Common journaling has been confirmed to have a optimistic influence on psychological well being. The iPad is the right machine for digital journaling — one thing I hope Apple additionally realizes quickly to allow them to convey their Journal app to the iPad. However till it does, there’s no scarcity of journaling apps out there on the iPad. That’s why I’ve examined and compiled an inventory of one of the best journaling apps for iPad, benefiting from the display screen actual property and equipment like a Good Keyboard or Apple Pencil.
1. Day One – Best Total Journaling App on iPad
Day One has been a constant prime suggestion within the journaling area, and for good motive. It affords a easy, clear UI with a feature-rich expertise, making it the most effective journaling apps out there on the iPad. It helps textual content entries, images, audio recordings, and even location tagging. You can manage your journal utilizing tags and classes for simple entry.
Some of the vital features of Day One is its focus on privateness. All syncs are end-to-end encrypted, guaranteeing your private knowledge stays safe. There’s additionally an choice to password-protect your app, and you’ll simply export your knowledge if you wish to swap apps or units.
Nevertheless, the iPad expertise is barely missing by way of handwriting assist. Handwritten notes are saved as drawings quite than transcribed into textual content, and with no OCR assist, these entries stay non-indexable.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Safe and personal (end-to-end encryption out there) | Options like cross-device syncing, handwritten notes, a number of images per entry, and so on., are solely out there with a subscription |
| Minimalist interface | Handwriting with Apple Pencil will not be an amazing expertise |
| Helps multimedia entries (images, audio, video, drawings) | |
| Superior search and tagging for simple group |
Pricing: Free, Begins at $5.99
2. Bears Gratitude – Best Gratitude Journaling app on iPad
Bears Gratitude is a singular journaling app for iPad with a wonderful UI that stands out as a consequence of its hand-drawn art work. Should you’re bored with the minimalist pattern and need an app with character, it’s a nice possibility. Designed particularly for gratitude journaling, this app encourages mindfulness and reflection. It even gained an Apple Design Award, reinforcing its considerate design and person expertise.
Nevertheless, the app isn’t feature-rich. It focuses solely on gratitude journaling, providing articles, artworks, and inspiration aligned with that objective. You can solely create textual content entries, with no assist for photos or audio aside from the lovable hand-drawn photos the app affords. It additionally lacks an app password, which makes it a no-go for a lot of customers. If you need these options, you’ll be higher off sticking to one of many different iPad apps on this record to journal.
However the heat interface of the app, with none harsher options like streaks, has led to many customers discovering it a judgment-free zone for journaling. You can journal how usually you’d like with none fixed stress from the app. It additionally options thoughtfully thought-about touchpoints within the type of self-rewards to encourage self-reflection.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Lovely and distinctive UI with handdrawn art work | Restricted options past gratitude journaling |
| Encourages mindfulness and gratitude with in-app assets | No assist for photos or audio |
| Get reminders for journaling | No password safety or encryption |
Pricing: Free, $2.99
3. Zinnia – Best app for Inventive Digital Planning & Journaling on iPad
Zinnia is a fantastically designed app that blends journaling with digital planning, providing a wealthy, customizable expertise. For customers who need a seamless expertise of writing with each Apple Pencil and typing, this app does it. The app helps Apple Pencil for handwriting and sketching, and you’ll insert images, textual content, and doodles throughout pages.
It additionally has a variety of frames, stickers, washi tapes, and ornamental components, making it excellent for bullet journaling, imaginative and prescient boards, or scrapbooking. You may add photos out of your library. Putting and transferring the whole lot across the journal can be simple. Zinnia merely shines with regards to creativity and private expression. The a whole lot of templates it affords additionally function prompts that can assist you journal, however they’re solely out there with a premium subscription. The variety of pages you possibly can add to a journal can be restricted within the free model.
There are additionally conventional options you need from a journal. You can defend it with a password, sync to iCloud, get notifications, or export PDFs. Total, it’s a fantastically designed journaling app for iPad that doesn’t skip on performance.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extremely customizable with artistic instruments and templates | Not best for long-form journaling |
| Wonderful Apple Pencil assist | |
| Nice for planning and journaling |
Pricing: Free, Begins at $3.99
4. Daylio – Best for Temper & Exercise Monitoring
Daylio is greater than the typical journaling apps you’ll discover on the iPad — it’s a complete temper and exercise tracker. All the premise of the app is predicated round it and you’ll even customise the coloration palette for moods and actions to your preferences.
