TRY OUR FREE APP

Write your book in Reedsy Studio. Try the beloved writing app for free today.

Craft your masterpiece in Reedsy Studio

Plan, write, edit, and format your book in our free app made for authors.

DIRECTORY

Best Journal Writing Apps in 2025

Showing 49 writing apps that match your search.

Capture your thoughts, discoveries, and ideas and simplify overwhelming planning moments in your life with your very own digital notepad. With OneNote, you can plan that big event, seize that moment of inspiration to create something new, and track that list of errands that are too important to forget.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Android, Chrome, PC

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, Blog, Essay, and Free

Website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onenote/dig...

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Sync across devices

Share and collaborate

Secure notes with password

Pin important pages and notes

★★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.5 on TechRadar

Diarly is built for the best journaling experience. With every feature you will need and a beautiful interface, starting a journal has never been so simple.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking and Journal

Website: https://diarly.app/

Base price:

$2.00 monthly

Premium price:

Built-in gallery and maps

Timeline

Notes

Custom fonts and templates

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.8 on the App Store

From boardroom to lecture hall, project plan to daily diary, Nebo makes note-taking smarter, more efficient and more enjoyable.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, Poetry, and Blog

Website: https://www.nebo.app/

Base price:

$9.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

Write-to-text

Copy-paste to Notes

Mix handwriting with text

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.3 on the App Store

Craft your masterpiece in Reedsy Studio

Plan, write, edit, and format your book in our free app made for authors.

Learn more about Reedsy Studio

Don’t stop typing. If you do all your work will disappear and be gone forever. Danger Notes is the ultimate writing tool to help fight writer’s block. Whether you are writing a term paper, an essay, a book, your best-man speech, promising rap lyrics or just free writing, Danger Notes will help you fight writer’s block by forcing you to keep writing in order to save your progress from being deleted.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking, Book, Story, Essay, Journal, Poetry, Blog, and Free

Website: http://swivelapps.com/apps-by-david/dangernotes.html

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Clean interface

Self-deleting words

★★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.8 on Capterra

Black Note is the black theme's notepad. It's the simple notes app.

Platforms: Android

Best for: Note-taking, Story, Book, Blog, Journal, Poetry, and Free

Website: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=notepad.not...

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Dark mode only

Sticky notes

★★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.8 on Google Play

Write without distractions. WriteRoom is a full screen writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you're used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing.

Platforms: Mac

Best for: Drafting, Book, Story, Journal, Essay, Blog, and Poetry

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/writeroom/id417967324?mt=12

Base price:

$4.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

Distraction free

Full screen

Plain text editor

★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

Accessibility

Value

Also rated 3.6 on the App Store

Remember everything and tackle any project with your notes, tasks, and schedule all in one place.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Windows, Android, Mac, Online, Chrome, PC

Best for: Note-taking, Outlining, Book, Essay, Journal, Poetry, Story, Blog, and Free

Website: https://evernote.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$8.99 monthly

Syncs across devices

Search within documents

Clip web pages and PDFs

Dozens of app integrations and templates

★★★★ Performance

★★★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.4 on the App Store

Note down, shape, & share your ideas with the world's best loved digital paper. Fall in love with handwriting all over again with Goodnotes’ digital ink.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Book, Story, Journal, and Poetry

Website: https://www.goodnotes.com/

Base price:

$8.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

Search your handwriting

Annotate PDFs

Organize with folders and subfolders

Personlize notebooks

★★★★ Performance

★★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.8 on the App Store

Writer is a writing application without the fuss and distraction of a traditional word processor. It's perfect for everything from taking notes to writing a novel on your phone or tablet.

Platforms: Android

Best for: Note-taking, Book, Story, Journal, Essay, Blog, Poetry, and Free

Website: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jamesmc...

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Markdown

Estimated reading time

Character and word count

★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 3.8 on Google Play

Make mind map documents that flow like your ideas.

Platforms: Online

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, Essay, Blog, and Free

Website: https://coggle.it/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$5.00 monthly

Powerful online flowcharts

Realtime collaboration

Add floating text and images

★★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.5 on Capterra

Chapters lets you manage multiple notebooks, each fully searchable and with its own settings. Keep a personal journal, a photo diary, notes about that project at work, and a travel journal in a single app.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac

Best for: Note-taking and Journal

Website: http://slidetorock.com/apps/Chapters-iPad-notebooks.html

Base price:

$1.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

Password protected

Color code

Fast search

Create backup files

★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 4.0 on the App Store

Drafts opens to a new page with the keyboard ready so you can type immediately. Go hands-free with Dictation. Drafts lets you get things down before you forget without fiddling folders, naming, etc.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, Essay, Blog, and Free

Website: https://getdrafts.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Dictation

Tags for organization

Customizable ediitng

Fast sync

★★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.8 on the App Store

Bring your stories to life

Our free writing app lets you set writing goals and track your progress, so you can finally write that book!