Review score: 78 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 28,563 ratings
78of 100
A rich emotion vocabulary with a two-axis scale genuinely helps people name what they are feeling. The free, no-subscription model sets it apart, and therapists actively recommend it to their clients.
Praised
A detailed emotion map split by energy and valence lets you describe your state with real precision.
Complaints
The friend-sharing and sync features are unreliable, and that is the app's core social function.
Best for: Those who want to understand their emotions better without paying a subscription
Review score: 74 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 60,306 ratings
74of 100
Daylio is the best icon-based mood tracker in its category: pick activity icons and a mood level, get clear analytics over months. The downside is that after an ownership change, promotional clutter appeared in the interface and some users lost voice recordings.
Praised
Fully customizable activity and mood icons plus retrospective charts let you spot life patterns you would never notice otherwise.
Complaints
Since the company was sold, the app has pushed intrusive promotional content, and some users permanently lost voice recordings with no way to recover them.
Best for: Those who find writing difficult but want to see patterns in their mood and activities
Review score: 74 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 1,661 ratings
74of 100
A lean gratitude journal with a well-calibrated structure: three items a day, a daily quote, and a PDF summary for any period. Reminders occasionally fail and the PDF export is sometimes incomplete.
Praised
The three-point format is small enough to do every evening and specific enough to actually work.
Complaints
No streak counter and no way to jump back to a past entry without scrolling through a long list.
Best for: Those who want to build positive thinking habits without much effort
Rank 4. Review score: 73 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 4,176 ratings
73of 100
eMoods is built specifically for people with bipolar disorder: it tracks episodes, medications, sleep, and mood in a single daily report that is easy to show a psychiatrist. The interface is neutral and does not overwhelm on bad days. The weak points are unreliable cross-device sync and an export that requires technical know-how.
Praised: A specialized psychiatrist report that shows weeks and months at a glance.
Complaints: Only four severity levels (none, mild, moderate, severe) which is not enough to describe the full range of states accurately.
Best for: People with bipolar disorder who work with a psychiatrist
Rank 5. Review score: 72 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 117,024 ratings
72of 100
Day One is the most mature journal in its category: multiple journals, search across years of entries, reliable export, rich formatting, and photos. The product is not declining technically but in trust. Aggressive monetization of AI features in the Gold tier and persistent upgrade prompts frustrate loyal paying users.
Praised: Search across the entire entry history with attached photos going back 8-plus years works flawlessly and turns the journal into a personal knowledge base.
Complaints: Constant pop-ups pushing the Gold upgrade annoy even Silver subscribers and destroy the feeling of a private space.
Best for: Serious journalers and people who have kept a diary for years and value reliable export
Rank 6. Review score: 72 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 6,907 ratings
72of 100
Prompted Journal wins on prompt variety and the absence of ads: users come back because every day brings a fresh question, not the same "what are you grateful for." The weak spots are technical issues when editing past entries and a limited number of free prompts.
Praised: A library of 200 preset questions with the option to add your own eliminates the "I don't know what to write about" block even for people who dislike journaling.
Complaints: When the free prompts run out, the flow stops abruptly, and without new questions the app loses its main value.
Best for: Those who want a reflection practice but need an external question as a starting point
Rank 7. Review score: 72 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 2,058 ratings
72of 100
A voice journal with surprisingly deep AI analysis: people note gaining insights about themselves faster than they did in years of therapy. Transcription occasionally freezes and notifications can duplicate.
Praised: The AI detects behavioral patterns in voice recordings and asks precise follow-up questions.
Complaints: Audio transcription sometimes stalls for several days, breaking the journaling rhythm.
Best for: Those who find it easier to speak than to write and want to better understand themselves
Rank 8. Review score: 72 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 908 ratings
72of 100
Moodistory keeps users coming back for years through its simple check-in, color mood scale, and the ability to attach photos to memories. The limitation is not the product itself but a fairly narrow emotion palette that does not capture nuanced states.
Praised: A color mood ribbon with photos turns the past year into a tangible emotional history.
Complaints: The available emotions are limited and do not cover complex states like anxiety or mixed feelings.
Best for: Those who want a simple visual picture of their mood month by month
Rank 9. Review score: 72 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 820 ratings
72of 100
A simple password-protected diary with theme customization and free access to most features. The audience is mostly teenagers who are fine with the low barrier to entry.
Praised: A lock that engages when leaving the app plus flexible theme customization without needing to pay.
Complaints: No mood chart, no writing prompts, and no analytics. It is a plain notepad, not a reflection tool.
Best for: Teenagers who want a personal diary with a password
Rank 10. Review score: 70 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 836 ratings
70of 100
Bears Gratitude wins on illustration quality and removing friction from journaling: a short entry plus a bear illustration matching the mood. Long-term users (3 years) note stability and the value of a one-time purchase, which is rare in this market.
Praised: The bear illustrations for each entry make returning to the diary an aesthetically pleasing and cozy ritual.
Complaints: Navigation through entries is swipe-only, which is awkward when you want to quickly find something from the past.
Best for: Those who want to briefly record gratitude and good moments from the day
Rank 11. Review score: 70 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 746 ratings
70of 100
A newer app with AI feedback on entries, audio and video support, and a variety of prompts. Users appreciate the accessibility and prompts, but the AI still produces surface-level summaries rather than deep analysis.
Praised: Writing prompts that help you get started when you do not know what you are feeling.
Complaints: You cannot edit a saved entry, and AI summaries take hours and amount to a paraphrase.
Best for: Those who are just starting to journal and want gentle prompts for reflection
Rank 12. Review score: 68 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 1,896 ratings
68of 100
A reliable photo diary with excellent search and a monthly calendar view, with stable sync. The main product flaw: photos can only be inserted at the end of an entry, not inline.
