Dabble Me vs Journalistic
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Dabble Me
Private journal you keep by replying to email prompts
Free plan · from $4/mo
Journalistic
Micro journaling web app built around short bulleted entries
Free
Where they differ
- Dabble Me starts at $4 per month, or $40 per year. Journalistic is free.
- Dabble Me is open source, according to its own site.
- Journalistic also covers notes and goals.
In commonFree planWebDaily notes
At a glance
| Dabble Me | Journalistic | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $4 per month, or $40 per year | Free |
| Free plan | Free forever: an email prompt every other Sunday, journaling by email reply, reading entries online, past entries resurfaced in emails, and data export. | Everything is free at present: unlimited entries, every module and sync across devices. A Pro plan is listed at $4.90 a month but marked coming soon, and its features are free until it launches. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Dabble Dev LLC | Toni Engelhardt |
| Price read from | dabble.me | journalisticapp.com |
| Checked | Oct 6, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Dabble Me
- People who would sooner reply to an email than open a journaling app
- Rereading old entries, which come back inside the prompt emails
- Journal keepers who want to query their entries from Claude or ChatGPT
Journalistic
- People who want a few bullet points a day instead of long entries
- Keeping count of activities and people with #tags and @mentions
- Logging dreams alongside a daily journal
Worth knowing
Dabble Me
- There is no mobile or desktop app: you write by replying to an email or in a web browser.
- Free accounts get a prompt only every other Sunday; daily prompts, photos, search, the calendar view and the web editor need PRO.
- Entries are not end-to-end encrypted: the privacy policy notes that email content passes through email providers in transit.
- Entries an AI assistant reads through the connector are sent to that assistant's provider for processing.
Journalistic
- A Pro plan at $4.90 a month is announced but not on sale; the docs say Focus, Insights and other Pro features will leave free accounts when it launches.
- There is no App Store app, and the Google Play listing the site links to was not found when checked; phones install it from the browser.
- Nothing can be imported, not even Journalistic's own exports; Day One and Journey imports are on the roadmap.
- End-to-end encryption is planned but not available, and the site's news page has no post after January 2024.
Key features
Dabble Me
- Journaling by email reply
- A prompt arrives in your inbox and your reply becomes that day's entry. Several replies on one day are added to the same entry, and a date in the subject line files it elsewhere.
- Blasts from the past
- Each prompt email carries an entry you wrote on an earlier date, so old entries come back without you looking for them. This is part of the free plan.
- Custom schedule
- PRO members choose the days and times prompts arrive, from daily to weekly. Free accounts get a prompt every other Sunday.
- Photos, hashtags and search
- PRO adds up to 8 photos per entry, sent as email attachments or added on the web, plus a calendar view and search across entries and #hashtags.
- Web editor and importers
- PRO members can write or edit an entry for any date on the website with rich text, and import journals from OhLife, Day One, Ahhlife and Trailmix.life.
- AI connector over MCP
- A remote MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT and other compatible clients search, list, analyze and add entries after you approve access. It needs PRO and a passkey or two-factor login.
Journalistic
- Bulleted micro entries
- Each day is logged as a few short bullet points instead of long paragraphs, which the vendor describes as a bullet journal with a low word count.
- Tags, people and highlights
- A #tag marks an activity and an @mention marks a person, and tapping a bullet marks it as a highlight. Tags and mentions are visible only to you.
- Optional modules
- Dreams, Notes, Wisdom (quotes and lessons), Ideas and Focus (a prioritized goal list) sit beside the daily log, and each module can be switched off.
- Reflect
- A customizable stream shows yesterday's entry, the past week's notable items, the entry from one year ago and a random older entry called Memory lane.
- Insights
- Statistics, timelines and charts are compiled from your entries, such as words per day or which weekdays you dream most. It is marked as a Pro feature and is free for now.
- Data export
- All journal data can be downloaded from the Account page as plain text, Markdown or JSON. The JSON file carries most of the metadata.
Plans
Dabble Me
Free$0
An email prompt every other Sunday, entries written by email reply and read online, past entries resurfaced, and export at any time.
PRO$4
per month, or $40 per year
Custom email schedule, web editor with rich text, up to 8 photos per entry, calendar view, search, tags, analytics and the AI connector.
Journalistic
Basic$0
Unlimited entries, the standard modules (Reflect, Dreams, Highlights, Tags, People, Notes, Wisdom, Ideas) and sync on unlimited devices.
Ways to pay less
Dabble Me
- Annual discount
Two months free with yearly billing
PRO is listed at $4 a month or $40 a year, so paying yearly costs $8 less than twelve monthly payments, a saving of about 17%.
Journalistic
No public discounts listed.
