# Alternatives to Apple Journal
Apple's built-in journaling.
Apple Journal ranks #6 of 6 in Journaling apps, with an Alt Score of 60. It is proprietary, free from Free and available on iOS and macOS. 8 of 9 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/apple-journal/
Category: Journaling apps
## Where Apple Journal stands out
- **E2E encryption** — 3 of 6 apps with a verified answer have this
## Overview
- **Who it's for**: People who want to build a private daily journaling habit but struggle to remember what happened in their day or find a blank page intimidating.
- **What you get**: Apple Journal suggests moments from your day, drawn from photos, workouts, locations visited, music listened to, and other on-device activity, that you can turn into journal entries. It supports text, photos, video, and audio recordings within entries, and can send periodic reminders to write. Entries are end-to-end encrypted and stored in iCloud (or locally), and the suggestion data used to generate prompts is processed on-device rather than sent to Apple.
- **How it works**: The app runs an on-device machine learning process that scans recent activity across apps like Photos, Health, Maps, and Music for notable moments, then surfaces a curated set of these as writing prompts you can accept, edit, or dismiss.
## Profile
- **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-07-08)
- **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-08)
- **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-08)
- **Platforms**: iOS, macOS
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-08)
## Ranked alternatives
| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Journey](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/journey.md) | 95 | ? | iOS, macOS, Android, Windows |
| 2 | [Day One](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/day-one.md) | 80 | Proprietary | iOS, macOS, Android, Windows |
| 3 | [Diarium](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/diarium.md) | 80 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android |
| 4 | [Daylio](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/daylio.md) | 70 | Proprietary | iOS, Android |
| 5 | [Stoic](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/stoic.md) | 70 | Proprietary | ? |
Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/
## Feature comparison
Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).
| Journaling apps checklist | Apple Journal | Journey | Day One | Diarium | Daylio | Stoic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starts at | Free | $6.99/month | $49.99/year | Free | Free | ? |
| License | Proprietary | ? | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | iOS, macOS | iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, Linux, Web | iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | iOS, Android | ? |
| E2E encryption | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Templates & prompts | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Photos & media | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mood tracking | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export formats | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sync across devices | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial |
| On-this-day memories | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| One-time purchase option | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Markdown support | No | Partial | Yes | ? | No | Yes |
## Sources
Sources for Apple Journal. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
- **License**: Proprietary — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Quote: “Journal, a new iPhone app available today, helps users reflect and practice gratitude through journaling”
- **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Quote: “Free”
- **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Quote: “Free”
- **Platforms**: iOS, macOS — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Note: iPhone/iPad (iOS); macOS via Apple Support Mac guide.
- Quote: “Requires iOS 17.2 or later”
- **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Quote: “Learn how to use the Journal app on Mac to record your experiences.”
- **E2E encryption**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Quote: “All Journal entries are end-to-end encrypted when stored in iCloud, so that no one but the user can access them.”
- **Templates & prompts**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Note: Prompts/suggestions but no user templates.
- Quote: “Daily reflection prompts help users focus on gratitude, kindness, purpose, and more.”
- **Photos & media**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Quote: “include photos, videos, audio recordings, locations, and more to create rich memories.”
- **Mood tracking**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Quote: “Log your state of mind right from within Journal and save it to the Health app”
- **Export formats**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Note: PDF via print; no Markdown/plain-text export.
- Quote: “Print and export entries”
- **Sync across devices**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Note: iCloud sync across iPhone/iPad/Mac.
- Quote: “end-to-end encrypted when stored in iCloud”
- **One-time purchase option**: No — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Note: Free, bundled with iOS; no purchase.
- Quote: “Free”
- **Markdown support**: No — (verified 2026-07-08)
- Note: No Markdown writing/export documented.
- Quote: “Print and export entries”
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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/