Diarium alternative
A Diarium alternative that is one plain file.
Both are bought once. Neither needs an account. Both can keep your journal in your own Google Drive, on Daybook Lifetime and on Diarium. The difference is what is sitting in that Drive: an app's own store, or one file you can open in any text editor.
Open in your browserStart writingFree on one device. No account, no sign-up, nothing to agree to.
If you only read one paragraph
The short answer
Diarium is the closest thing to Daybook on this site, and the arguments the other comparison pages make do not apply. It is a one-time purchase, it needs no account, and it syncs through your own cloud. Two real differences remain. Diarium is priced per platform, $19.99 on Windows and $14.99 to unlock each of the others, while Daybook is $29 once for every device you own. And Diarium keeps your journal in its own store, while Daybook keeps it in one plain file you can read without Daybook. If you want a full journal with photographs, health data and your calendar folded in, Diarium is the better app and this page will not pretend otherwise.
Side by side
What is actually different
| Daybook | Diarium | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | $29 once, for every device you own. Free on one device. | Bought once too, but per platform: $19.99 on Windows, and $14.99 to unlock each of Android, iOS and macOS, which are free to start. |
| A phone and a laptop | $29 | $34.98 for Windows and Android, or $19.99 if the free tier on your phone is enough |
| Subscription | None. | None either. |
| Account required | None. You sign in to your own Drive only if you want more than one device. | None either. It signs in to your own cloud, the same way. |
| Where your entries live | One plain file, daybook.json, on your device, and in your own Google Drive on Daybook Lifetime. | In your own cloud as well: OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud or WebDAV, in Diarium's own store. |
| Reading it without the app | Open the file in any text editor. It is the same file the app writes. | Export first, then open the export. |
| Photos, health data, calendar | No. Text only, on purpose. | Yes, and pulling them in automatically is most of what it is for. |
| Streaks, reminders, badges | None of them, ever. | Reminders, and statistics about your writing. |
| Installing anything | No. It opens in a browser, and installs to the home screen if you want it to. | Yes, a native application per platform. |
| Where it runs | Any current browser: iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux. | Windows, Android, iOS and macOS, as real applications. |
Said plainly
Where Diarium is the better app
Diarium does the thing Daybook refuses to do, and does it well: it gathers. Photographs, the weather, your steps, where you were, what was in your calendar, all folded into the day without you typing any of it. It runs as a real application on Windows, Android, iOS and macOS, it is free to start on three of them, and it has been shipping for years with one person's care behind it.
It also holds the two things this site usually argues for. Bought once, and synced through your own cloud rather than somebody's service. If those were your reasons for looking, Diarium already answers them, and there is no honest version of this page that says otherwise.
Also said plainly
Where Daybook is
The file. Daybook's whole journal is one plain file you can open in any text editor, today or in twenty years, with no export step and nothing to interpret it for you. Diarium's journal is its own store, kept in your cloud, which is safer than a company's server and still not the same as text you can read.
And one price for every device rather than one per platform, and a page a day rather than a dashboard. Daybook gathers nothing, counts nothing and reminds you of nothing. That is the offer, and against Diarium it is the whole of it.
Before you move anything
What switching actually involves
Daybook does not import a Diarium archive. Export from Diarium first and keep that export; it is yours either way. Then start Daybook on today. Worth saying plainly: if your Diarium journal is full of photographs and health data, most of it has nowhere to go in a text journal, and moving would mean deciding you wanted a smaller thing. That is a real decision rather than a migration.
Bought once, not rented
$29, and then nothing
Daybook Local is free on one device, with no time limit and nothing held back for a trial. Daybook Lifetime is $29 once, for every device you own, and adds sync and automatic backup into your own Google Drive. Thirty days to change your mind, refunded in full, no reason asked.
Asked by people comparing two one-time purchases
Questions
Is Diarium a subscription?
No. Diarium is bought once, per platform: $19.99 on Windows, and $14.99 to unlock each of Android, iOS and macOS, which start free. Daybook is $29 once and covers every device you own. Neither of them will bill you next year.
Which one is cheaper?
It depends entirely on how many machines you write on. If you write on Windows and nowhere else, Diarium at $19.99 is cheaper than Daybook at $29. Across a laptop and a phone the two are close. Across four platforms Daybook is cheaper, because it is one price rather than four.
Is Diarium private?
Yes. It needs no account and syncs through your own cloud storage, which is the same position Daybook takes. Privacy is not the difference between these two apps, and any page telling you otherwise is selling something. The difference is whether what lands in your cloud is readable without the app that wrote it.
Can I read my journal without the app?
With Daybook, yes: the journal is one plain file, daybook.json, and a text editor opens it. With Diarium you export first, and what sits in your cloud day to day is the app's own store rather than something you would read directly.
Does Daybook do photos or health data like Diarium?
No, and it is not planned. Daybook is one dated page of writing a day. If pulling in photographs, steps and your calendar is what you want a journal to do, Diarium does it and Daybook does not, which is the clearest reason on this page to choose the other one.
What about Day One, Journey or Penzu?
All three are subscriptions, which makes them a different argument entirely. They are set out row by row on their own pages: the Day One comparison, the Journey comparison and the Penzu comparison.
Today is already open.
No account neededOpen today's pageFree on one device, forever. The whole of what Daybook is.