Grid Diary vs Journalistic
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Grid Diary
Prompt-based diary and planner laid out as a grid of questions
Free plan · from $4.99/mo
Journalistic
Micro journaling web app built around short bulleted entries
Free
Where they differ
- Grid Diary starts at $4.99 per month, or $29.99 per year. Journalistic is free.
- Only Grid Diary lists macOS, iOS and Android apps.
- Only Journalistic lists a web app.
- Grid Diary also covers Markdown, templates and habit tracking.
- Journalistic also covers notes and goals.
In commonFree planDaily notes
At a glance
| Grid Diary | Journalistic | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $4.99 per month, or $29.99 per year | Free |
| Free plan | Many of the app's features are free to use. Sync between all your devices, the passcode lock and more color themes are member-only. | 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 | The vendor's site lists a 3-day free trial on the monthly plan and a 14-day free trial on the annual plan. | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Sumi Interactive | Toni Engelhardt |
| Price read from | apps.apple.com | journalisticapp.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Grid Diary
- People who find a blank page hard and prefer answering prompts
- Weekly, monthly and yearly reviews alongside a daily diary
- Building a custom journal or planner from templates
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
Grid Diary
- Sync between devices, the passcode lock and extra color themes require the paid membership.
- The vendor's site quotes $2.99 monthly and $22.99 annual, while the US App Store lists $4.99 and $29.99.
- Apps are listed for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android; no Windows app is offered.
- The App Store version requires iOS 26, iPadOS 26 or macOS 26 or later.
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
Grid Diary
- Grid format with prompts
- An entry is a customizable grid of prompted boxes on a single page. Prompts come from a built-in library, or you can write your own.
- Day, week, month and year entries
- Separate daily, weekly, monthly and yearly entries let you plan and review at each time scale within the same journal.
- Templates
- Customizable templates cover a gratitude journal, a goal tracker, a weekly planner and more, so the app can double as a planner.
- Mandala layout
- A 9-grid layout inspired by the mandala keeps a fixed center cell, which the vendor compares to journaling as a mind map.
- Markdown editor and attachments
- The editor supports Markdown with rich preview, inline images and to-dos, and photos can be attached to entries.
- Multiple journals, tags and export
- Keep dedicated journals for areas such as family, work and travel, organize entries with tags, and export in PDF, Markdown, JPG and other formats.
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
Grid Diary
Free$0
Many of the app's features without a subscription. Sync between devices, the passcode lock and extra color themes are excluded.
Membership$4.99
per month, or $29.99 per year (US App Store)
One in-app subscription covering all your devices: sync, passcode lock, more color themes and future member-only features.
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
Grid Diary
- Annual discount
About 50% less with the annual membership
The US App Store lists the membership at $4.99 monthly or $29.99 annual, which is about 50% less than twelve monthly payments.
Journalistic
No public discounts listed.
