Take a break from your day and capture your thoughts with one of these free journal apps for Mac. They each make keeping a diary enjoyable.
While you can journal on your iPhone and iPad and certainly write in a physical diary, there are advantages to journaling on your Mac.
First, if you sit down at your computer every day anyway, you can easily take a few moments to jot down your thoughts when you take a break. Second, it’s a comfortable way to journal.
Many people these days prefer typing over writing. So, using a nice keyboard rather than a pen or a smaller mobile device keyboard is easier. And finally, there are some terrific journaling apps for Mac that make the process really enjoyable. You can use photos and formatting or enjoy a simplistic experience.
If you’re ready, we’ll show you some of the best apps for journaling on your Mac. Note that Apple’s own Journal app is only available on iPhone and not yet on iPad or Mac.
Day One
No journal app list would be complete without one of the most popular tools, Day One. And there are plenty of reasons this diary tool gets a lot of love.
Day One features:
- Go beyond words and use photos, videos, recordings, and drawings to express yourself.
- Relive memorable moments with the On This Day feature to see what you captured the previous year.
- Add tags, your location, activities, photos, files, and more to your entries.
- Create reminders, set up a password, change the appearance, and more.
Day One is available on all your Apple devices. So, if you enjoy it, consider upgrading to sync with your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. This way, you can capture your surroundings, moments, and activities on the go.
- Availability: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Safari extension, and Android
- Cost: Free with paid premium versions for additional features
Reflection Journal & Prompts
If you’re looking for a minimalistic journal app, check out Reflection. This app makes capturing your thoughts simple, making it a definite personal favorite. The interface is super clean, and the font is gorgeous.
Reflection features:
- Handy tools: Insert images to go along with your words or instead of them. You can also format your text and use tags, bookmarks, and more to manage everything better.
- Resume writing: If you set up its app on your phone, everything you write is synced everywhere. Plus, you can resume writing from where you left off.
- Privacy and security: Your entries are encrypted. Furthermore, you can keep it secure from prying eyes using Face ID, Touch ID, or a custom PIN that is different from your device’s password.
Sometimes, less is more. With Reflection, you’ll appreciate the simplicity and ability to concentrate on your words rather than adding all those bells and whistles.
- Availability: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Web browser
- Cost: Free with an in-app purchase that unlocks additional features. You can even pick a price (minimum $12) for the first year.
Diarly: Private Daily Journal
Diarly is another great journal app for Mac. You have a clean, focused writing space, easy navigation, and customization options for the perfect writing experience.
Diarly features:
- Customize the appearance for light or dark mode, font style and size, line width and height, and image size.
- Use headers, ordered lists, checklists, and quotes.
- Insert links, files, locations, and weather.
- View a timeline of your entries, notes you jot down, a map of locations, filtered views, and more.
With Diarly, you have a simple interface that lets you focus on your words. You can also set up daily prompts, goals, and notifications so you never forget to record your thoughts.
- Availability: Mac, iPhone, and iPad
- Cost: Free with a paid subscription for additional features
Morning Pages – Daily Journal
If you’re interested in getting insights about what you write, take a look at Morning Pages. After you jot down your thoughts, you’ll learn about the emotions in your words. How much positivity or negativity do you capture in your journal? Morning Pages will tell you.
Morning Pages features:
- Set a daily reminder to keep up with your journal.
- Password-protect the app so no one can invade your thoughts.
- Enjoy a simple interface with distraction-free writing.
- View your stats for the number of words you write, how many days in a row, and average writing time.
For something unique in a journal app, Morning Pages may help you understand what you’re feeling by the words you’re writing. Give it a try, and you might just appreciate this distinctive feature.
- Availability: Mac, iPhone, iPad, and the web
- Cost: Free with a paid subscription for additional features
Diarium – Journal / Diary
For a journal that connects your contacts, calendar, and social media accounts, Diarium can include who and what is important to you in your entries.
Diarium features:
- Receive daily reminders so you never forget to record what’s happening.
- Include photos, audio, drawings, locations, people, and tags in your entries.
- Password-protect your diary to keep it private.
- Enjoy an intuitive interface that works like Microsoft Word with formatting for fonts and lists.
Diarium is another terrific journal app for Mac that lets you add more than words to your entries. The app is free, but if you want to sync it with your other devices to journal anywhere, anytime, take a look at the optional paid subscription.
- Availability: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows
- Cost: Free with a paid subscription for additional features
Everyone’s tastes and preferences are different. That’s why you’ll find such a variety of features in journal apps for Mac. You might love adding audio recordings or drawings to your entries, while your friend might appreciate a basic and clean interface with words alone.
Let us know which one or more of these you plan to try. Or, if you prefer a different journal app for Mac, share it below and let us know what makes it special!