Daybook vs Diarium

Daybook

• People who want a free journal that syncs between phone and browser
• Dictating entries by voice or through a voice assistant
• Guided gratitude, mood and reflection journaling

Diarium

• People who want to pay once instead of subscribing
• Journaling across Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac
• Keeping a journal on your own device and cloud storage with no account
• Pulling calendar, fitness and social activity into daily entries

Daybook

• Vendor prices disagree: the website shows Pro at $3.49 a month or $39.99 a year, while the US App Store lists Premium at $4.49 a month, $29.99 a year or $94.99 once.
• Mood analytics, AI features, custom templates, themes, higher-resolution photos and the full set of guided journals need the paid tier.
• Entries are stored in Daybook's cloud and encrypted in transit; the site does not claim end-to-end encryption.
• No Mac or Windows app is listed, so desktop use is through the web app. The App Store shows the iOS app's last update as November 2024.

Diarium

• Pro is bought separately for each platform, and iOS and macOS count as separate purchases.
• Cloud Sync, unlimited attachments, Word export, widgets and integrations require Pro.
• There is no free version on Windows, where Diarium is a paid app listed at $19.99 in the Microsoft Store.
• By default the journal is stored only on the device, so without Cloud Sync you need to make your own backups.

Daybook

Cloud sync across devices

Entries and photos back up automatically to Daybook's cloud and sync between phone, tablet and the web app. Unlimited entries and sync are part of the free plan.

Guided journals

Structured journals cover nightly reflection, mental health check-ins and gratitude. Access to every guided journal is one of the paid unlocks.

Mood and activity tracker

Log daily moods and activities alongside entries. Mood analytics and word analysis of what you wrote are listed under Pro.

Voice-to-text and voice assistants

Entries can be dictated with speech-to-text, and the store listings describe voice features through Alexa and Google Assistant. A Daybook GPT is listed in the ChatGPT store.

AI features

AI summarizes entries, offers insights and suggests improvements, and the iOS listing describes a Journal GPT that answers questions about your entries. AI features are part of Pro.

Calendar, tags and PDF export

A calendar view and tags help you find past entries, and entries export to PDF with customizable layouts for printing. A passcode lock keeps the journal private.

Diarium

Rich entries with attachments

Entries support rich text formatting, tags and locations, plus photos, videos, audio recordings, PDFs and other files. Several entries can be created per day.

Calendar, timeline and map views

Look back through a calendar, a scrolling timeline, a map of places visited, an attachments gallery and an On this day page with optional notifications.

Automatic feeds

Connected services add context to a day: camera roll photos, calendar events, weather, Strava and Apple Health data, Microsoft To Do tasks and Last.fm scrobbles. Some feeds require Pro.

Sync through your own cloud

Pro syncs the journal across platforms using your OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud or WebDAV storage. The uploaded data is compressed and encrypted.

Import and export

Migrates journals from Day One, Diaro, Journey, Daylio, Diarly, Daybook, Evernote and Apple Journal, and exports to Word, plain text, HTML or JSON.

Lock without an account

No login or sign-up is required and the app carries no ads. The journal can be protected with a password, PIN or biometrics such as Face ID and Windows Hello.

Daybook

• Free$0

  Daybook's basic features: unlimited entries, sync across multiple devices and automatic cloud backup.

• Pro (monthly)$3.49

  per month

  Mood analytics and word analysis, AI features, guided journals, themes, custom templates, higher-resolution photos and the advanced printer.

• Pro (yearly)$39.99

  per year

  The same Pro features billed once a year, as shown under the Yearly toggle on the vendor's website.

Diarium

• Free$0

  The app on Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac without Cloud Sync, unlimited attachments, Word export, widgets, custom fonts, weather or integrations.

• Pro version (Android, iOS or macOS)$14.99

  one-time purchase per platform

  Unlocks Cloud Sync, unlimited attachments, Word export, connected feeds, custom fonts, widgets and weather. iOS and macOS count as separate platforms.

• Diarium for Windows$19.99

  one-time purchase (Microsoft Store)

  A paid app that already includes Pro. The same app is also sold as a direct download on Gumroad for $30.

Daybook

• Annual discount

  Yearly billing costs slightly less than monthly

  The website lists Pro at $3.49 a month or $39.99 a year. Twelve monthly payments come to $41.88, so the yearly plan saves $1.89, about 4.5%.

• Lifetime license

  One-time purchase of Daybook Premium

  The US App Store lists a Daybook Premium OneTime in-app purchase at $94.99 as an alternative to a subscription. The listing's description text gives the figure as $94.49.

Diarium

No public discounts listed.