Diarium vs Journey
We give Diarium a 3.8 GPA and Journey a 3.6, out of 4.0. Diarium grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Diarium
Private journal with a one-time Pro purchase and your own cloud sync
Journey
Cross-platform diary with maps, mood tracking and guided programs
How we grade them
| 3.8GPADiariumExcellent | 3.6GPAJourneyExcellent | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | APro is a one-time $14.99 on Android, iOS or macOS, which is about three months of a typical journaling subscription. Windows is $19.99 in the Microsoft Store with Pro included. You do pay again for each platform, though, and iOS and macOS count as two. | BMembership is $6.99 a month or $49.99 a year, about typical for a journaling app, and it unlocks every platform with 10GB and 5,000 entries of cloud sync. Premium is $17.99 once, but only for Android or iOS, whichever you bought it on. Lifetime Membership is $199.00. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree on Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac, but without Cloud Sync, unlimited attachments, Word export, widgets or integrations, so it's one device and your own backups. There's no free version on Windows. A 7-day trial of Pro runs on Android, iOS and macOS. | BFree never runs out and syncs through Google Drive. But on Journey Cloud Sync it stops at 70MB and 60 entries, photo uploads are limited, and there's no desktop app, audio, video or text formatting. You get 10 Odyssey AI questions a day. |
| Features | ARich text with photos, video, audio and files, several entries a day, and views by calendar, timeline, map and On this day. Feeds pull in calendar events, weather, Strava and Apple Health. It imports from Day One, Journey, Daylio and five more, and exports to Word, text, HTML or JSON. | AEntries with photos, video and audio, tables and checklists. Browse by calendar, by map in Atlas or by Throwback to past dates. There are more than 60 guided programs, shared journals, entries by email and optional end-to-end encryption. One catch: turning encryption on disables search, for good. |
| Ease of use | A4.8 from about 2,000 App Store ratings. There's no login or sign-up: install it and write. The only setup is sync, where you connect your own OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud or WebDAV storage. | A4.6 from about 5,100 App Store ratings. Coach programs and prompt templates give you a way in. What takes thought is the buying: Premium, Membership, Lifetime and a separate Signature plan each cover different things. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWindows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android, with sync through OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud or WebDAV. It connects to Strava, Apple Health, Microsoft To Do and Last.fm as well. No web version is listed. | AAndroid, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux and the web, which is everything. It connects to Google Drive, Zapier, WhatsApp, Apple Health, WordPress and Siri Shortcuts, among others. There's even a Docker image if you want to host the sync drive yourself. |
| Best for | paying once for a private journal | a journal on every platform, Linux included |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Diarium and Journey. How we grade
Where they differ
- Diarium starts at $14.99 one-time purchase per platform. Journey starts at $17.99 one-time per platform, or $49.99 per year for Membership.
- Only Journey lists a web app.
- Only Journey lists a Linux app.
- Diarium can be bought with a one-time purchase.
- Journey is end-to-end encrypted, according to its own site.
At a glance
| Diarium | Journey | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $14.99 one-time purchase per platform | $17.99 one-time per platform, or $49.99 per year for Membership |
| Free plan | Free to use on Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac, without Pro features such as Cloud Sync, unlimited attachments, Word export, widgets, custom fonts, weather and integrations. Windows is a paid app. | Free version with no time limit: Google Drive sync, or 70MB and 60 entries on Journey Cloud Sync, limited photo uploads and 10 Odyssey AI questions a day. No desktop app, audio or video. |
| Free trial | 7-day trial of all Pro features on Android, iOS and macOS before buying. | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Timo Partl | Two App Studio Pte. Ltd. |
| Price read from | apps.apple.com | apps.apple.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
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
Journey
- People who want one journal on phone, desktop (including Linux) and web
- Travel journals, with entries tagged by place and shown on a map
- Guided journaling through coach programs and templates
- Buyers who would rather pay once than subscribe
Worth knowing
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.
Journey
- The free version has no desktop app access and caps Journey Cloud Sync at 70MB and 60 entries.
- A Premium license covers a single platform; the help center says the Journey Desktop and web apps do not support it.
- Turning on end-to-end encryption disables search, and the vendor says it cannot be reversed.
- Membership stops at 10GB and 5,000 entries; more needs the separate Signature subscription, whose price is not shown publicly.
Key features
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.
Journey
- Multimedia entries
- Entries hold photos, videos and audio, with formatting such as tables, checklists and text color. The free version limits photo uploads and has no audio, video or text formatting.
- Atlas, calendar and Throwback
- Atlas maps entries and media by tagged location, the calendar shows entries by date, and Throwback resurfaces entries from a week, a month or years ago.
- Sync and end-to-end encryption
- Journals sync through Google Drive or Journey Cloud Sync. Journey Cloud Sync has optional end-to-end encryption with a passphrase the company does not store, and a Docker image for a self-hosted sync drive is offered.
- Coach programs and templates
- More than 60 guided journaling programs and a set of prompt templates. Free and Premium get limited access; Membership unlocks all programs and custom templates.
- Odyssey AI
- A chat assistant answers questions about your own past entries. Free and Premium accounts can ask 10 questions a day, and Membership raises that to 50.
- Shared journals and web links
- Journals can be shared with other people, and selected entries published as web links that open in a browser. Free accounts get 2 web links, Membership 50.
Plans
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.
Journey
Free$0
Mobile and limited web access, Google Drive sync, 70MB and 60 entries on Journey Cloud Sync, shared journals and limited photo uploads.
Premium$17.99
one-time purchase per platform (US App Store price)
Unlocks rich text, audio, themes, Throwback and export on the platform it was bought for, Android or iOS. Not supported on the desktop or web apps.
Membership$6.99
per month, or $49.99 per year
Every platform including desktop and web, 10GB and 5,000 entries on Journey Cloud Sync, all coach programs, custom templates, email entries and Zapier.
Lifetime Membership$199.00
one-time purchase
The Membership features on every platform for a single payment instead of a subscription.
Ways to pay less
Diarium
No public discounts listed.
Journey
- Annual discount
About 40% less with the annual Membership
The US App Store listing prices Membership at $6.99 monthly or $49.99 a year, which works out to about 40% less than twelve monthly payments.
- Lifetime license
Lifetime Membership for a single payment
Journey's membership page offers a lifetime purchase as an alternative to the subscription. The US App Store lists Lifetime Membership at $199.00.
