no server behind it.
Toddler, Tools, Thoughts, Health, Planes, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone
GamesOptionalIt does one thing: notices that a different person has picked up a device that already holds someone's games. The app requests no scopes at all, and every game works signed out.
The usual free appEmail and password
Health dataDoes it read Apple Health, and where does that go?: JournalReads, if allowedSleep, steps and exercise minutes, so that you are not retyping what your devices already recorded. It only ever reads from Health — it never writes — and what it reads stays in your journal, on your device and in your own iCloud.
Toddler, Games, Thoughts, Planes, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone
ToolsStep count onlyThe Steps to HA tool, and only the daily step count — it reads nothing else from Health and never writes to it. The number goes to the Home Assistant running in your own house, where it becomes an ordinary sensor. It reaches no server of mine, because there isn't one.
HealthReads itReading Health is what this app is for. It reads what Health already holds on your phone, and none of it leaves the device. It writes back exactly one thing: the food you type in, and a run you recorded on the watch. Nothing it calculates is ever written. It also reads your date of birth and your biological sex, because the national reference table it compares you against is tabulated by both — it stores neither, and neither goes anywhere.
The usual free appRead, and uploaded
LocationDoes it know where I am?: Journal, Toddler, Games, Tools, Thoughts, Health, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone
PlanesRounded, ~1 kmIt has to know roughly where you are standing to say what is above you. What leaves your phone is that rounded coordinate and nothing else — no name, no device or advertising identifier. It goes straight to adsb.lol, the volunteer network that answers the question. Nobody stores it, including me.
The usual free appPrecise
CameraDoes it use the camera, and does anything get kept?: JournalYour daily photoOnly if you choose to take one rather than pick one you already have. The photo goes straight into your journal and travels through your own iCloud — it is never uploaded anywhere.
Toddler, Games, Thoughts, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone
ToolsTwo toolsTwo of them, for unrelated reasons. Negatives looks at a film negative and turns it into a photograph on the phone. Steps to HA reads the pairing code your Home Assistant shows you, once, during setup — and you can skip the camera entirely and paste the link instead. In both cases the camera is on only while that tool is the screen you are looking at, and a tool you have never opened never starts it. Nothing is recorded.
HealthBarcode scanningOnly in the food scanner, to read the barcode on a packet so you do not have to type the product in by hand. Nothing is photographed or kept, and because the food database is inside the app, nothing about what you scanned is looked up anywhere.
PlanesA viewfinderPoint your phone at the sky and it labels what is up there. Nothing is photographed, recorded, or kept.
The usual free appYes
PhotosDoes it get at my photo library?: JournalOne a dayA photo of the day is one of the fields you can put in a prompt — and the app never gets your library to look through. It asks iOS for a picker, iOS hands back the one picture you chose, and that is all it ever sees. It stays in your journal and travels only through your own iCloud.
Toddler, Games, Thoughts, Health, Planes, Perks, Lunch Money and App Store ConnectNone
ToolsAdd onlyNegatives puts the photograph it makes into your library and cannot see anything already in there. That is iOS's add-only permission, and it is the least the app could ask for — the cost is that it cannot file its own results into an album, which was accepted rather than asking for more.
The usual free appFull library access
Works without the internetDoes it need a signal to be useful?: Journal, Toddler, Games and HealthYes
ToolsAll but oneCharge and Negatives need no signal at all, and neither does the Lock Screen tile — none of them can reach the network even if they wanted to. Steps to HA has to reach the Home Assistant you pointed it at, which is usually a machine in your own house.
ThoughtsReading needs itSaving a link works with no signal at all, and your library is readable offline. Opening the page itself is the internet's job, and fetching a title and picture waits until there is a connection.
PlanesNeeds itThe only Plain and Simple app that does. Where aircraft are right now is not something a phone can know on its own.
PerksYesEvery card, every credit and every reset date is in the app when you install it, so it answers the question it exists to answer with no signal at all. Two things use a connection when there is one and neither is needed: correcting a catalog row it already has, and — only if you connect it — reading your own Lunch Money account.
Lunch MoneyReaches Lunch MoneyIt reads your balances from your own Lunch Money account, using a token you issued. Nothing passes through me.
App Store ConnectReaches App Store ConnectIt reads App Units and build state from your own App Store Connect account, using a key you issued. Nothing passes through me.
The usual free appNo
Syncs through your own iCloudHow does it reach my other devices?: Journal, Games, Thoughts and PerksYes
ToddlerYour settings
Tools, Health and PlanesNothing to sync
Lunch Money and App Store ConnectIn Home AssistantIt is not an iPhone app. It runs inside the Home Assistant in your own house, so there are no other devices for it to reach and nothing to sync between them.
The usual free appTheir cloud
Open sourceCan I read the code myself?: Journal, Toddler, Games, Tools, Thoughts, Health, Planes and PerksNo
Lunch Money and App Store ConnectYes
The usual free appNo
Getting your data outIf I want to leave, can I take it with me?: JournalCSV, PDF, backupSettings hands the whole journal back three ways — a CSV for a spreadsheet, a printable PDF book of your days, and a full backup you can put a password on. And a delete that genuinely deletes.
ToddlerNothing is recordedThere is nothing about your child to take out, because none of it was ever written down — not which pictures they finished, not how long they spent.
GamesNo export yetYour stats and half-finished boards live on your device and in your own iCloud, so they are not locked to one machine — but there is no button that hands them to you as a file. That is a fair thing to ask for and it isn't built.
ToolsNothing held backNegatives saves each photograph straight into your own library as it makes it, so those are yours already. Charge remembers the last charger you tested for the Lock Screen tile, and there is no button that hands that to you as a file.
ThoughtsNo export yetYour library lives on your device and in your own iCloud, so it is not locked to one machine — but there is no button that hands it back as a file of links. That is a fair thing to ask for and it is not built.
HealthCSV or JSONLAny metric, over whatever range you pick — a CSV for a spreadsheet, or JSON Lines (JSONL) for a script.
PlanesNothing is stored
PerksNo export yetThe cards you added and the credits you confirmed live on your device and in your own iCloud, so they are not locked to one phone — but there is no button that hands them back as a file. That is a fair thing to ask for and it is not built.
Lunch Money and App Store ConnectAlready yours
The usual free appHard to find
Where your data goesWhen all of that is said — where does it actually end up?: Journal, Games, Thoughts and PerksYour own iCloud
Toddler and HealthYour own device
ToolsYour own device, your own Home Assistant, or your own Apple Home
PlanesNowhere — nothing is stored, by anyone
Lunch Money and App Store ConnectYour own Home Assistant
The usual free appTheir servers