Praised: A calendar cover with photo thumbnails for the month gives an instant visual overview of your life.
Complaints: Photos cannot be placed at an arbitrary point in the text; they always appear as a separate block.
Best for: Visual chroniclers who want to remember life through photographs
Rank 13. Review score: 67 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 6,836 ratings
67of 100
Bear remains one of the best note-taking apps in the Apple ecosystem: fast, beautiful, with powerful tagging and clean markdown. As a diary it only works if users build the structure themselves, and data occasionally gets lost during updates.
Praised: Eight years of stable performance with a consistent experience across all Apple devices and quick sync without extra setup.
Complaints: The absence of a traditional folder hierarchy and mandatory tag-based organization puts off users who think linearly.
Best for: Those who write notes and keep a journal in markdown and want a beautiful tool in the Apple ecosystem
Rank 14. Review score: 67 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 4,617 ratings
67of 100
Being Me offers a structured approach to journaling: morning and evening prompts, habit tracking, goals. Many users stick with it daily for months. The weak spot is an interface that feels cluttered in places, and the mobile-only format limits those who want to write at length.
Praised: Ready-made morning and evening prompts make it easy to start even for those who have never kept a journal.
Complaints: Mood analytics are thin: the app collects data but shows almost nothing in the way of patterns or trends.
Best for: Beginners who want to build a journaling habit with the help of structure
Rank 15. Review score: 65 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 34,852 ratings
65of 100
Stoic philosophy fits the daily reflection format well, and the free-writing space is valued by long-time users. Prompts repeat, AI feedback is shallow, and cross-device sync is unreliable.
Praised: The minimal design and the idea of writing without judgment help people regularly express their thoughts.
Complaints: Prompts loop quickly and stop being surprising.
Best for: Those looking for a daily self-observation practice in the spirit of stoicism
Rank 16. Review score: 64 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 4,502 ratings
64of 100
365 Gratitude builds a gratitude practice through daily stories, prompts, and mini-tasks. Many users stick with it for a year or more and report a real shift in mindset. The main weakness is content that sometimes repeats and an interface that is small and hard to read on a phone.
Praised: A daily story and a specific reflection question make it easier to get into the right headspace than staring at a blank page.
Complaints: Almost no mood pattern analytics: the app motivates but does not show how your state evolves over time.
Best for: Those who want to build a daily gratitude practice with ready-made content
Rank 17. Review score: 64 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 2,208 ratings
64of 100
One of the few trackers that genuinely links mood to specific factors like sleep, physical activity, and thoughts, helping users see patterns rather than just logging data points.
Praised: Charts showing the connection between mood, sleep, and activity provide concrete feedback that is easy to discuss with a therapist.
Complaints: Periodic connectivity issues make the app unavailable for days at a time and break ongoing streaks.
Best for: Those working with a therapist who want to systematically track how habits affect their emotional state
Rank 18. Review score: 64 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 1,270 ratings
64of 100
This tracker handles the task of logging mood patterns in bipolar disorder well, thanks to simple daily input and weekly visualization. The parameter set is limited and there is no emotion customization.
Praised: Simplicity that means the tracker actually gets used every day rather than abandoned after a week.
Complaints: The state range is narrow: only a spectrum from depression to euphoria, with no irritability, anxiety, or mixed episodes.
Best for: People with bipolar disorder and their families who want to track dynamics before a doctor's visit
Rank 19. Review score: 64 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 842 ratings
64of 100
Tochi stands out with its "mood as story" concept organized into life chapters, making journaling feel more meaningful. The visual language of a hedgehog character and colored orbs encourages regular use, though moving basic features behind a paywall frustrates loyal users.
Praised: Organizing entries into life chapters turns chaotic emotions into a coherent personal narrative.
Complaints: After recent updates, features that used to be free moved behind a subscription without any new capabilities being added.
Best for: Those who want to see their emotions as a story rather than just log entries
Rank 20. Review score: 63 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 7,249 ratings
63of 100
My Wonderful Days has worked as a simple daily diary for over ten years and keeps its audience through habit and a comfortable design. Key limitations: the mood indicator is incomplete (no sad emotions), the interface is dated, and data occasionally gets lost after crashes.
Praised: Users have kept a diary for years and value how low-friction it is: open it, write, close it, no extra steps.
Complaints: The mood slider only covers a range from neutral to angry, ignoring the entire spectrum of sadness and anxiety.
Best for: Those who want a simple daily journal without extra features and do not need mood analysis
Rank 21. Review score: 63 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 1,426 ratings
63of 100
A functional cross-platform diary with Markdown support and iCloud sync that works reliably for most people. Sync conflicts when writing from multiple devices simultaneously, and onboarding does a poor job explaining the basics.
Praised: Markdown formatting and stable sync between iPhone and Mac without any extra configuration.
Complaints: When writing on two devices back to back, sync conflicts and entries get mixed up.
Best for: Fans of clean text journaling in the Apple ecosystem
Rank 22. Review score: 63 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 965 ratings
63of 100
Grid Diary offers a genuinely flexible grid format with good prompts and photo support, but cross-device sync has been broken for a long time and spoils the experience for paying users. Long-term users love the concept; newcomers stumble over technical issues.
Praised: A structured grid format with configurable prompts helps you write every day without facing a blank page.
Complaints: Sync between the phone and other devices is unreliable and loses entries.
Best for: Those who want to ask themselves the same questions every day
Rank 23. Review score: 62 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 5,752 ratings
62of 100
Bearable excels as a symptom tracker for people with chronic conditions: flexible setup, correlations between parameters, and genuinely useful at doctor appointments. The main weakness is an overwhelming interface, a high entry barrier, and new updates that periodically break things that worked before.
