Daylio App Review 2024: Pros & Cons, Cost & Who It’s Right For

Final Verdict on Daylio

Daylio is a useful tool to quickly track your moods, activities, and habits and would be great for someone who doesn’t like to write or has a busy schedule. For me, it was not the best fit since I genuinely love to write, but it was certainly fun to use. I thought that being able to customize everything to my taste was a bonus. In the end, most of what you need is available in the free version, and I didn’t think the premium version was worth the extra cost unless exporting your data is important to you.

Key Takeaways

• Daylio is an easy-to-use journaling app that helps you track your moods, habits, and activities quickly. Journal entries typically take under five minutes.
• Daylio uses icons and bulleted lists to help you quickly log entries. If you prefer dedicating time to writing, Daylio may not be the best fit.
• Their free version offers a significant amount of helpful content.

How to Sign Up With Daylio

You can learn more about how to sign up for the app by visiting the Daylio website.

What Is The Daylio Journal App?

Daylio is a user-friendly journal app that allows you to track your moods, habits, and activities. You can customize exactly what you want to track, as well as personalize the overall appearance of the app. This allows you to identify trends that are your moods. Daylio has a terrific free version and a premium version that unlocks all features. The premium version costs $4.99 monthly or $35.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.

One of the coolest aspects of Daylio is the fact that you don’t have to write anything if you don’t want to. To log your moods, activities, or habits you simply select an icon that best fits the moment. You can record almost any type of activity, from your sleep and hobbies to your eating and health habits. When logged with your moods, you will start to see a picture of how your activities and habits directly affect your mood

After about a week of logging your moods and activities, you will be able to look at the “Stats” hub and see your mood chart. You’ll also be able to see which moods you select the most often (happy, good, sad, etc.), which activities you do the most, and other statistics. The longer and more often you use Daylio, the better your statistics will be at telling you what helps your moods and what harms them the most.

In both the free version and the premium version, you can export all of your entries to your Google Drive, your email, or your Microsoft OneDrive. In the free version, you will only be able to export a CSV table, which is basically raw data without any pictures. However, when you upgrade to the premium version, you can export a PDF file of your data which will be in full color and look almost identical to the Daylio main screen. Exporting your moods and habits could be especially useful if you are currently in therapy or considering going to therapy.

Who Is The Daylio App Right For?

Daylio would be a great journaling app for someone who needs an easy and quick way to start a journal practice. It would also be a really good fit for people who do not feel like strong writers or do not like to write.

You Need Something Easy

If you are interested in tracking your moods and habits, but feel overwhelmed by other journaling apps, Daylio would be a good fit for you. The app is very user-friendly and you can easily track your moods, activities, and habits with the tap of a few icons.

You Need Something Quick

Journaling with Daylio takes less than 5 minutes each time you log your mood, habits, and activities. This would be great for someone who wants to see how their daily habits and activities are actually affecting their moods, but they feel short on time.

You Don’t Feel Like a Strong Writer

One of the great things about the Daylio app is how little writing you actually have to do. This would be really helpful for those that do not feel like they are strong writers or even for those who have dyslexia. You can still create a dynamic and telling journal just through selecting icons that match your moods, habits, and activities!

Who May Want an Alternative to Daylio?

Daylio may be a good journal app for some, but others may want to seek out an alternative. If you are someone who likes to write or you need an app that is more interactive, you may not enjoy Daylio. Those who want to combine journaling and therapy will also need to seek an alternative, as Daylio does not offer any type of therapeutic support.

You Like to Write

While there is a small space in your daily journal entries for notes, there is no large journaling space in the Daylio app. If you are someone that is really looking for a pure journal app, Daylio will not be a good fit for you. Instead, you may want to check out web-based journaling on platforms like Penzu, which works similarly to WordPress.

You Need Something More Interactive

Daylio is a pretty straightforward app and does not have a lot of interactive aspects to it. For those wanting an app that has a tap-and-go feel plus a little something more, you may want to check out Sanvello. This app offers in-app learning courses and mood tracking as well as a community space and coaching.

To learn all about this CBT-based program, you can read our in-depth Sanvello review.

You’d Like Therapy Plus Journaling

If you are someone that wants to combine your journaling experience with therapy, there are some really great options available. Online-Therapy and BetterHelp both offer live therapy sessions with a licensed therapist in your state as well as access to prompted journals. Online-Therapy offers cognitive behavioral therapy in 30 states, while BetterHelp offers a variety of therapy types and is available nationwide.

What Daylio Users Are Saying About the App

The Daylio app has a 4.7-star rating from 40.9K reviews on the Apple App Store and a 4.7 star rating from 382K reviews on the Google Play Store. Most reviews are positive and many of the negative reviews seem to be prior to the latest developer update.

Quick & Easy to Use

Over and over again, I read reviews that mentioned how easy the app is to use and how quick it is to log your moods. A lot of people really like being able to just select the mood, habit, and activity icons that match them best in that moment and move on with their day. With this journal app being so easy to use, you are also able to quickly log your data a few times per day to get full use of the app.

Worth Paying for Premium

While the free version of the app works just fine for a lot of people, there were several users that really felt the premium version was worth the extra money. This seemed to be the case with those who mentioned they use Daylio in tandem with therapy. One user said that being able to print off a PDF file of their journal helped them and their therapist have really great talks.

Best for Mild Mental Health Symptoms

Some of the negative reviews mentioned that Daylio is not good for people who have more severe mental health symptoms. One user mentioned that they thought the app was pretty, but it didn’t have the right options to track their specific symptoms or their medications. I agree that Daylio would best serve those who have more mild mental health symptoms rather than those with more severe symptoms.

How Much Does Daylio Cost?

Daylio costs $4.99 monthly or $35.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.

Is Daylio Free?

