DailyLife (listed on Google Play as DailyLife: Private Diary, Lock) is one of the most-downloaded diary apps on Android, with more than 5 million installs and a 4.7 rating. It does a lot for a free app: several photos per entry, music, pen drawings, location tags with a map, hashtags, a calendar view, cute cursive fonts, daily reminders, a password, PIN or fingerprint lock, backup to your own Google Drive and export to PDF.
If it already works for you, there’s no reason to move. People usually start looking elsewhere for one of these reasons:
- The ads get in the way of something as quiet as a diary.
- A blank page is the hard part, and fonts and stickers don’t solve it.
- You’d like an app that does fewer things and stays out of the way.
At a glance
| DailyLife | Ownmost | |
|---|---|---|
| Ads | Yes | None |
| Price | Free download, in-app purchases | Free for up to 30 entries; one-time purchase (Full Access), not a subscription |
| Focus | A full-featured diary: photos, music, drawing, maps, fonts | Writing and rereading: layouts, a daily question, dictation |
| Writing help | Hashtags, daily reminders | Layouts like Gratitude, Day in review and Books and lines; a daily question; type or speak |
| Lock | Password, PIN, fingerprint | Passcode plus Face ID or fingerprint |
| Backup | To your own Google Drive | Optional, to your own Google Drive or iCloud |
| Export your diary to PDF | A month as a PDF book with a cover and contents (Full Access); text file, always free | |
| Account | Not stated in the listing | None |
| Devices | Android | Android; iOS coming soon |
DailyLife details were checked on October 2, 2026 against its Google Play listing and Data safety section. Anything the listing doesn’t say is marked “not stated”.
When DailyLife is the better pick
- You enjoy making your diary look like yours. Fonts, a custom profile and pen drawings are things Ownmost simply doesn’t have.
- You want music in your entries. Ownmost attaches photos only.
- You don’t mind ads and don’t want to pay anything. DailyLife is free to download and use.
When Ownmost is the better pick
You want a diary with no ads. None at all, on any screen. The design is meant to feel like writing on paper, not using an app.
You need help deciding what to write. Beyond a plain free-form entry, you can pick Gratitude (three good things), Day in review (three short evening questions), Books and lines (a passage and what it made you think), or Travel, Dream and Letter. There’s a Today’s question that changes daily, and an option to show one question per screen so a long layout never feels like a form. On nights when typing feels like too much, tap the mic and talk — your words land in the entry as text.
You want your diary to stay on your phone, with nothing to sign up for. Ownmost has no account and no servers for your entries, so we couldn’t read them if we wanted to. Entries only leave the device if you switch on backup to your own Google Drive or iCloud, or sync with your own nearby device. The app does send usage statistics and crash reports to Google Firebase; that’s on by default, can be turned off in Settings, and never includes what you write.
You want to reread a month, not just archive it. Both apps export PDF. Ownmost’s is shaped like a small book — a cover, a contents page, then the month in a date-first or photo-first layout you preview with your own entries before saving. See how to turn your journal into a book.
You want old paper diaries in the same place. Photograph a handwritten page and Ownmost turns it into text you can edit.
Before you switch
Ownmost can’t import DailyLife entries. Export your DailyLife diary to PDF first so you have a copy, then start fresh in Ownmost from today. If the hard part is keeping going rather than starting, how to start journaling might help.
You can also try Ownmost in your browser before installing. It comes with a month of sample entries.
Sources
- DailyLife: Private Diary, Lock (Google Play): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dailylife.communication
Features and prices change. Everything above was checked on October 2, 2026.