Praised: The ability to trace the link between food, sleep, and how you feel, then show the doctor a real picture over a month.
Complaints: Too many steps per entry: many users quit within a week from setup fatigue.
Best for: People with chronic illnesses who keep a medical diary for their doctor
Rank 24. Review score: 62 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 3,118 ratings
62of 100
The AI conversation partner genuinely helps formulate thoughts and deepen reflection, but users with intensive use quickly hit message limits and response quality is inconsistent.
Praised: The conversational format helps you get thoughts out and structure them without fear of judgment.
Complaints: The AI occasionally mixes up facts from past entries and tends toward excessively enthusiastic reactions to any event.
Best for: People who need an accessible conversation partner for reflection at any hour
Rank 25. Review score: 62 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 1,032 ratings
62of 100
Reflection offers real value: structured prompts, voice input, and sync between iOS and web help build a habit. AI reflection is still limited to paraphrasing, and the app is still rough around the edges in terms of reliability.
Praised: Structured prompts and an AI coach help people who could never stick to a diary write every day.
Complaints: Voice recordings sometimes disappear, and import from other apps has been broken for several months.
Best for: Those who want not just to record but to work through their thoughts with guiding questions
Rank 26. Review score: 61 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 69,702 ratings
61of 100
DailyBean is the most visually appealing minimalist mood tracker in this category: pick an emotion for the day, add a note, view analytics. The core works great, but an ad after every saved entry breaks the journaling rhythm.
Praised: Themed skins and the small animated bean make the daily mood check-in a genuinely pleasant ritual.
Complaints: An ad after every saved entry destroys the feeling of a smooth, quiet journaling experience.
Best for: Those who want to log their mood simply and beautifully without many words
Rank 27. Review score: 61 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 3,981 ratings
61of 100
Orca (formerly Happyfeed) is a gratitude diary with photos and a social layer for small groups. The low barrier to entry and the daily three-good-moments ritual work. The app periodically loses entries, and switching to a new device often means losing your history.
Praised: Three good moments from the day plus a photo: a simple ritual that genuinely starts the habit of noticing good things.
Complaints: You cannot edit an entry after saving it, and there is no search through past entries, so it is a diary you cannot go back to.
Best for: Those who want a simple daily gratitude ritual, ideally shared with people close to them
Rank 28. Review score: 61 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 906 ratings
61of 100
Simple Diary honestly delivers on its promise of simplicity: quick input, fingerprint lock, photos. Users return and stay for years, but losing entries during crashes with no proper backup is a serious flaw.
Praised: A minimal interface with no extra buttons lets you open the app and write in a few seconds.
Complaints: Entries occasionally disappear with no way to recover them, and there is no real cross-device access.
Best for: Those who want to write every day without any extra setup
Rank 29. Review score: 60 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 29,127 ratings
60of 100
The CBT structure helps identify cognitive distortions, and therapists actively recommended the app to clients. After a redesign, features began conflicting with each other, the AI chat responds with platitudes, and it occasionally switches to the wrong language.
Praised: The step-by-step CBT thought breakdown gives real insights into your own patterns.
Complaints: Being forced to choose a streak length before writing feels like pressure rather than support.
Best for: Those dealing with anxiety who want structured CBT self-help
Rank 30. Review score: 58 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 719,411 ratings
58of 100
Finch is more of a self-care Tamagotchi than a journal: you set goals and "feed" the bird with your achievements. The core mechanic works and keeps people going for years, but recent updates (promotional events, inventory bugs, removed features) are slowly dismantling what made it loved.
Praised: Daily quests and the pet growing alongside you provide the small dopamine push that helps many people not give up on their habits.
Complaints: The developers are increasingly replacing content with paid events and promotional collaborations, while removing beloved old features without warning.
Best for: Those who need a game loop for motivation rather than a text diary
Rank 31. Review score: 58 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 44,874 ratings
58of 100
A simple gratitude journal with good prompts and a vision board. Serious data loss for several users and complete silence from support badly undermine trust.
Praised: Themed challenges and the vision board keep users engaged with the practice every day.
Complaints: A hard streak reset after missing one day works against the user rather than for them.
Best for: Those who want a short morning gratitude practice
Rank 32. Review score: 58 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 5,038 ratings
58of 100
Journey offers a rich set of formats: text, photos, voice, templates, and cloud sync. It suits those who want a life archive across all devices. Weak spots are navigation that is sometimes unclear and sync that occasionally loses entries.
Praised: Entries are accessible from any device and saved for years, giving the feeling of a genuine personal archive.
Complaints: No mood analytics or pattern insights: the app stores your data but does not help you understand it.
Best for: Those who keep a detailed personal archive with photos and want access everywhere
Rank 33. Review score: 58 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 3,053 ratings
58of 100
A thoughtful structure for different types of journals in one place genuinely helps build a writing practice, though some users lose account access after updates.
Praised: You can keep morning pages, a gratitude journal, and a weekly review in one app with different templates.
Complaints: No way to organize entries into folders or by topic, which is inconvenient when running several parallel journals.
Best for: Those who want to combine several writing practices in one structured space
Rank 34. Review score: 58 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 1,610 ratings
58of 100
A polished diary with a weekly mood rating and an interests tracker that many people have used for years. Development is effectively frozen: no export, no Mac support, and the journal grows without limit and can take up several gigabytes.
Praised: A weekly mood snapshot and interest checkboxes give structure to reflection without extra work.
Complaints: There is no data export at all; the diary accumulates locally and can balloon to 5 GB.
Best for: Disciplined journalers prepared to live with abandoned development in exchange for a comfortable interface
Rank 35. Review score: 58 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 1,321 ratings
58of 100
The card format suits those who want to see a day on one screen and quickly browse through the calendar. Tagging works, but formatting is not saved and support has been frozen for several years.
