Daykept vs Daylio: a mood tracker, or a mood journal you actually write in?
Daylio is great for one-tap mood and activity tracking. Daykept starts with your mood too, then gives you room to write. An honest side-by-side.
Daylio is one of the best-known mood trackers: pick a mood, tap the activities you did, and the app turns months of taps into charts, "without having to type a single line," as its App Store page puts it. Daykept also starts every entry with a mood, but it's built for the next step: writing a few lines (or a few pages) about why.
If you love Daylio's one-tap logging and activity stats, stay. If you keep wishing you could say more than a mood and an icon, read on.
At a glance
| Daykept | Daylio | |
|---|---|---|
| Core idea | Mood-first journal: pick a feeling, then write | Mood tracker: mood + activities, notes optional |
| Moods | 50 emotions in 6 groups (joy, sadness, fear, anger, neutral, other) | Customizable moods ("mix and match your own") |
| Activities / habits | Tags you add yourself | ✓ Activity icons, goals, achievements |
| Writing | Rich text, multiple pages per entry, photos | Notes on each entry |
| Help to start writing | 200+ daily prompts, 47 templates (14 free) | Not listed on its store page |
| Mood calendar & stats | Mood calendar, Report (week / month / year), weekly recap | Calendar, weekly / monthly / yearly stats, Year in Pixels |
| Cycle × mood | Mark your period on the mood calendar (free); mood across your cycle (Premium · free during early access) | Not listed |
| Looking back | On This Day, Notebook Timeline (Premium · free during early access) | Calendar and stats |
| Where your data lives | On your phone; optional Daykept account syncs across devices | On your phone; optional backup to your own Google Drive / iCloud |
| Lock | PIN, Face ID or fingerprint | PIN lock |
| Export | Daykept Backup, Markdown | PDF, CSV |
| Platforms | iOS, Android | iOS, Android |
We make Daykept. The Daylio column comes from its official App Store listing, checked September 27, 2026.
Where Daylio is the better fit
- You want to log in two taps and never type. That's exactly what Daylio is designed for.
- You track activities and habits. Activity icons, goals, achievements and stats on how each activity relates to your mood are Daylio's strength. Daykept has tags, but no activity grid or goals.
- You like Year in Pixels or want to print and share PDF reports.
Where Daykept is the better fit
- You want to write, not just log. Every Daykept entry is a real page: rich text, multiple pages, photos. The mood comes first, so a ten-second entry still counts on busy days.
- You get stuck on what to say. A new prompt waits in every blank entry (200+ in total), and 14 free templates, from a two-question Daily Check-in to an Anxiety Release, give the page a shape.
- You want to see why, not only what. Read back the entries behind a heavy week on the mood calendar, or filter by tag. See how to read a mood journal.
- You want to connect mood and your cycle. Mark your period on the same calendar as your moods; after two cycles, Report shows how your moods spread across it. See mood and your menstrual cycle.
- You want your journal on more than one phone. Sync is optional, through a Daykept account. No account needed to start.
Moving from Daylio
Daykept can't import Daylio data. The honest path: keep Daylio for your history (or export it as PDF/CSV from Daylio), and start fresh in Daykept. After a couple of weeks, your mood calendar and Report fill in on their own.
Frequently asked questions
Is Daykept a Daylio alternative?
Yes, if what you want is a mood journal you write in. If you mainly want one-tap mood and activity tracking, Daylio is the better tool for that.
Can I use Daykept like Daylio, without writing?
Yes. Pick a mood and save. That's a complete entry, and it shows on your mood calendar and in Report. Write more only when you want to.
Is Daykept free?
Writing is free forever. A Premium plan is coming for extras like Notebook Timeline, mood across your cycle, voice journal and more templates. It's all free for everyone during early access.
Other comparisons
Coming from a full-featured journal? See Daykept vs Day One, including how to import your Day One entries.
Try Daykept free
Free to download. No account needed to start.