Yes, Daylio has a free version available with quite a bit of content for free! All of the essentials for your mood tracking and daily habits are available totally free.

How To Get Started With Daylio

Getting started with the Daylio app is really easy and set-up takes less than five minutes. After you download the app, you will select which habits and activities you want to track, then set up reminders and goals. Choose if you want to try the premium version or use the free version and you are ready to go!

1. Download the app through the Daylio website.
2. Customize your mood tracker by selecting which emoji icons and color schemes you like best.
3. Pick which activities and habits you want to track – you can pick from social, hobbies, sleep, and more.
4. Set up a daily reminder to use your journal and choose a goal to focus on (you can pick exercise, sleep, or food goals).
5. Choose if you want the premium version or if you want to try the free version first.
6. Log your first journal entry and begin to explore the app!

Daylio Free Version: Detailed Review

The free version of Daylio offers a lot when it comes to tracking your moods, habits, and activities. You will be able to choose which activities and habits you want to track, as well as customizing your mood icons and color schemes. You will also be able to view a wide variety of statistics about which habits and activities affect your mood. However, you will only be able to export a CSV copy of your mood journal in the free version.

Moods, Habits, & Activities

The free version of Daylio really allows for you to customize your experience almost as much as you want to. This includes which emojis you want to represent your moods, and what habits and activities you want to track. You can even select from several color schemes in the app, which can sometimes be an extra cost with other journaling apps.

When you first sign up, there will be a list of habits and activities you can choose to track. These are in categories like social, sleep, hobbies, food, and chores. Each category is then broken down further into different activities or habits. For example, in the “social” category, you can choose from activities like “family,” “friends,” “date,” or “party.” There is even the option to add more activities to each category as you see fit to make Daylio really reflect what your daily life is like.

Statistics

Once you log enough of your daily moods and activities, you can check the Stats hub and view a lot of information. First, you will be able to see how many days in a row you have logged your moods and habits, then you will be able to view your mood chart. Your mood chart is a great visual tool that shows you which activities influenced your mood on a particular day.

In the Stats hub, you will also be able to view any achievements you have unlocked, a mood count, how many days you have hit your goal, an activity count, and much more. All of these are tools to help you identify which activities have a direct impact on your mood. The more you track the things you are going through and engage in your daily life, the more you will be able to see patterns in your good days and your bad days.

Your Profile

You can find your profile under the More hub and you will be able to create new goals, find weekly mood reports, change your color scheme and emojis, export your journal, and manage your subscription. In order to set unlimited goals or have access to all the icons, emojis and color schemes, you will have to upgrade to the premium version.

If you choose to export your journal, you will only be able to use the CSV table version. This will allow you to save your data in text form, but it will not show you any of your mood emojis or activity and habit icons.

Daylio Premium: Detailed Review

Daylio premium gives you everything in the free version plus extra features, like advanced statistics, more icons and moods, plus PDF versions of your mood journal. The premium version offers a seven-day free trial and costs $4.99 monthly or $35.99 annually.

More Colors & Icons

A really cool aspect of Daylio is how customizable the journaling experience is. When you upgrade to the premium version, you will have access to even more habit and activity icons, more color schemes, and more mood emojis. This can be helpful if you really want to track all aspects of your day and you really want the app to feel less generic and more you.

Advanced Stats

The free version of Daylio does a really good job of showing you how your daily habits and activities can affect your mood. But if you really want to dig into what your activities are doing to your mood, the advanced stats you unlock in the premium version will be very helpful. In the advanced stats, you can see how often something like “good sleep” or “fast food” influences your mood. This could be especially useful if you are experiencing more anxiety than normal, for instance, and need help pinpointing what the cause could be.

PDF Exports

While you can export your information in the free version, the CSV files are not very user-friendly and are very text-heavy. In the premium version, you will be able to download a PDF file of your journal that is in full color with all of your selected emojis and icons. This is not only more aesthetically pleasing but is easier to read if you are sharing the information with someone like your therapist or a friend.

History of Daylio

Daylio is an app developed by a company called Habitics. Habitics has also created apps that help you track your food and your weight. There is not a lot of information available about this company, but it seems they were founded in 2015.¹ I reached out to the company to find out more about when Daylio was founded and by whom, but have not heard back from the company at this time.

Daylio Vs Reflectly

Daylio and Reflectly are both mood trackers and journaling apps. Both apps have a free version and a premium version available, but Reflectly only offers a yearly subscription whereas Daylio offers a monthly and yearly subscription. Reflectly costs $19.99 for a one-year subscription, which is a bit cheaper than Daylio, but does not offer any free trials at this time. With Daylio, you will receive a seven-day free trial when you sign up for the premium version.

Daylio relies on you selecting your mood, activities, and habits from icons which gives it the feel of a bullet journal. There is very little writing required with Daylio. Reflectly also uses icons for selecting your mood, activities, and habits, but it also offers a space for you to title your entry and write a small paragraph. Additionally, Reflectly is also an AI bot and it acts as your guide through the app, which gives the app a more inviting feel.

To learn all about this journal, you can read our comprehensive review of Reflectly.

Frequently Asked Questions About Daylio

How Do I Cancel My Daylio Subscription?

To cancel your Daylio subscription, you will need to log in to the app store where you purchased your subscription. From there, you can go to “manage subscriptions” and cancel your plan.

Does Daylio Offer Refunds?

Daylio does not offer direct refunds from the company but advises you to go to the app stores to request refunds from them. For information on how to request a refund from the Apple App Store, check out the Apple Support page. For information on how to request a refund from the Google Play Store, check out the Google Play Support page.

For more information, please visit Daylio’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

For Further Reading

• Journaling About Trauma
• Prompts for Journaling
• Day One App Review
• Best Journaling Apps