Praised: Minimalism without forced "therapy" features and powerful tag search for people with a large archive.
Complaints: Formatting (bold, italic) is lost on save, and the app has not been updated in a long time.
Best for: Those who have kept a diary for years and want a simple chronicle without extra features
Rank 36. Review score: 56 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 47,442 ratings
56of 100
1 Second Everyday delivers a unique video diary idea built from one-second daily clips, and for those who have kept at it for years it becomes a genuinely valuable life archive. Recent interface updates made navigation less intuitive, and a regression in export quality disappointed long-term users.
Praised: An annual video reel made from one second of each day gives a sense of a year lived that no other diary format can match.
Complaints: The new interface is confusing, and high-resolution export has regressed: 60fps was removed for the already-paid Pro plan.
Best for: Those who want a video chronicle of their life rather than a text or mood diary
Rank 37. Review score: 56 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 10,964 ratings
56of 100
One of the few mood trackers with a real CBT mechanic: you identify a cognitive trap and challenge it. It works as a therapy supplement, but widgets have been broken for over a year and period progress is only visible in the paid version.
Praised: The step-by-step thought breakdown through cognitive traps helps where simply rating your mood does not.
Complaints: Widgets have been broken for over a year; mood analytics for a given period is locked behind a paywall.
Best for: Those who have done or are doing CBT therapy and want to practice the techniques on their own
Rank 38. Review score: 55 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 289,707 ratings
55of 100
Apple's built-in app with solid ecosystem integration: photos, location, reminders out of the box, and no subscription. But the editor is rough: handwritten entries disappear, undo is broken, and multi-device sync is unreliable.
Praised: Being completely free with deep iPhone integration makes starting a journaling habit almost frictionless.
Complaints: The editor is unstable: Apple Pencil entries disappear and cross-device sync loses data.
Best for: Apple users who want to start journaling without downloading anything extra
Rank 39. Review score: 55 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 28,949 ratings
55of 100
Cute personalized emoji moods and Face ID protection work well as a concept. Chronic data loss when switching phones and weak backup make the app unreliable for long-term journaling.
Praised: Creating your own emoji moods makes tracking feel alive and personal.
Complaints: When moving to a new phone, entries disappear and cannot be recovered.
Best for: Those who want a visual and playful mood diary on a single device
Rank 40. Review score: 55 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 15,911 ratings
55of 100
The app honestly does one thing: it reminds you to write three gratitudes a day and shares them with a close circle. That is enough for people with depression and anxiety as a daily practice, but the product is still rough.
Praised: A bedtime reminder notification and the ability to share gratitudes with a circle of people.
Complaints: The streak resets without warning, you cannot fill in a missed day, and the family plan works inconsistently.
Best for: Those building a morning or evening gratitude practice
Rank 41. Review score: 55 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 4,451 ratings
55of 100
Diaro is a mature cross-platform diary with folders, tags, location, and voice input. It works well as a personal archive with organization. The app looks dated, develops slowly, and password locking is unreliable.
Praised: Folders and tags for organizing entries: the only way to really structure years of diary notes.
Complaints: No mood tracking, analytics, or prompts at all: just a text repository with no feedback.
Best for: Those who have journaled for years and want a reliable cross-platform archive
Rank 42. Review score: 55 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 2,685 ratings
55of 100
A lightweight emoji mood tracker with widgets that handles daily emotion logging well and lets you scroll through past entries, but the sparse free emoji set limits how precisely you can express yourself.
Praised: A seven-day mood display widget on the home screen makes patterns visible without opening the app.
Complaints: The basic emoji set is too small for capturing nuanced moods, and the extended palette is locked behind a subscription.
Best for: Those who want to log their mood concisely through emoji without deep text analysis
Rank 43. Review score: 55 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 2,199 ratings
55of 100
A flexible tracker with powerful customization and good data history, but export relies on Google OAuth and periodically breaks, and saving entries is unreliable.
Praised: Wide field customization and clear charts spanning years of observations.
Complaints: Data export regularly stops working and entries occasionally disappear without warning.
Best for: Methodical habit and event trackers with a long time horizon
Rank 44. Review score: 55 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 1,139 ratings
55of 100
Halo lowers the barrier for people with ADHD and procrastination: prompts and the "moment" structure help you get started. Free-form writing is limited, and the AI companion restates what you wrote rather than deepening the reflection.
Praised: Prompts help people with executive dysfunction start writing without getting paralyzed by the blank page.
Complaints: Free entries outside the "moment" do not support metadata: no weather, activity, or mood rating.
Best for: Those who have long wanted to journal but could not start without external structure
Rank 45. Review score: 54 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 81,714 ratings
54of 100
Reflectly offers a structured check-in through questions and mood tags, which is more approachable than a blank page for people who struggle to start writing. The main problems are unstable login that wipes two years of data and broken widgets for paying users.
Praised: Daily question prompts help those who do not know where to start and gently build a reflection habit.
Complaints: Login breaks and locks out years of entries, and home screen widgets periodically stop working.
Best for: Those who need guiding questions rather than a blank page
Rank 46. Review score: 54 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 17,439 ratings
54of 100
The morning-and-evening format with fixed prompts builds a solid reflection habit, and the product has a loyal core with 7-9 years of use. A serious problem: entries disappear without warning during updates and support is slow to respond.
Praised: Splitting the day into a morning and evening session structures the day and makes reflection a predictable habit.
Complaints: The mood tracker does not function properly, and prompts do not adapt to the user's schedule.
