I’d like to play around with journaling again, and I think I’d like a purpose-built app (rather than cobbling together something with Obsidian). Apple’s Journal app is iOS-only, which is a dealbreaker as I’m not journaling on my phone. I already know about Day One.
Are there other good journaling apps that I should be considering?
I think there are a couple included in SetApp, if you subscribe.
I’ll preface my recommendation by admitting that I’m terrible at journaling (to quote the late Peter Schjeldahl: “I get spooked by addressing no one. When I write, it’s to connect.”)
However, I really enjoy Everlog for the rare occasions when I do write an entry.
It has a lot of the functionality of Day One, but without the clutter and with some interesting ideas of its own like the ability to add comments to past entries. Feels good to use across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS and has a reasonable lifetime payment option that I took advantage of.
I have been using Diarly. A reasonable subscription, and I have found it reliable. I think it might also be in Setapp
I really like the idea of a simple Markdown journal. And they offer a cheap monthly sub to try it out. I’m definitely giving this a look. 
I still use MacJournal, which has the advantage of being free, although it won’t be an option if you want to journal on an iPad.
I’m using Diarly via Setapp. I’ve been using it for a couple years now and very happy with it. It’s also end-to-end encrypted and allows you to export to markdown which is great.
I’m all in on Diarly. Super-responsive indie developer and “just works”: I have more than ten years in there, originally imported from Day One - fast backup too to markdown.
Everlog has the edge on Diarly for visual design and is just as reliable and useful. Another indie developer who cares about customers.
Both use the suggestions API like Apple Journal. Both apps are markdown based.
The two apps make slightly different choices in the details (e.g. Diarly allows auto logging of exercise from health and Everlog does not) but both are excellent. I am surprised that everything on podcasts etc. is still all about Day One.
I lament the passing of Journler not that I used it to journal — see my other comments on that — rather I used it to keep track of quotes from academic books and papers for research. (I now use Scrivener for this task mimicking the old Journler structure. Though Obsidian might be a better choice for this.)
I know you specifically said “other than the obvious” and “I already know about Day One” but…Day One.
I’ve been journaling (in DO) since about 2013 on a regular basis. It’s been a place to share what’s going on in my life, but also how I’m feeling about said goings on, and how I’m feeling in general. Day One was – well, built for this.
The app looks great and lets you export your entries to all kinds of formats. It contains a map that shows your entries by location, photos, videos (I don’t use those a lot), and audio/dictation.
It also comes with some widgets that resurface old entries from years gone by. I have one such widget on page 2 of my phone and it’s really neat to see random things pop up that I’ve talked about over the years. I was on a grandfathered “free” subscription for years but about a year ago I decided it was time I subscribed – the least I could do given all the value it has given me.
But even if you don’t go for Day One I recommend journaling. It depends on how you’ll journal of course, but to look back to a day five, ten years ago and read what you were thinking and what you did – it’s so cool.
It’s also great therapy to sit down and hammer out a page and a half, removing the “cruft” from your mind to the page.
Good luck!
Yeah, I wasn’t really trying to completely exclude Day One from consideration - more just that I didn’t want to wade through 100 people telling me to use it while trying to sift out the other options.
I have a Day One grandfathered license from back in the day when I bought it but never started up with it. I’m just not a huge fan of certain things with the UI. And then I thought its writing prompts might be useful, but they’re just not resonating. It’s definitely better done than some of the alternatives though.
I think I’m going to play with Everlog. Thanks for the encouragement!
The prompts were/are a letdown. I agree.
“What is the purpose of the sky?”
Not a real example but I’m not that far off.
Logseq has journals built in. It can be a bit finicky, but it’s also super powerful as a general note taking and PKM app, and they’re working actively on a database version (instead of plaintext-based) that should improve it a lot.
Also Noteplan is like an Apple-native Obsidian that integrates journaling, calendar, and reminders by default