Every one of those destinations is yours. There is no Plain and Simple server in the middle, because there is no Plain and Simple server at all.

What “the usual free app” is actually claiming

That last column is what these categories are typically like, not a claim about any one app — some free apps are better than it, and a few are worse. So here is the check, run and counted rather than asserted — and the two categories do not deserve the same sentence.

Of the 10 free apps the App Store returns for “calorie counter”, 9 declare data used to track you and 5 declare data linked to your identity. 1 declares neither.
Read from each listing · 16 August 2026 · US App Store
Of the 10 free apps the App Store returns for “journal”, 4 declare data used to track you and 2 declare data linked to your identity. 5 declare neither.
Read from each listing · 16 August 2026 · US App Store

You don’t have to take any of it from me, either: every app on the App Store carries a privacy label Apple makes it fill in, and an In-App Purchases line if it has any. Scroll any listing to the bottom and check mine against whatever else you were considering.

Head to head

Both privacy labels in full, each read off the App Store listing on the date shown and linked so you can check it — the developer’s own declaration rather than my opinion of a rival.

Mine

Day and Night Journal

Chandler Young

App privacy label: Data Not Collected“The developer does not collect any data from this app.” — Apple’s own wording on the listing.
In-app purchases: None
Price: Free

Read from the App Store listing · 16 August 2026
Check it yourself →

Theirs

Day One

Bloom Built Inc

Data used to track you: Nothing declaredDay One declares no tracking at all, which is better than most of its category and worth saying first.
Data linked to you: Purchases, Contact Info, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics, Health & Fitness, Location, User Content
In-app purchases: Yes — $8.99 to $74.99

Read from the App Store listing · 16 August 2026
Check it yourself →

The difference is not tracking — Day One declares none, and the card says so first. It is that everything you write is tied to your identity on their servers, against a listing that reads Data Not Collected.