Haru - Gratitude Diary
Haru is a gratitude diary app for daily reflection, mood tracking, and photo storage on iOS and Android.
The App DNA
What makes this app unique?
Users hire Haru for a private, minimalist space to record daily moments without the social pressure found in community-heavy journaling apps.
For Individuals seeking a private, habit-forming digital space for daily reflection and gratitude tracking.
What does it look like?
Key features
Tracks consecutive days of entries to encourage habit formation.
Converts entries to PDF for external storage.
Provides exclusive visual customization options.
How much does it cost?
Gates aesthetic customization and data portability behind a premium tier while maintaining an ad-supported free experience.
Velocity
Maintenance developmentperformanceShow more...
The app is currently in a maintenance cycle, having shipped only one release in the last 98 days. Development activity is limited to minor technical refinements, specifically addressing notification timing and timezone-related bugs. There is no evidence of new features or live operations content being introduced. The current cadence suggests a focus on stability rather than active feature expansion.
Who built it?
User Sentiment
What do users think recently?
How are ratings & reviews evolving?
Not enough recent reviews to extract reliable themes yet.
Read the full review analysisCompetition
Competitive landscape for Haru - Gratitude Diary
How's the Lifestyle market?
Haru occupies a niche in the lifestyle category by prioritizing minimalist privacy over social features. The lack of recent feature updates relative to the 98-day maintenance cycle limits its ability to capture share from high-velocity rivals.
Read the market outlookThe rivals identified
By Hapjoy Technologies Private Limited
With over 160,000 ratings and a high-frequency release cadence, this app dominates the gratitude-specific niche through massive user scale.
- Offers a dedicated gratitude-focused social community feature that encourages daily user engagement and retention.
- Provides extensive guided journaling prompts that lower the barrier to entry for new, non-habitual users.
- Maintains a high-velocity update schedule with 12 releases in the last six months to iterate on feedback.
Unlock the head-to-head verdict: where this rival wins, and where it loses.
Access the full report for freeThe Analyst's Read
Key takeaways for Haru - Gratitude Diary
Where is it heading?
The gratitude-journaling market is consolidating around apps that offer guided content and social habit-forming loops. Haru's current maintenance-mode posture leaves it exposed to churn, as it lacks the iterative feedback loop necessary to keep users engaged against more active competitors.
- The 98-day maintenance cycle indicates stalled development, which allows high-velocity rivals to capture the gratitude-journaling market share.
- Recent notification stability improvements address technical friction but do not provide the engagement hooks needed to compete with market leaders.
The SWOT
- Minimalist aesthetic provides a distraction-free environment for users prioritizing privacy.
- Localized content or guided journaling prompts could lower the entry barrier for non-habitual users.
Next best moves
Ship guided journaling prompts because they lower the barrier to entry for new users → increase daily retention.
The counter-intuitive read
The lack of social features is not a…
Read the full takeFeature gaps
Guided journaling prompts (available in Gratitude: Self-Care Journal but absent here) +1
Since the last report: The app has entered a deeper maintenance cycle with a 98-day update gap, prompting a strategic pivot from physical-world export services to guided content to combat user churn.
Bottom line
Haru offers a clean, private space for reflection, but its stalled release cadence prevents it from competing with the habit-forming loops of market leaders. The PM must prioritize a content-led engagement feature, such as guided prompts, to prevent churn to more active rivals.
Unlock 1 critical friction, 1 market threat and the analyst’s take.
Access the full report for freeFAQ
Is Haru suitable for beginners?
How does Haru compare to Gratitude: Self-Care Journal?
Does Haru have intrusive ads?
What are some alternatives to Haru?
Sources
- [1] Play Store listing
Report last updated