5 of the best journaling apps to log your thoughts and experiences

As we look to the year ahead, you may be interested in creating new habits and setting goals. Journaling is a popular practice that helps you reflect on your life, while also keeping track of your goals. If you’re looking to get into journaling and would prefer to keep a digital journal instead of a physical one, you can choose from numerous journaling apps available across iPhone and Android.

Whether you want to store specific memories about your everyday life or reflect on your day with a few sentences before bed, there are many apps out there that are designed to help you keep track of your thoughts and experiences. We compiled a list of some of the best ones to help you pick one that’s to your liking.

Day One

Day One is a personal journaling app that is somewhat like a freeform digital diary. The app features daily prompts to keep you on top of your goals, and includes customizable templates that help you save time when journaling. Each entry automatically tracks the time, date, weather, moon phase and more. Day One lets you bring in content from other apps, like Photos and Safari.

A portion of the app is designed to help users reminisce about the past. For example, there is an “On This Day” feature that allows you to revisit past memories. What makes the app unique is the ability to add tags to entries, which can make it easier to find specific entries from the past. Day One also features a map view that shows you all of the places you have journaled from.

The app is a good fit for people who want an open-ended journal, as opposed to a structured format. Day One is free to use, but also offers a $3 monthly subscription that unlocks premium features. The app is available on iOS and Android.

5 Minute Journal

The 5 Minute Journal app offers a guided gratitude journaling format. Each morning and evening, you receive specific prompts to reflect on your day and your goals. The goal of the app is to encourage you to reflect on your life in just five minutes, twice a day. In the morning, you may be asked to write about what you’re grateful for, and in the evening, you could be asked to write about some good things that happened that day.

You can set daily notifications to keep up with your journaling habit. There’s also an option to receive daily inspiring quotes that you can share to your social media accounts. In addition, you can add a photo to your posts to have a visual aspect when tracking everyday moments.

The app is a good fit for people who want to get into mindfulness with the help of a structured format. The 5 Minute Journal is free to use but also offers a $4.99 monthly subscription that includes additional features. The app is available on iOS and Android.

Daylio

Daylio is an easy to use journaling app that helps you quickly track your daily mood and activities. The app is perfect for people who want to keep their journaling short and sweet, and don’t really want to write anything. If you do want to expand on an entry, you can add notes. You can pick the things you want to track, such as your social activities, hobbies, sleep, health, chores, food and more.

The app also lets you create daily, weekly or monthly goals to motivate you. You can choose from preset goals, such as drinking more water or meditating, or you can create custom goals. You can also build habits and collect achievements along the way. In addition, you can back up and restore your entries on your Google Drive.

Daylio is a good fit for people who want an alternative to traditional journaling apps. The app is free to use, but also offers a $2.99 monthly subscription that unlocks premium features. Daylio is available on iOS and Android.

Momento

Momento is a multipurpose journal that can be used for many different things. You can use it as a personal life journal or as a work journal. There are several templates that you can choose from if you want to track specific things, such as health, food or travel. You can add photos and location tags to your journal entries to keep a detailed record of your everyday life.

What makes Momento unique is the ability to connect the app with your social networks to automatically import your activities, photos and videos. The app also lets you relive your memories by browsing by day, month or year. There’s also a “This Day” feature that allows you to look back on what you were doing exactly a year ago.

Momento is a good journaling option for people who want to capture everything about their everyday lives. The app is free to use, but also has a $2.49 monthly subscription that gives you access to more features. The app is available on iOS only.

DailyBean

DailyBean is a simple app that lets you record your everyday life with a few taps in a way that almost feels like a game. You can choose what you want to track, such as your emotions, social activities, the weather, your meals, romantic life and more. To add an entry, you start off by tracking how you felt about your day using one of five mood beans. Then you can add additional details about your emotions. For example, you can note if you felt refreshed or gloomy that day.

You can also track how much sleep you got that day, and there’s an option to add up to three photos to your daily entries. If you want to go beyond the simple means of tracking your day, you can add notes to your entries. The app’s calendar view also gives you an overview of how you have been feeling recently.

DailyBean is a good fit for people who don’t want to spend too much time journaling and want something simple. The app costs $1.99 per month after a 7-day free trial. DailyBean is available on iOS and Android.