Daylio is a mood tracker that doubles as a micro-diary. You pick a mood, tap the activities you did, maybe add a note or a photo, and over time it shows you patterns — the Year in Pixels, the activities that line up with your better days. It’s quick, it’s private (Daylio says it doesn’t send your data to its servers), and a lot of people love it.
The reason people outgrow it is usually the same: the notes start getting longer than the mood. You stop wanting to tap “good, coffee, walk” and start wanting to write what actually happened.
At a glance
| Daylio | Ownmost | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Mood + activity tracking, stats | Writing entries |
| Free | Free “unlimited” version | Up to 30 entries |
| Paid | Premium (in-app purchases; free trial) | One-time purchase (Full Access), not a subscription |
| Account | None mentioned | None |
| Where data lives | On your device; optional backup to your own Google Drive or iCloud | On your device; optional backup to your own Google Drive or iCloud |
| Lock | PIN, fingerprint or Face ID (PIN lock is Premium on iOS) | Passcode + Face ID or fingerprint, free |
| PDF export | Premium | PDF book with Full Access; text file always free |
| Platforms | iOS, Android | Android; iOS coming soon |
Daylio details were checked on October 2, 2026 against Daylio’s own site and help pages, linked at the end.
When Daylio is the better pick
- The stats are the point. If what you want is to see your moods as charts and spot what affects them, Daylio is built for exactly that. Ownmost lets you note how you felt with mood words, but it isn’t a statistics app.
- You want logging to take five seconds. Tapping icons is faster than any writing.
- You need it on iPhone today. Ownmost’s iOS version isn’t out yet.
When Ownmost is the better pick
You want to actually write. Ownmost is a journal first. Pick Freeform for a blank page, or a layout that does some of the thinking for you: Gratitude (three things), Day in review (three questions), Books and lines (a passage and what it made you think), plus Travel, Dream and Letter. There’s a Today’s question that changes daily for nights you don’t know where to start, and One question at a time if a full page feels like too much.
You like the privacy, and want the lock without paying. Both apps keep your entries on your device and back up only to your own cloud. In Ownmost, the passcode lock with Face ID or fingerprint is free. (Ownmost does send usage statistics and crash reports to Google Firebase; it’s on by default, you can turn it off in Settings, and it never includes your entries.)
You’d rather talk than type sometimes. Tap the mic and your words become text in the field you’re writing in.
You want a month you can reread like a book. Ownmost makes a PDF with a cover and a contents page for each month, in a date-first or photo-first layout. Here’s how it works.
Moving over
There’s no importer from Daylio. Keep your Daylio data where it is (or export it), and start writing in Ownmost from today. If you mostly want the mood log and occasionally want to write, nothing stops you from using both.
You can try Ownmost in your browser first, with a month of sample entries already in it.
Sources
- Daylio: https://daylio.net/
- Daylio Premium features: https://daylio.net/faq/docs/daylio-faq/about/daylio-premium-features/
- Daylio backups: https://daylio.net/faq/docs/daylio-faq/backup/move-backup-between-ios-and-android/
- Daylio PDF export: https://daylio.net/faq/docs/daylio-faq/tutorials/pdf-export/
- Daylio on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daylio-journal-daily-diary/id1194023242
Prices and features change. Everything above was checked on October 2, 2026.