4 Best Journal Apps in 2024 Maintaining a journal is beneficial for a reason, which is why many prosperous individuals do. A straightforward method to reduce stress, boost creativity, raise happiness, improve health and perform better at work is to take the time to collect your ideas and experiences and put them in writing. That being said, journaling is difficult. To write on a blank paper, one must be willing to be vulnerable and committed to this new habit. What actions did you do today? In reality, who are you? You may work this out and create a regular writing schedule with the use of journaling applications.
4 Best Journal Apps in 2024
These are the best journaling apps to capture your experiences for this year and the years to come, based on testing around two dozen options. To find out more about the reasons behind my selection of any programme, click on it; otherwise, continue reading for additional background on journal apps.
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4 Best Journal Apps in 2024 Summary
Best for
Standout feature
Pricing
Day One
Mac and iOS users
Customizable multiple reminders
Free version available; from $2.92/month for premium features
Diarium
Windows users
Native apps for multiple platforms and configurable reminders
Free version available on Android ($4.99 for Pro), iOS ($4.99 for Pro), and macOS ($8.99 for Pro); Windows version for $9.99
Grid Diary
Templated journaling
Grid of recurring questions for daily reflection
Free version available; paid version from $2.99/month for syncing, encryption, unlimited journals, and exporting to PDF
Dabble Me
Journaling over email
Journal by responding to emails, with complete archive view
Free version available; starts at $3/month to get reminders
Though apps provide more, a physical notepad and pen work well for journaling. They provide you with additional background information about your accomplishments and potential future goals. For an even more fulfilling journaling experience, they also allow you to attach images from your phone or postings from social media accounts. Digitising your notebook becomes practically effortless when you incorporate features like searching through your entries and receive reminders.
More than ten years of professional experience in software testing and writing have been gained by me. Additionally, for the last five years, I have kept a daily journal. Personally, I find that it’s a very significant ritual, and many of the best ideas I write about come from this process. The greatest applications for journaling, in my opinion, have.
Easy entry: If it takes more than a couple of clicks or taps to add a journal entry, chances are you’re not going to do it.
Pleasant interface: A minimalist, uncluttered interface helps you focus on your thoughts and makes journaling a pleasant experience.
Reminders: Perhaps the biggest challenge to online journaling is remembering to do it. Automatic reminders help you keep up the habit.
Exporting: In case the app stops being developed or you want to move to a different journaling platform, you’ll want to be able to export your entries in a format other programs can read, such as PDF or RTF.
Syncing: Syncing will make sure your journal’s up to date no matter what device you’re using.
Affordability: I eliminated some apps because of the high price. Journaling shouldn’t be expensive. If you’re looking for a free journal app, some of the options on this list will do the trick, just with fewer features than the premium plans.
You might find it useful to have additional capabilities for a digital notebook, such as journaling prompts, location and weather tags, multiple photo uploading, password protection, and Markdown support. This year, I tested every diary app that I could find in order to update the list. I began by making a few new entries, complete with photographs, for each one. After that, I took some time to look through the settings, test the daily reminders, and make sure the exporting and syncing functions operated as promised. These are the top journaling applications.
Best Journal App For Mac And IOS Users
Day One Mac, IOS, WatchOS, Android
Day One Pros
Beautiful and intuitive interface
Easy to use and set up
Supports Markdown formatting
Great reminders
Day One Cons
Paid version required for core features like syncing
Day One has been one of the most well-recommended journaling applications since its 2011 introduction, earning multiple Apple Editors Choice awards in the App Store.
It’s easy to understand why. Almost everything you may desire or need in a digital journal is available in this software. On the Mac, you can use templates to make writing easier, create journal entries with just one click from the menu bar, and have metadata like location, weather, motion activity, currently playing music, and step count automatically added. If you are unsure of what to write about, there are optional prompts available. In addition, you may format articles in Markdown, add images and videos, password-protect your diary, and tag items with hashtags.
Customising many reminders is arguably Day One’s best feature. You only get one reminder every day from the majority of other journal apps. But with Day One, you can record your thoughts and activities throughout the day by being prompted to write, for example, at the beginning of the day, at lunch, and at the end of the workday.
Nearly all of the essential journaling capabilities are available in the free version of the programme; however, you’ll need to sign up for the Day One Premium service if you want syncing, unlimited photo storage, handwritten and voice entries, and numerous journals.
