Have you ever thought about keeping a journal? Maybe you’ve wondered how to begin your journal or even what software to use. I struggled when starting my journey with the journal. That is why I set out this post to show my choice amongst different software that can be used for journaling.
Journaling can have a tremendous impact on your life. It not only allows you to relive the events of your life but also provides an opportunity to reflect upon them. What makes journaling so effective is how it helps us learn from our past experiences. Journaling is one of my most powerful tools in dealing with the challenges I face. Using journaling, my stress level has decreased tremendously and my productivity has soared. That’s why I want to share with you some great software for journaling that will make your life easier!
Here are the best journal and diary apps you can use both online and offline, either from a web browser or on a mobile device. 01 of 07
Diaro: The Best Journal App for Including Images in Your Entries
What We Like
- The ability to attach an unlimited number of images to your entries.
- You can search for entries by folder, tag, location, date, or other helpful filters.
What We Don’t Like
- You’ll need to upgrade to Diaro Pro for an ad-free journaling experience, import/export functionality, and multilingual support.
Diaro’s powerful interface is great for journaling enthusiasts who love to stay organized and liven up their entries with a wide variety of visuals. You can even swipe between entries just like a real journal or diary.
Download For: iOS Android https://57f48c91cdb3afc15a5cf95394851370.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html 02 of 07
Journey: The Most Intuitive Interface and Best Looking Layout
What We Like
- The ability to attach multiple images and videos to journal entries.
- You can protect your journal with Touch ID, Face ID, or PIN-protected journals.
- Automatic backups in Google Drive.
What We Don’t Like
- You’ll have to upgrade to a recurring $3.99 monthly or $29.99 annual fee if you want access to more features.
- You’ll have to pay a separate fee for each different platform version if you plan to use the app on different platforms.
Whether you’re keeping a dream journal, a gratitude journal, a work journal, or any other type of journal, Journey is simply one of the best apps out there. Its crisp, clean layout is a pleasure to use for crafting your journal entries so they suit your personal journaling style.
Download For: iOS Android Windows macOS X Linux 03 of 07
Penzu: The Most Secure Journal App to Protect Your Information
What We Like
- An incredibly secure journal for ultimate protection and privacy.
- Fully customizable journal features for personalized journal covers, backgrounds, and font faces.
- You can easily insert images between text in entries.
What We Don’t Like
- You’ll have to upgrade to a $4.99 a month plan or a $19.99 a year plan if you want access to its full offering of customization features.
- Some users report issues with saving entries and the app crashing.
- Last updated in 2017.
Many journal apps offer security and privacy features, but Penzu is one that excels at it. This great journal app keeps your entries 100% safe with double password protection and military-grade 256-bit AES encryption.
Best cross-platform journal app
Diarium (Windows, Android, macOS, iOS)
Compared to other journaling apps, Diarium stands out for its support for multiple media types in journal entries. If you’d rather speak than type, you can dictate your thoughts with accurate speech recognition. You can attach an audio file, inked drawing, or any other type of file to your entries, as well as multiple photos. Heck, you can even rate your journal entries (perhaps most useful as a way to track how happy you are each day).
Diarium syncs using your choice of cloud apps—OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or WebDAV. You can also export your entries to DOCX, HTML, RTF, or TXT formats—with separate files for media attachments—so you can rest assured that your data will always be accessible.
To make journaling even easier, Diarium can automatically pull in feeds from Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or fitness apps, including Google Fit, Fitbit, and Strava, among other apps. The app can also remind you once a day (at your chosen time) to write in the journal.
Diarium Pricing: Free version available on Android ($4.99 for Pro), iOS ($4.99 for Pro), and macOS ($8.99 for Pro). Windows 10 version for $19.99.
Best journal app for secure journaling
Penzu (Web, iOS, Android)
Writing a journal entry in Penzu is much like writing a blog post in WordPress, with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface, complete with a text formatting toolbar. So why not just use Word, WordPress, or a note-taking app like Evernote? For one thing, Penzu keeps your entries together in one journal online, as opposed to several different files. Custom email reminders help you remember to record your journal entry. And Penzu can send you reminders of what you’ve written in the past so that you can reminisce about the good old days.
More importantly, Penzu will keep your entries 100 percent private. You can lock your journal with a special password (which is different than your account password), secure your content with 128-bit encryption, and choose to auto-lock your journal at all times. If you’re on the Pro plan, Penzu can safeguard your entries with military-strength 256-bit encryption.
If you want to keep a journal the same way you might a personal blog but keep it private, Penzu is an excellent option. You’ll need to spring for the paid Pro plan, though, to get core digital journaling features such as tagging.
Penzu Pricing: Free version available; paid version from $19.99/year
Best journal app for social media power users
Momento (iOS)
If you’re already documenting your life online on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Medium, you’re already keeping a journal. It’s just spread across the internet. Momento brings all of your shared posts and interactions from sites like these into one place, helping you keep a digital archive of your online interactions. Momento supports 11 feeds, including your Uber trip history, Spotify saved tracks, and YouTube videos. You can also create new journal entries like you would with a typical journaling app.
Momento excels at resurfacing where you’ve been and what you’ve done in the past. You can group separate entries (or “moments”) into “events”—so all of the Instagram photos you were tagged in for a family reunion could live together. The app will show you what happened on a specific date in previous years, so you can see how time has flown. And preset reminders—for example, “what did you dream?” at 7:30 a.m. and “how was your day?” at 8 p.m.—make it easier to journal when you’re not sure what to write.
Momento Pricing: Free for up to 3 social feeds; $2.49/month for the Premium plan, $37.99/year for the Premium Gold plan
Best journal app for templated journaling
Grid Diary (macOS, Android, iOS)
Grid Diary bills itself as “the simplest way to get started with keeping a diary.” Instead of a blank slate, this app gives you a grid of boxes you can give custom headers. The defaults are things like “Today’s wins,” “Heath and Fitness,” and “Personal growth,” though you can customize these to say whatever you want.
This gives you a detailed and bird’s-eye view of what’s happening in your life, one day at a time. You can review entries using the built-in calendar, or you can use the Titles view to review all entries for a particular grid. There’s also support for attachments, and syncing between multiple devices if you’re using the paid version. Instead of wondering what you should write about each day, use Grid Diary to write down simple responses that help you reflect on your days.
Grid Diary Pricing: Free version available; paid version from $2.99/month
Conclusion
Journaling is a good habit to have because it keeps you motivated, focused and grounded. You can do it with a pen and a piece of paper, but why haven’t you done that yet? In this article, you’ll find out what type of software can help with journaling and how to use it.