After watching David’s webinar I have found the need to journal again…
What apps are you guys using? I need a specific app otherwise I do not stick to it. Are there any alternatives (better) than Day One?
I have no problems with paying as you need to keep the software going!
Many thanks for your help.
I have played with Reflection, Diarium and Stoic but have returned to DayOne in the end.
I loved the minimalistic approach and full ecosystem integration of Stoic. They also have a lifetime premium option, so If you have not invested in an app yet, that might save you another subscription
Reflection was Mac only and that didn’t work for me, though as a journal it is OK.
Diarium is a separate one-off buy for pro on Mac and iOS. Good journal, it just didn’t click with me.
Thank you sir. That is very interesting that both you and David have returned to DayOne…
I use Obsidian, with the Daily Notes and Calendar plugin. It suits my workflow well enough.
I didn’t initially try it specifically to journal but I have stuck with journaling using NotePlan. Hadn’t used it before and wanted a note taking app with the thought of journaling. Been using it since the new year and like it. It’s also included with SetApp.
I don’t see anything on their price sheet that resembles a “lifetime … option”.
I have the “Plus” account because I was grandparented into this legacy tier when DayOne went subscription. The “Plus” accounts are supposed to be lifetime, but with Automattic now owning DayOne I have no doubt they will some day renege on that promise and force Plus users into the subscription model.
I must admit I couldn’t find it either. So is this your journal app of choice?!
That’s what I need to find. The sweet spot where it fits!
I have heard plenty of good things about this app…
My quote related to Stoic
I’m currently using Dave Winer’s “Electric Drummer” software, which easily creates a new entry or set of entries for today’s date, and keeps them in a sequence in the outline. The files are OPML so are future-proof. They’re also on my machine, so are as secure as anything else there (I didn’t really understand David Sparks’s need for encryption, but then I was never a lawyer…). The same software is available using the web version: Drummer.
currently, I use my draft notes to send the same bullet journal to Obsidian and Day One everyday. I know this may not make sense. I have “inadvertently” subscribed to Day one premium plan as I forgot that I have already tried that before.
I am sure that there are a lot of attractive features on Day One but currently my basic (mainly text) bullet journal is already very good on Obsidian
I’ve just swapped to Diarly, mainly because of the price (about half of the subscription for Day One).
It seems to have pretty much the same features for me. The only thing I’m missing is the ability to have multiple templates available. Diarly seems to only allow one template per journal.
DAY ONE:
Day One prompts have also resulted in blog posts as well:
It’s a very good solid journaling app 
I am little bias because I have not used any other app. Day One is so nice that I actually want to journal
Sorry, I know you looking for alternatives but I just don’t have one I can recommend. I probably shouldn’t say anything 
I’ve moved from Paper (with all the issues that MacSparky identifies) to Obsidian. Is it Perfect? H*** no. But it works, is plain text and I am doing far more linking with it. I never did do any inclusion of pictures or other media types in mt paper journasl so i don’t miss that. Plus if I do decide to do it I can do it via transclusion in Obsidian.
Now the one thing I would Like is a way to include a vignette of all the pictures I took on a specific day from my LightRoom Catalog with each of them as a link out to the original location of the files (which happens to be on my server) but I can live without that for now.
I am investigating symlinks and similar techniques to include those things in my Obsidian journals.
I agree. Noteplan is quite nice.
Diarly just upped their price or rather I just noticed it. I guess it is for its premium. I am fairly certain that I already paid them. You know, it gets old.
Are your entries in Day One just text only? One of my dilemmas is that I add lots of photos/videos of events to capture the moment and journal about. This has resulted in a chunky 30GB of data that occupies my iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I had issues with sync between devices when it comes to media. Do you journal on all devices or specific device?
My journals are a mix of many photos and videos. Sure there are some that are text only but most of them have some kind of media, including audio recordings.
My solution to the storage problem was using optimised storage on iOS devices (I didnt have any other choice because my iphone is 128gb) and having the MAC full download of the entire Day one database.
Sync improved significantly to the extent that I have no issues with sync because my iOS devices are not having to download the entire database. I recommend giving it a go.
Oh guys I think I am even more torn now…!!!