Best for: Those who want a short morning and evening positive reflection practice
Rank 47. Review score: 52 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 142,946 ratings
52of 100
Habit Tracker is a clean and visual habit tracker with pleasant animations and widgets, but the six-habit limit on the free tier hurts the most basic use case. Mood tracking is there, but limited to one check-in per day, which feels thin.
Praised: Swiping to mark a habit done and the audio feedback give a satisfying sense of progress.
Complaints: Only one mood entry per day and a hard cap on the number of habits make the app feel incomplete without the paid version.
Best for: Those who need a minimalist tracker for three or four key habits
Rank 48. Review score: 52 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 27,622 ratings
52of 100
Those who care about privacy appreciate the reliable lock and simple entry format. Data loss when switching devices and no support make the app risky for storing personal entries.
Praised: Face ID and PIN lock give confidence that entries stay private.
Complaints: No default account or cloud backup, so switching to a new phone often means losing everything.
Best for: Those who want a simple private diary without extras
Rank 49. Review score: 52 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 14,291 ratings
52of 100
A simple chronological diary with no clutter: entries group by day, there is search, voice input. The main and growing problem: banner ads now cover the text.
Praised: Multiple entries from the same day are gathered on one page, like in a paper diary.
Complaints: Ads cover all the text when the entry opens, and there is no way to categorize notes.
Best for: Those who want a minimalist diary with no account or cloud
Rank 50. Review score: 52 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 7,641 ratings
52of 100
Floret shines as a visual planner: beautiful themes, well-structured day view, responsive support. As a diary it is secondary and offers no reflection or mood features, and the number of free event slots is critically low without a subscription.
Praised: The visual polish and well-thought-out visual hierarchy make it easy to stay in the system and return to the planner every day.
Complaints: A limit of two or three events without paying makes the free version a decorative showcase rather than a working tool.
Best for: Those who want an attractive daily planner and are willing to pay for full access
Rank 51. Review score: 52 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 1,293 ratings
52of 100
A simple private diary with a lock and offline mode that covers the basic need: writing without fear that someone will read it. Photos freeze and customization is minimal.
Praised: Users value the password lock and offline operation as their main source of psychological safety.
Complaints: Almost no customization: one cover, no stickers, very few design options.
Best for: Teenagers and those for whom privacy matters more than features
Rank 52. Review score: 52 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 973 ratings
52of 100
Moodpress works well alongside an Apple Watch and draws users in with its visual design, but without the watch, half the features become useless. The diary component is basic; the focus is on tracking physical metrics, not emotions.
Praised: The bright design with animations and Apple Watch integration turn the daily check-in into a small ritual.
Complaints: Without an Apple Watch, almost everything related to stress and activity tracking stops working.
Best for: Apple Watch owners who want to see mood alongside physical metrics
Rank 53. Review score: 49 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 54,275 ratings
49of 100
Zinnia is a digital scrapbook planner with broad creative options: stickers, templates, Apple Pencil, various covers. As a journaling tool it is weak due to an unstable editor and aggressive moving of basic assets behind a paywall.
Praised: A rich template library and Apple Pencil support turn journaling into a creative activity for those who like to decorate their pages.
Complaints: The editor occasionally deletes written text on exit, and most visual elements require a subscription.
Best for: Creative people who want a digital scrapbook rather than just a place for text
Rank 54. Review score: 48 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 1,125 ratings
48of 100
A functional diary with a print feature and a comfortable interface, but the story of previously free entries being suddenly locked behind a paywall severely damages user trust.
Praised: The print feature and the ability to keep daily work notes in a structured format.
Complaints: No keyword search and sync between iPad and iPhone is unreliable.
Best for: Adult users who keep a regular diary and occasionally want to print it
Rank 55. Review score: 45 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 5,301 ratings
45of 100
A simple diary with a lock, photos, and stickers aimed at teenagers. It works as a personal space for entries, but has no depth: no mood analytics, no smart prompts, and the format does not grow with the user.
Praised: PIN and Face ID built into the app give the feeling that it is genuinely personal.
Complaints: No processing of what is written: just a text repository with no trends, patterns, or feedback.
Best for: Teenagers who need a protected personal diary
Rank 56. Review score: 44 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 26,764 ratings
44of 100
An ultra-minimalist password-protected notepad that appeals to those who want to write without distractions. The single fatal product flaw: no password recovery and no cloud backup, so users lose years of entries.
Praised: No ads at all and the simplest possible interface let you focus entirely on writing.
Complaints: There is no password recovery, and forgetting your PIN destroys the entire entry history.
Best for: Those who want the simplest possible diary with a lock and accept the risk of data loss
Rank 57. Review score: 44 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 14,825 ratings
44of 100
Before a recent update this was one of the best weekly planners with a convenient week overview. After the redesign, sync is broken, duplicates entries, and the free horizon is cut to one week.
Praised: Seeing the whole week on one screen and searching through past entries.
Complaints: Cross-device sync requires a manual tap and creates duplicates; notes cannot be recovered after deletion.
Best for: Those who plan week by week rather than month by month and work from one device
Rank 58. Review score: 44 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 8,145 ratings
44of 100
The shared diary concept for couples or families is sound: the questions genuinely help people connect across distance. But an aggressive onboarding with a forced rating before first use and an abrupt move to a paid model undermine trust.
Praised: For long-distance couples, daily questions create a shared ritual and give a reason to talk about something real.
Complaints: The number of journals directly affects the subscription price, so active users end up trapped: the more they used it, the more it costs to continue.
Best for: Couples or close people at a distance who want to keep a living conversation through questions
Rank 59. Review score: 44 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 3,041 ratings
44of 100
The simple gratitude diary works for those who have been in it for years, but a mass switch to a new subscription model cut longtime users off from their own entries.
Praised: A minimalist format with three questions a day does not overwhelm and builds a durable gratitude habit.
