The Day One alternative made for families

Day One is one of the best journaling apps ever made — beautifully designed, end-to-end encrypted, and cross-platform. It's built for personal journalling, though: one writer, one private diary. Family memory-keeping is a different job — shared between parents, focused on the kids, and built to become something you print. Here's how the two compare.

At a glance

Where Day One wins

As a personal diary, Day One is exceptional — daily prompts, writing streaks, gorgeous typography and rock-solid end-to-end encryption across Mac, iPhone and iPad. If you want a private journal for yourself, it's the gold standard, and PocketTreasures doesn't try to replace it.

Where a family app wins

• Two parents, one log — Partner Sync lets both parents add to the same family timeline via private iCloud. A personal journal is, by design, just yours.
• Shaped for children — milestones, adventures, kids' quotes and growth over time, rather than a blank page.
• Made to be printed — the year becomes a family photo book, not just an archive of entries.
• Shareable with grandparents — send an encrypted link relatives can open in a browser, no app required.

The verdict

Use Day One for your own journal. For the shared, child-focused work of remembering family life — and turning it into a book — PocketTreasures is the family-shaped alternative. See the full field in our best family memory apps guide.