What is the best Daylio alternative?
Short answer
It depends on what you miss. For a mood you tap plus a line you write, on your phone and your laptop, Pensio. For every platform, Linux included, Journey. For tracking more than mood, Bearable. For a free check-in from a nonprofit, How We Feel. For iPhone, iPad and Mac, Apple Journal. If you only ever tap and one phone is enough, stay on Daylio.
The options, and what each one is best for
Pensio — a mood you tap and a line you write, on any device
Tap one of five moods, write a few words, and Pensio keeps both, reading the words for 60+ emotions and the people in them. Web, iOS and Android on one account. Honest limits: no activities, no custom scale, no importer for your Daylio history, and no end-to-end encryption.
Journey — every platform, Linux included
Runs on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux and the web, with rich media. The widest reach on this list; its AI is lighter.
Bearable — tracking more than mood
Logs mood alongside symptoms, sleep, medication and other factors, and looks for what moves together. The usual pick for people who leave Daylio wanting more tracking, not less.
How We Feel — a free check-in from a nonprofit
Free, with no ads or paywall, built with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. iOS and Android, with data kept on the device. Like Daylio, it has no desktop version.
Apple Journal — iPhone, iPad and Mac, for free
Free, end-to-end encrypted by default, and it logs your state of mind to Apple Health. Apple devices only, and it cannot import your Daylio history either.
Staying on Daylio — the fastest tap-only log
If you never want to type and one phone is enough, stay. Turn a backup on, and make a backup file before you change phones.
In depth
Daylio is very good at one thing: logging a mood and your activities in a few seconds, without typing. It keeps your data on your phone with no account, its free tier is generous, and many people who track their mood closely rely on it. If that is all you need, nothing on this list is faster.
The limits are about where your journal lives. Daylio runs on iOS and Android only, and its own FAQ says it is not being developed for computers or the web. It does not sync live between devices; it recommends one primary device. Backups go to your own Google Drive or iCloud Drive, automatic backup is a Premium feature, and Premium bought on one platform does not carry over to the other.
Can you move your Daylio history? Inside Daylio, yes: its own backup file restores on a new phone, even from Android to iOS, so make one before you switch. Into Pensio, no. Pensio has no importer today, so you would start fresh and keep Daylio as the record of what came before.
Pensio fits the person who wants to write a line as well as tap. In Quick Capture you tap one of five moods and add a few words, and Pensio keeps the mood you chose while it reads the words for more than 60 specific emotions and the people you mention. It works in any browser, on Windows, Mac or Linux, and in the iOS and Android apps, on one account. It is not a mood tracker in the Daylio sense: there are no activities, no custom mood scale, and no year-in-pixels grid.
People also ask
What AI journal analyzes my emotions and finds patterns?
One that reads your writing instead of asking you to tap a mood, then charts it across months.
Is there a free AI journaling app?
Yes. Pensio Free is genuinely useful: unlimited entries, emotion extraction, weekly insights, AI advisors.
What is the best Reflectly alternative?
Six options compared by which part you have outgrown: the mood picker, the prompts, or the gamification.