Complaints: No grouping of entries by tag as a unified list, and prompt customization is only available in the paid version.
Best for: Those who want a simple daily gratitude ritual with no extra features
Rank 60. Review score: 42 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 1,654 ratings
42of 100
A simple and accessible diary with a PIN and font choices, suitable for basic daily writing. Critical issue: no cloud backup, so switching phones wipes all entries.
Praised: A simple PIN instead of a password and minimal screens on launch.
Complaints: Entries are stored only locally with no backup; replacing your phone resets the entire diary.
Best for: Beginners in journaling who need the lowest possible barrier to entry
Rank 61. Review score: 42 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 1,048 ratings
42of 100
Bujo takes the bullet journal aesthetic and makes it digital, but stability is lacking: entries disappear, sync lags, and the app periodically refuses to open.
Praised: Setup flexibility and multi-day tasks with automatic rollover appeal to bullet journal fans.
Complaints: Data gets lost during crashes and after restoring from an iCloud backup.
Best for: Bullet journal fans willing to live with occasional glitches in exchange for a digital format
Rank 62. Review score: 41 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 23,263 ratings
41of 100
The visual mood bubble concept with multiple colors is original, and the AI feedback is appreciated by those who use it. Constant lag, freezes, and crashes make daily use miserable.
Praised: Visualizing mood as a colored bubble gives a vivid sense of the day's emotional state.
Complaints: The app lags so badly that users give up journaling simply from waiting for the screen to load.
Best for: Those who want a beautiful visual mood tracker and can live with unstable performance
Rank 63. Review score: 41 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.1★ · 879 ratings
41of 100
Momento was built on the unique idea of aggregating personal social media data into a diary, but most integrations have been broken and unsupported for years. It still works as a plain text journal without social feeds, but the feeling of an abandoned product makes it hard to trust as a life archive.
Praised: The idea of pulling posts from different social networks into a single memory feed was genuinely original.
Complaints: Social media integrations have been broken for years, data export does not work, and the developer does not respond.
Best for: Those who keep a text diary and do not count on social media integrations
Rank 64. Review score: 41 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 804 ratings
41of 100
A social network for venting emotions that once worked well but has been without support for years: login breaks, comments do not send, and blocks do not work. The product survives on the inertia of its old audience.
Praised: An anonymous community where strangers support each other through difficult moments.
Complaints: No data export, moderation does not function, and toxic users are only nominally blocked.
Best for: Those who want to vent anonymously and get a response from strangers
Rank 65. Review score: 38 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 16,518 ratings
38of 100
The idea is solid: a cat guru, habit tracker, and life wheel in one place. In practice, endless tutorial animations and an unfinished engine get in the way of reaching the actual tool.
Praised: Gamification with points and cat animations keeps users in the habit longer than they expected.
Complaints: Onboarding is lengthy and cannot be skipped; the AI cat has not been updated since 2022, and you cannot attach photos.
Best for: Those who want a gamified self-improvement format and can forgive instability
Rank 66. Review score: 38 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 4,591 ratings
38of 100
Vision Board Perfectly Happy is closer to a goal visualization tool than a mood journal. The core vision board creation feature works unreliably, the affirmation audio feels mechanical, and the app has almost nothing to do with mood tracking or reflection.
Praised: Quick creation of a video vision board from personal photos directly on the phone, no computer needed.
Complaints: No mood tracking and no reflection tools: it is an inspirational slideshow, not a self-knowledge instrument.
Best for: Those who believe in goal visualization and want a daily motivating video
Rank 67. Review score: 38 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.2★ · 2,515 ratings
38of 100
The web version of Penzu works decently and offers a feature that reminds you of past entries from the same date in previous years, but the mobile app has not been updated in a long time and consistently breaks during voice input and sync.
Praised: Annual reminders about entries from the same day in past years motivate you to come back to the diary.
Complaints: Voice input reliably cuts out every few seconds, making it practically unusable.
Best for: Those who journal primarily through a browser and value the retrospective reminder feature
Rank 68. Review score: 38 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.4★ · 770 ratings
38of 100
The classic version of the app with a grid diary format that developers have effectively abandoned in favor of Grid Diary 2. Export is blocked, previously purchased features disappear, and the app crashes on launch.
Praised: The grid structure with editable questions helped turn writing into a habit without unnecessary decoration.
Complaints: The product is frozen: features degrade and data cannot be exported without moving to the new app.
Rank 69. Review score: 36 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 9,488 ratings
36of 100
A beautiful digital planner with a large template selection that is almost entirely locked behind a paywall. Three pages per journal for free, $40 per month or $100 lifetime with no way to keep your data after the subscription ends.
Praised: A rich selection of ready-made planner templates with customizable colors and covers.
Complaints: Data disappears when the subscription ends, and the free mode is capped at three pages per journal.
Best for: Those who want an attractive digital planner and are prepared to pay monthly
Rank 70. Review score: 35 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 20,410 ratings
35of 100
Cute aesthetics and stickers attract a young audience. Data loss, freezes, and forced ads to unlock features make the product unreliable even as casual entertainment.
Praised: Decorative pages with stickers and backgrounds make for a visually pleasant diary.
Complaints: Data disappears without warning and login between devices is unreliable.
Best for: Children and teenagers who want a pretty diary and do not plan to store entries long-term
Rank 71. Review score: 34 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 5,027 ratings
34of 100
This is a keto diet food tracker, not a mood diary. It has almost nothing to do with the journaling or mood-tracking category: no thought entries, no emotion tracking, no reflection. It works adequately as a carb counter, but the advertised analytics features require a subscription.
Praised: Convenient food search and a clear macro counter for the keto protocol.
