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Journaling app inventory:
Jun. 8th, 2023 11:00 pm
Right now I have at least ten years of stuff in a program called MacJournal.
Here's what I want in a journaling app:
- A mini calendar on the side - bonus points if it's more than one month and scrolls - with each day highlighted where I've made an entry. If I click on a day, the entry for it opens immediately. No second click on a title, no wacky animated transition. Immediately. This is a usability must!
- A one-time fee. It can even be a hefty fee. But I will not, absolutely not, start paying a subscription fee for this software.
- The ability to search across entries. What is this, the stone age??
- An iPhone app that will sync the entries between itself and the desktop, and allows editing. So I can sit in a fancy Parisian coffee shop at a microscopic table and type on a keyboard that folds up and fits in my pocket! IT'S THE DREAM!
MacJournal provides 1, 2, and 3, but not 4.
An iPhone app would let me work on journal entries without the laptop, which is sometimes quite handy in cramped situations like I'm in now. So I embarked on a survey of the current journaling app landscape:
| App | iOS App | No subscription | Calendar | Mini Calendar | Click-to-edit | Formatting |
| MacJournal | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| What I currently use. That first "N" is what I want to address... | ||||||
| Day One | Y | Y (Limited sync) | Y | Y | N | N |
| Every day is cluttered with optional junk you can't hide. No default showing of entries on click. | ||||||
| Diarly | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Very close. Calendar is a bit big. But they want 20 bucks a year? No. | ||||||
| Diarium | Y | Y ($10 lifetime) | Y | N | Y | Y |
| No mini calendar is pretty inconvenient. Not fast enough to browse. Cannot open 2nd window. | ||||||
| Everlog | Y | Y ($41 lifetime) | Y | Y | N | |
| Calendar limited to one page. Scrolls wrong. Click does nothing. Too much useless UI. | ||||||
| ByteLyfe | N | N | ||||
| Wow, overpriced aspirational garbage designed to exploit your privacy. Forget these people. | ||||||
| DevonThink | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| Great app and I already use it. But not an editor, and not for journaling. | ||||||
| Scrivener | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y |
| Cool and full-featured but it's just not a journaling app. | ||||||
| Journal | N | N | ||||
| None of the features I need. Nice product though. | ||||||
| Mémoires | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Good app! But no iOS App, no incentive to change away from MacJournal. | ||||||
| Moleskine Journey Life | Y | N | ||||
| 40 bucks a year? Bugger that! | ||||||
| Clearful - Journal & Diary | Y | N | ||||
| 60 bucks a year? Out bleeping rageous. | ||||||
| GoodNotes | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| This is not useful for journaling. It also runs telemetry in the background when closed. Trash. | ||||||
| EverNote | Y | N | N | N | N | Y |
| This is awful as a journaling solution. Also, $130 a year? Pull the other one; it's got bells. | ||||||
| Timepage by Moleskine | Y | N | ||||
| More subscription-demanding crap... | ||||||
| Moment Diary (journal) | Y | N | ||||
| Wow, this is trash! | ||||||
| Personal Diary (Journal) App | N | Y | N | N | N | |
| Also unusable trash. | ||||||
| Microsoft Outlook | Y | Y | N | |||
| This is an email client?? No idea why it came up in a search for journaling apps. | ||||||
So what's my choice here? Give up. It's unfortunate, but the thing I want is just not out there... I'll just have to write stuff in "Notes" and copy-paste it by hand when I get home.
