Best Free Journal Apps 2026: 6 Options Compared

Journal apps trade privacy, features and price in different ways, and the first question is where you want the entries stored. Day One is the best known and its free Basic plan gives unlimited entries and journals, with one photo per entry on a single device. Diaro and Penzu are older and cheaper: Diaro is free to download with a Pro tier at $5.99 a year, and Penzu has a free journal with free cloud sync and Pro at $19.99 a year, though it needs a free account. If you want your entries as plain files you own, Obsidian keeps notes locally with no limits on the core app, Joplin is open source and syncs with end-to-end encryption, and Logseq builds its whole workflow around a daily journal page. The trade-off is polish against ownership. Day One has the nicest writing and photo experience but locks premium features behind a subscription, while the note apps are flexible and long-lived but require more setup. For a daily habit, the app that opens fastest on your phone usually wins. Check export options first, so that a year of entries can move with you if you change apps, and use a passcode if the journal holds anything sensitive.

Day One

Basic plan: unlimited journals and entries, 1 photo per entry, 1 device. Silver is $49.99 a year for unlimited devices and media.

Price: Free (Basic plan: unlimited journals and entries, 1 photo per entry, 1 device); paid from USD (symbol only on page) 49.99 per year (Silver; Gold $74.99) (Day One pricing, checked 2026-10-24).

Platforms and license: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Web. Proprietary.

Best for: The most polished journaling experience.

Diaro

Free download with ads; Pro at $5.99 a year removes them. Facts come from the App Store listing.

Price: Free (Free download; Pro removes ads); paid from $5.99 per year (Diaro PRO) (Diaro pricing, checked 2026-10-24).

Platforms and license: iOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: Cheap mobile journaling.

Penzu

Free journal with free cloud sync on web and mobile, requiring a free account. Pro is $19.99 a year or $4.99 monthly.

Price: Free (Free journal and diary with free cloud sync; a free Penzu account is required); paid from $19.99 per year (Pro; $4.99 monthly) (Penzu pricing, checked 2026-10-24).

Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: A simple private diary.

Obsidian

Core app is free with no limits, storing notes as local files. Sync is a paid add-on at $4 a month billed annually.

Price: Free (core app with no limits, including commercial use); paid from $4 per user/month, billed annually (Sync add-on; $5 billed monthly) (Obsidian pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: Journals as plain files you own.

Compare: Obsidian alternatives

Joplin

AGPL-3.0 note app on Windows, macOS, Linux and mobile, with end-to-end encrypted sync. Joplin Cloud is the paid sync option.

Price: Free (open-source note app; Joplin Cloud is the paid sync option) (Joplin pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Terminal. AGPL-3.0-or-later (open source).

Project activity: 56.9k GitHub stars · latest release v3.7.21 (Sep 25, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026

Best for: Open-source encrypted journaling.

Logseq

AGPL-3.0 outliner whose daily journal pages are central. No paid plan listed; the database version's mobile app is iOS first.

Price: Free (open-source outliner and knowledge base with no paid plan listed) (Logseq pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux, Web, iOS. AGPL-3.0 (open source).

Project activity: 45.4k GitHub stars · latest release 2.0.2 (Oct 7, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026

Best for: Daily outlines linked to notes.

Which one to pick

• You want the best writing app and photos: Day One
• You want a cheap mobile diary: Diaro
• You want entries as files you control: Obsidian
• You want encrypted open-source notes: Joplin