Complaints: No diary or mood tracking features whatsoever: it is simply a food log.
Rank 72. Review score: 34 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 904 ratings
34of 100
Diary - Private Note is visually attractive, but the key advertised feature, the password lock, is behind a paywall, which misleads users. You cannot scroll back through a long entry, which is a fundamental usability failure for a diary.
Praised: A visually appealing notebook-page design creates the mood of a real diary.
Complaints: A long entry cannot be scrolled and re-read from the beginning; text goes off-screen with no way to return.
Best for: Those who want a beautiful virtual diary and are willing to pay for basic features upfront
Rank 73. Review score: 32 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 3,636 ratings
32of 100
The one-second-a-day concept is compelling, but the feature for compiling a final video breaks precisely when it is needed most. Users consistently lose an entire year of memories.
Praised: The simplicity of recording one moment a day builds the habit effortlessly.
Complaints: Compiling the final video regularly fails or freezes, making the app's main value unreachable.
Best for: Those who want a lightweight video diary without worrying about the final edit
Rank 74. Review score: 32 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.4★ · 737 ratings
32of 100
A locked diary where the free user can create only 3 entries, after which every action is interrupted by an ad or a subscription prompt. The core function is blocked too early for the app to be genuinely useful.
Praised: Simple password protection with font options appeals to those who manage to get into the editor.
Complaints: A 3-entry limit makes the app useless as a diary: reflection requires regularity, not a single session.
Best for: Nobody; the limitations kill the habit before it can form
Rank 75. Review score: 31 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 8,090 ratings
31of 100
The video diary idea resonates with people who find it easier to talk than to write. But videos regularly disappear, the interface freezes during recording, and pricing is opaque to a degree that some users call deceptive.
Praised: Speaking aloud and then rewatching yourself a month later gives a sense of personal therapy without a middleman.
Complaints: Video recordings vanish after updates and support does not restore lost data, making the app a risky place to store memories.
Best for: Those who process emotions through speech rather than writing and want to see themselves over time
Rank 76. Review score: 31 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 1,751 ratings
31of 100
This is a decorative diary toy rather than a mood tool: users themselves call it a "game" and praise the stickers and colors. There are no features for mindful journaling here.
Praised: A bright and cozy interface with collages and stickers; it is simply pleasant to open.
Complaints: No reflection tools at all: no templates, no mood labels, no reminders.
Best for: Children and teenagers who want a digital version of a pretty notebook
Rank 77. Review score: 30 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 2,648 ratings
30of 100
After the rebrand from Journey to Journal, the app lost years of user data and key planner features, and trust in it as a repository for personal entries has been badly damaged.
Praised: A minimalist Moleskine-style design creates a pleasant notebook feel.
Complaints: There is no way to browse a list of all past entries; navigation through the diary is only by calendar.
Best for: Those who value the Moleskine brand aesthetic and want a simple digital notebook
Rank 78. Review score: 30 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 1,243 ratings
30of 100
The interface is clean and extremely simple, but the payment gateway is broken: users pay for storage and still get blocked. No lock, no ability to back-date an entry.
Praised: A minimalist interface with no noise works for short travel notes.
Complaints: No password protection and no way to add an entry for a past date.
Best for: Travelers who want a no-setup notepad, if the payment issue gets fixed
Rank 79. Review score: 28 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.3★ · 14,210 ratings
28of 100
Essentially a beautiful template viewer: without a subscription you get three covers, one template per section, and a handful of stickers. The pencil tool for handwritten notes is awkward because the toolbar covers a quarter of the page.
Praised: Visually beautiful planner templates with the option to decorate a spread with stickers.
Complaints: Almost nothing works without a subscription, and handwritten input is uncomfortable due to the toolbar.
Best for: Those willing to pay for an aesthetic digital planner and not expecting a rich free version
Rank 80. Review score: 28 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 8,198 ratings
28of 100
The app has been around for a long time and retains its audience by inertia, but the systemic problem is clear: ads interrupt writing and erase text, and data disappears without warning. Writing here is not safe.
Praised: Users praise the simple interface and feminine design that invites personal journaling.
Complaints: Ads insert themselves mid-entry and reset unsaved text, making the journaling process itself unreliable.
Best for: Those who want a free diary and accept the risk of losing entries
Rank 81. Review score: 28 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 3,113 ratings
28of 100
The idea of caring for a pet as motivation for habit tracking is appealing, but the app regularly loses progress, purchased items disappear, and without a subscription functionality is nearly zero.
Praised: The virtual panda pet creates an emotional attachment and motivates returning every day.
Complaints: Progress and purchased room items periodically reset without warning, devaluing accumulated effort.
Best for: Teenagers who need gamified motivation for basic journaling habits
Rank 82. Review score: 28 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 879 ratings
28of 100
Chronicle looks like an abandoned product: the last update was six years ago, the developer does not answer emails, and on recent iOS versions the app fails to open and destroys years of entries. Relying on it as a main diary is risky.
Praised: Users with a decade of history praise the simple and unobtrusive interface for honest personal journaling.
Complaints: The app has not been updated for years and stops opening after iOS updates, destroying all entries.
Best for: Not recommended to anyone in its current state
Rank 83. Review score: 27 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 1,572 ratings
27of 100
An attractive collage diary with stickers aimed at a very young audience. Entries occasionally vanish without explanation, which is a fundamental failure for a diary.
Praised: The collage editor with stickers and personal photos looks colorful and fun.
Complaints: Entries disappear on reinstall or after a day change with no backup mechanism.
Best for: Children under 12 who want a pretty digital diary
Rank 84. Review score: 24 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 10,218 ratings
24of 100
A children's visual diary with a lock that is advertised with drawing and stickers but delivers a plain text editor with heavy ads and unreliable saving.