You can log your temper and every day actions, add brief notes, images, or voice memos, and even create longer journal entries within the app. For long-form journaling, it even has built-in templates to supply inspiration.
The app additionally gives detailed statistics that can assist you observe your temper and actions over time, making it a superb software for self-reflection. It additionally prioritizes privateness with password safety. Moreover, you possibly can export your knowledge as a PDF or CSV file for additional evaluation or record-keeping. Nevertheless, many options, together with PDF exports and PIN lock, are solely out there with the premium subscription.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Helps notes, images, and voice memos | Not the most suitable choice on the market for deep, text-heavy journaling |
| Gives stats on your moods and actions over time | Many important options are behind the paywall |
| Affords templates for longer journal entries | No assist for handwriting or drawing with Apple Pencil |
| Can export knowledge as PDF or CSV |
Pricing: Free, Begins at $4.99
5. Notability – Best for Bullet Journaling on iPad
Whereas Notability is primarily a note-taking app, it has templates for journaling, making it a superb alternative for bullet journaling. Should you desire utilizing your Apple Pencil for journaling, Notability is a superb possibility. You may add photos, audio and even get audio transcriptions.
Because it’s not precisely a journaling app, you’ll have to put in a bit of effort to streamline your expertise — a workaround of kinds. Right here’s one: To maintain your non-public ideas safe, you possibly can create a devoted “journal” topic within the app, lock it, and create totally different notes for every entry. This manner, your journal will stay locked with out you needing to repeat the method for every entry. You may even create separate journals for yearly.
Nevertheless, understand that Notability lacks options present in conventional journaling apps — it doesn’t present prompts, temper monitoring, or notifications to encourage journaling. Should you’re attempting to construct a journaling behavior, this is probably not the only option. However in the event you’re already into journaling and need a digital different to pen and paper, Notability is a superb alternative. The interface additionally isn’t optimized for keyboard enter.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Wonderful for bullet journaling with Apple Pencil | Lacks conventional journaling options (no prompts, temper monitoring, or notifications) |
| Helps handwriting, drawings, and typed textual content | Handwriting search is simply out there with Notability Plus |
| Can lock particular journals for privateness |
Pricing: Free, Begins at $4.99
6. Stoic – Best for Guided Reflection & Mindfulness
Stoic is a kind of journaling apps that wishes to be extra than simply your journal on the iPad. It’s designed to assist mindfulness, day planning, and reflection. However, its minimalist design method retains it from changing into overwhelming. It contains separate morning and night journaling flows that can assist you focus on planning and reflecting, respectively. The app additionally gives inspirational quotes and prompts to assist information your journaling.
You can add textual content, images, voice recordings, or drawings, although drawings are saved as photos quite than transcribed textual content. Stoic additionally tracks tendencies primarily based on your exercise, encouraging consistency. Moreover, it affords meditation and sleep workout routines, however most of them are locked behind a paywall.
Nonetheless, loads of fundamental choices can be found without spending a dime. Nevertheless, in the event you’re in search of an app that gained’t have any studying curve, Stoic can’t be that. I’d suggest going with one of many different iPad apps to journal for that. However in the event you’re snug with spending a bit of time to get the cling of it, it would simply be one of the best determination you make in your life.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Guided journaling with structured morning and night flows | Has a studying curve |
| Helps textual content, images, voice recordings, and drawings | Many options (meditation, sleep workout routines) are locked behind a subscription |
| Gives quotes and prompts for inspiration | No OCR assist for handwritten entries |
| Tracks tendencies to advertise habit-building |
Pricing: Free, Begins at $6.99
7. Bubbles’ Journal – Best Scrapbook-Model Journaling App on iPad
Scrapbook: Bubbles’ Journal is a password-protected and encrypted journaling companion that makes journaling enjoyable and interesting. It affords a artistic canvas for writing, drawing, and including images, stickers, washi tapes, and different ornamental components. Should you take pleasure in scrapbook-style journaling, this is without doubt one of the apps on iPad that has all of it.