Day One Pricing
Free version available; $2.92/month for premium features when billed annually
Best Cross-Platform Journal App
Diarium (Windows, Android, macOS, iOS)
Diarium Pros
Native apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
Configurable reminders
Syncing with multiple cloud services
Export to multiple formats
Diarium Cons
Can be a little confusing
Diarium provides stunning native apps for all operating systems. Among them, the Windows application is the nicest that I could discover. But there’s a plenty more to suggest from this place. You can include several kinds of media in your diary entries. Accurate speech recognition enables you to dictate your thoughts if you’d prefer speak than type. Multiple images and any other kind of media, including audio files and inked drawings, can be attached to your entries. You may even assign a rating to your journal entries, which could be especially helpful for monitoring your daily level of happiness.
Diarium doesn’t require a sign-in, and you may sync with it using WebDAV, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive, among other cloud programmes. Your entries can also be exported. Diarium can automatically draw in feeds from Facebook, Untappd, Trakt, or Instagram; it can also bring in feeds from fitness apps, such as Strava, Fitbit, Google Fit, and Fitbit, among others, to make journaling even easier. It can also pull in the weather for the day and your calendar appointments. Take this and add gorgeous native apps for each platform along with daily reminders, and you have the greatest cross-platform journal software available right now.
Diarium Pricing
Free version available on Android ($4.99 for Pro), iOS ($4.99 for Pro), and macOS ($8.99 for Pro). Windows version for $9.99.
Best journal app for templated journaling
Grid Diary (macOS, Android, iOS)
Grid Diary Pros
Grid of recurring questions is accessible for journaling beginners
Recurring questions are customizable
Offers reminders
Grid Diary Cons
Not ideal for long-form journal entries
The simplest way to get started with keeping a diary” is how Grid journal describes itself. This diary app provides a grid of boxes with customisable headers, rather than a blank canvas. Though you can alter them to say anything you’d like, the defaults say things like “Today’s wins,” “Health and Fitness,” and “Personal growth.”
This allows you to see your life, day by day, in great detail and from an aerial perspective. The integrated calendar can be used to oversee entries, or the Titles view can be utilised to examine every entry for a specific grid. If you’re using the commercial version, you may additionally synchronise between numerous devices, utilise encrypted private journals, and attach files. Rather than considering what you ought.
Grid Diary Pricing
Free version available; paid version from $2.99/month for syncing, encryption, unlimited journals, and exporting to PDF.
Best Journal App Gor Journaling Over Email
Dabble Me
Dabble Me Pros
Journal by responding to an email
No need to form a new habit
Dabble Me Cons
Free version doesn’t offer reminders
The primary issue with journal apps is that opening them requires memory. Since Dabble Me operates solely via email, it is not affected by this issue. If you subscribe to the paid version ($3/month), you will receive an email once a day reminding you to journal. Simply reply to the email to start journaling. Although the free edition lacks the daily prompts, journaling is still as simple as writing an email because you can set up a personalised email address in the settings to receive entries.
On the website, which also features search capabilities, a calendar view, and a page where you can examine and listen to any Spotify links you’ve included in your entries, you can access the whole history of your journals. Additionally, exporting your entries to TXT is supported. Pretend to be writing letters to friends as a method of journaling. For this, Dabble Me is ideal as it exists in the same place where you now compose emails.
Dabble Me Pricing
Free version available; Pro (with reminders) starts at $3/month.
Should You Use A Journaling App?
A regular notebook can enough for journaling, as many people find success with this method instead of using specialised diary apps. Additionally, certain additional app types may function flawlessly.
All of the top note-taking applications are excellent for journal entries. Simply start a fresh notepad and write something new each day.
Right now, a lot of journals with AI enhancements are hitting the market. I choose not to include any, as some aren’t quite ready and others are out of privacy and security reasons. Mynd is my favourite of the apps I examined; it functions primarily as a typical journal app and leverages AI to offer summaries and follow-up questions. Just remember that everything you share with AI is probably not particularly private, generally speaking.
There are several mood tracking applications available on the market if you would like to track your feelings over time but don’t feel like writing every day. I like Daylio after testing it.
Only accessible on Android and iOS, 5 Minute Journal is an excellent alternative for novices due to its straightforward design and timed prompts throughout the day. It’s based on the well-known paper journals of the same name and mostly focuses on developing an attitude of appreciation. However, the apps are no longer available on the website, so I’m not sure if they will remain available.
With an application such as Trello or Airtable, you may create your own digital bullet journal.
If you really want something unique, you can use Zapier to create your own journal app without knowing any programming.
Grid Diary Pros