Praised: The password and lock feature gives children a sense of privacy, which is valuable in itself.
Complaints: Ads interrupt every screen transition and entries sometimes disappear on exit.
Best for: Young children for whom the idea of a locked personal diary is what matters
Rank 85. Review score: 24 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.3★ · 1,935 ratings
24of 100
There is a pleasant design and voice notes, but this is effectively a notepad with no lock: the core privacy feature is paid, and the editor offers nothing beyond standard text fields.
Praised: A pleasing visual style and low friction on first launch.
Complaints: No journaling structure at all: no labels, no reminders, no history view by day.
Best for: Teenagers who want a pretty notepad with no depth
Rank 86. Review score: 22 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 6,524 ratings
22of 100
The idea of a video diary for those who struggle to talk to people was genuinely valuable in the Talkbook version. The rebrand destroyed users' saved memories and moved video recording behind a paywall, leaving only the shell of the concept.
Praised: Seeing yourself in recordings from a month ago and noticing how your emotional state changed gave a real sense of reflection.
Complaints: After the rebrand, video recording became a paid feature and all existing user recordings disappeared without warning and with no way to recover them.
Best for: Those who want to keep a video diary if they are willing to start from scratch and pay for the core feature
Rank 87. Review score: 22 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.3★ · 2,591 ratings
22of 100
The app aggressively requests a rating before the user has had a chance to explore it, which makes the entire rating meaningless and masks the product's real quality.
Praised: Basic mood logging and anxiety-relief elements appeal to those who actually make it to the content.
Complaints: The rating prompt fires immediately after install, before the user can even finish onboarding.
Rank 88. Review score: 22 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.3★ · 1,247 ratings
22of 100
The app is effectively broken for its core function: an ad loop prevents creating a second entry, text does not save, and there is no backup. The lock exists, but the contents are inaccessible.
Praised: The lock interface appealed to those who found the app before the problem emerged.
Complaints: No cloud backup; data is lost on reinstall.
Best for: No specific audience given the app's current state
Rank 89. Review score: 19 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.4★ · 8,820 ratings
19of 100
A diary positioned as lock-protected, but the lock is only available by subscription. Entries are not saved to the cloud and ads appear every few seconds.
Praised: The pink-and-diamond aesthetic appeals to the target audience.
Complaints: The lock that users download it for requires a paid subscription, despite ads promising it for free.
Best for: Difficult to recommend to anyone in its current form
Rank 90. Review score: 18 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.3★ · 12,455 ratings
18of 100
An anti-stress app with visual toys (slime, bubble wrap) that are almost all behind a paywall. Its real value for mood tracking or journaling is close to zero.
Praised: Tactile mini-games like bubble wrap give an immediate, if superficial, relief effect.
Complaints: Almost no tools for journaling or mindful mood tracking.
Best for: Children and teenagers who want a quick stress-relief toy rather than a diary
Rank 91. Review score: 18 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 6,504 ratings
18of 100
Memos is trapped behind a paywall on launch: users cannot close the payment screen and get into the app, iCloud sync breaks with schema errors, and data disappears even for paying subscribers. The product in its current state is non-functional.
Praised: In theory the app offers a media diary with photos and templates, which draws users in from the store screenshots.
Complaints: The paywall screen on first launch effectively blocks access to the app even for those who tap "continue without subscription."
Best for: Difficult to recommend to anyone in the current state
Rank 92. Review score: 18 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.3★ · 1,335 ratings
18of 100
A basic diary with glitter design where written text disappears, there is no iCloud backup, and ads cut into any entry. Functionality does not go beyond a blank page with a password.
Praised: Users value the visual aesthetic and the ability to keep personal entries.
Complaints: Text disappears on exit and there is no cloud saving.
Best for: Children for whom "sparkles" matters more than "saves"
Rank 93. Review score: 14 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 6,008 ratings
14of 100
GraceNotes is positioned as a gratitude journal, but the real user experience is a stream of forced ads that prevent reaching any journaling feature. Substantive reviews about diary tools are almost nonexistent.
Praised: The idea of a daily gratitude practice with a religious context finds an audience among people seeking spiritual reflection.
Complaints: Forced ads after every action make keeping a diary impossible without the paid version.
Best for: Unclear audience due to a mismatch between positioning and the app's actual content
Rank 94. Review score: 4 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 67,785 ratings
4of 100
Breeze is a dark pattern wrapped in a mental health app: aggressive ads, a quiz with paid results, and hidden recurring charges after canceling a subscription. There is almost no real product for journaling or mood tracking.
Praised: A few breathing exercise mini-games are described as nice by the handful of people who actually got into the app.
Complaints: The business model is built on hidden recurring charges and making it impossible to cancel a subscription through standard App Store settings.
Best for: Nobody; the app's financial scheme makes it dangerous for users
Rank 95. Review score: 0 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.6★ · 992 ratings
0of 100
This is a local newspaper news app from Mississippi and has nothing to do with journaling or mood tracking.
Praised: Readers value access to obituaries and local news.
Complaints: Constant freezing when reading obituaries makes the app nearly unusable.
Best for: Residents of northeastern Mississippi
About scores
Two scores — two sources
They help compare apps, but they don’t replace checking your own job.
Review score · up to 100
The stored score from inApp research on review texts. It rates the app overall in the archive, not the reliability of any one feature.
Store rating · up to 5
The rating from the app’s page when the data was collected. The current rating and version may differ.
In the archived sample for this topic: 95 apps and 29,328 reviews read. That is the total size of the research, not the number of reviews per app.
A gap between the scores doesn’t prove manipulation. The calculation date and the full scoring method aren’t in the mobile archive. Compare the job descriptions and the source quotes, and check the terms in the current version.