It additionally follows a quite distinctive method. In contrast to conventional journaling apps, Bubbles progressively introduces options primarily based on your habits, guaranteeing you don’t really feel overwhelmed. It additionally gives stunning themes, simple group, and the flexibility to export your entries. Total, it’s the most effective iPad apps for all of your journal wants.
The one (and the largest) caveat? It’s not free. No fundamental options can be found with the free model. You can attempt it as soon as, however after that, you’ll have to buy it if you wish to proceed.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Inventive, scrapbook-style journaling | No free model past the essential one-time trial |
| Helps drawing and ornamental components | |
| Fast switching between typing and drawing | |
| Password-protected and encrypted for privateness |
Pricing: Begins at $2.99
8. Penjo – Best Journaling App on iPad for Apple Pencil customers
Penjo is a clear, minimalist journaling app that focuses on handwriting. Designed with simplicity in thoughts, it mimics the texture of pen and paper and works seamlessly with the Apple Pencil. The app is good for customers who wish to jot down ideas shortly in their very own handwriting with out distractions. The app additionally has a complicated search software for handwriting.
It additionally syncs your Apple Calendar within the app, making it an amazing possibility for individuals who wish to use it as a planner as nicely. On units that assist Apple Intelligence, the app has additionally added Picture Playground to the journal itself, so you possibly can add something to your journal. You may add images out of your gallery. The app additionally has widgets, themes, and a month-to-month habit-tracking calendar.
Nevertheless, some important options, like password safety, can be found solely with the paid plan. It additionally lacks different options like journaling prompts, reminders, and so on. Total, anybody who finds peace in handwritten journaling and doesn’t need the muddle of options will discover Penjo a chilled alternative.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Nice for handwritten entries with Apple Pencil | Even important options are behind a paywall |
| Easy, distraction-free interface | Restricted journaling options |
| Optimized for each handwritten and textual content entries | |
| The subscription is reasonable |
Pricing: Free, Begins at $1.99
9. Diarium – Best Cross-Platform Journaling App
Diarium is a robust cross-platform journaling app which you should use not solely on your iPad but in addition Home windows, Android, Mac and iPhone. The interface is clear but full of performance.
You can add a number of forms of media to your entries, together with audio recordings, inked drawings, recordsdata, and a number of images. If typing isn’t your factor, Diarium helps speech-to-text dictation for fast voice entries. You may even charge every entry if you wish to hold observe of your temper throughout days.
It affords integrations with numerous apps and may pull knowledge from health apps, social media apps, calendars, and extra. You can sync your knowledge utilizing a number of cloud providers like OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and so on. You additionally get different conventional choices like every day journaling reminders. It’s a superb resolution for private logging.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Helps a number of media sorts and speech-to-text | No in-app guided prompts or templates |
| A number of app integrations | |
| Versatile export choices |
Pricing: Free, Begins at $9.99
10. My Diary – Best for Aesthetic but Practical Journaling
Should you’re in search of a journaling app that feels cozy, expressive, and secure, My Diary is a robust contender. This free app combines journaling with temper monitoring and tons of customization choices, making it best for anybody who needs to replicate on their feelings and embellish their entries with images, themes, and stickers.
You can write about your day, add drawings or footage, observe your temper, and even analyze temper tendencies over time. But it surely doesn’t simply convey aesthetic elements of journaling to the desk. The app additionally affords tons of performance. It has journaling guides for freshmen and options like darkish mode, font results, and a lock function to maintain your entries non-public.
A lot of the options are additionally free, with just some extra options like some backgrounds, themes, and so on. behind the paywall. Whether or not you’re writing a journey diary, private notes, or emotional reflections, My Diary helps make the method pleasurable and visually partaking.
| Professionals | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extremely customizable: themes, stickers, fonts, backgrounds | Sync and export choices are restricted in comparison with extra superior apps |
| Constructed-in temper tracker with visible stats | |
| Helps photograph and drawing attachments | |
| Password-protected for privateness |
Pricing: Free, Begins at $2.99
These are a number of the greatest journaling apps on iPad, for my part. Every of those apps excels in several areas since one of the best app to journal with would fluctuate relying on your wants. Whether or not you need a devoted journaling expertise, a canvas to adapt to your wants, or one thing in between, there’s one thing right here for everybody.