Daybook vs Skrive

Daybook is a digital diary for recording thoughts and moments, with tools for hands-free entry, mood tracking, and guided reflection. Voice-to-text lets users capture thoughts without typing. Journal prompts include nightly reflections, mental health check-ins, and gratitude journals. Users can track moods and activities, then review mood analytics; entries can be tagged, categorized, and revisited in a calendar view. Daybook can export entries to PDF with layouts users can adjust for printing or saving, and its AI features can summarize entries, offer insights, and suggest improvements. It is available on Android, iOS, and the web; the About page also lists Alexa and the OpenAI ChatGPT Store as access options. The free plan includes unlimited entries and syncing across multiple devices. Pro costs $3.49 a month and adds mood analytics and word analysis, AI features, guided journals and themes, custom templates, higher-resolution photos, and an advanced printer. Daybook says entries are encrypted in transit to its cloud, where diary information is stored.

Skrive is a daily journal built around one plain-text entry per day. Users can browse entries by date and search the full text of their journal history. The free app does not limit how much users can write, and entries are saved locally first, so writing and reading can continue offline or when the cloud service is unavailable. Skrive is available for macOS, iOS, and Android, and entries can be exported as JSON or plain text. Before transmission, entries are encrypted on the device with AES-256 using a key controlled by the user. The maker says encrypted backups are stored on servers in the EU. Skrive Pro adds encrypted cloud backup and sync across devices; it is listed at $3.99 a month. The encryption passphrase cannot be recovered if lost, and entries may become inaccessible after signing out, changing devices, or reinstalling the app. The maker is based in Oslo, Norway. The product has a free plan and a 14-day trial.