Diarly: Diary, Private Journal 4+

I pretty much never write reviews. But I’ve been low-key searching for the perfect app for my journaling over the years. And I’ve finally found the one! I love how you can really simplify the look of the screen to help you stay focused on your writing, yet lots of useful little features are just a click or two away. I love how there’s a little preview for each entry, and the themes, and the search — I just really like all of the features and how they’re neatly tucked away. And I really appreciate the added protection of the password. *So* worth the one-time in-app purchase.

There are enough options that I can feel like I’m customizing the app to my liking, but not too many options such that I feel overwhelmed and distracted by features rather than what the app is intended for - writing.

One idea that would make this *perfect* for me, would be if the devs added the option to choose your cursor color as well as the theme. I love the pink cursor that is built into the darkest theme, but I prefer the second-darkest theme. If I could have the best of both worlds, this would be completely perfect for me. (It’s already pretty close to perfect in my opinion!)

Hello & thank you for such positive review and suggestions!

Can confirm that new version will allow making custom themes (by modifying exported theme css). We hope you like it!

Please don't hesitate to contact us if something does not work as expected or maybe will have more ideas how to make app better.

This is the cleanest nicest diary app I have seen. I love that you use markdown but format it in a great looking way even while writing. And as others have said, the simplicity of the app realy makes it perfect for journaling. The thing I was looking for forever was the ability to specify a template for new entries, so thanks so much for that!

There are just a couple missing things that are keeping me from switching over: 1) I love this app, but I can’t bring myself to commit to it if it doesn’t have the ability to export to a format that other apps use. I am worried that I’ll want to switch in a month or two and don’t want to go through manually transfering every day’s journal. 2) I write entries right before I go to bed, which is sometimes after midnight. Right now, I don’t see a way to change the date on an existing entry, I only see a way to create a brand new entry. This isn’t a huge deal, but it would just be a nice little convinience to be able to click the date and select a new one.

Hello & Thank you for your review! Can you please contact us by sending us an email to hello@pureformstudio.com so that we can learn more about your needs? We got some ideas for both of your points but would like to know if they match your requirements before we start implementing.

This app is exceptional. I’m new to journaling, and have owned the Diarly app for a few years now. It has been rough getting into the habit of journaling every day, but with the recent changes in Diarly, I have found this app to be far ahead of the competition. I am actually surprised it’s not rated as a top iOS/MacOS journaling app. I assume it is because the user interface is not up there with Day One and other journaling apps, but as a techie, I am more concerned with what is under the hood.

This app is very smart, and it can do much more than the competitions journal (Day One Journal). I would actually say Diarly is more direct competition with Bear Markdown notes than Day One journal, anyway! The Diarly team is onto something here. I think with a little help, and added effort, they could get the product to compete with Friday. There is endless potential with this app and I look forward to seeing it develop.

Thank you very much for such a positive feedback!

Feedback like yours is one of the reasons we continue improving the app 🙏