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Best Journal Writing Apps in 2025

Showing 49 writing apps that match your search.

You have a story to tell, article to publish, or class notes to take. Scrivo Pro can help you organize your writing, research, generate ideas, and remove distractions so you can focus on the most important thing: writing.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

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

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scrivo-pro-for-scriveners-a...

Base price:

$9.99 one-time payment

Premium price:

Organize projects in tree-like structure

Live counters

Works offline

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 4.4 on the App Store

Writemonkey is a Windows zenware writing application with an extremely stripped down user interface, leaving you alone with your thoughts and your words. It is light, fast and free.

Platforms: Windows, PC, Mac

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

Website: https://writemonkey.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Customizable with a clean text format

Visual progress bar

Timed writing

★★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.5 on TechRadar

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

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The #1 text to speech solution for personal, commercial, and educational use.

Platforms: Online, iPhone, iPad, Android

Best for: Editing, Story, Book, Blog, Journal, and Free

Website: https://www.naturalreaders.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Convert text to spoken audio

Cross platform compatibility

Multiple chat styles

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.5 on TechRadar

Notes is the best place to jot down quick thoughts or to save longer notes filled with checklists, images, web links, scanned documents, handwritten notes, or sketches. And with iCloud, it's easy to keep all your devices in sync, so you’ll always have your notes with you.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

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

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/notes/id1110145109

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Create checklists

Add tables

Search in texts and scanned documents

★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★ Value

Also rated 3.3 on the App Store

Freedom blocks distractions across all your Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Chrome devices so you don’t have to fight off the temptation of distracting pings, notifications, headlines, and emails.

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

Best for: Productivity, Journal, Book, Story, Essay, Poetry, Blog, and Free

Website: https://freedom.to/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$2.50 monthly

Block the entire Internet

See the time you spend on sites

Set your daily limits on sites

★★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.4 on Google Play

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

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

Apple’s App of the Year with over 15 million downloads and 200,000 5-star ratings globally, Day One has reinvented journaling, letting you record your life as you live it. Securely save audio, video, photos, notes, and more wherever you are, whenever you want.

Platforms: iPad, Mac, iPhone, Android

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, and Free

Website: https://dayoneapp.com/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

$2.92 monthly

An award-winning interface

Syncs across devices

Automatic backups

Password secured

★★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.8 on the App Store

We’re more than a doc. Or a table. Customize Notion to work the way you do.

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

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

Website: https://www.notion.so/product

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Create wikis

Link to different pages

Hundreds of pre-made wikis

Create table of contents

★★★★ Performance

★★★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.0 on TechRadar

LibreOffice is a free and powerful office suite, and a successor to OpenOffice.org (commonly known as OpenOffice). Its clean interface and feature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, PC

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

Website: https://www.libreoffice.org/

Base price:

Free

Premium price:

Full-feature word processor

Customizable fonts and other styles

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.5 on TechRadar

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

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