# A journaling app without a subscription Most journaling apps charge you every month or every year. Cozy charges once, the way software used to. You buy it, you keep it. Almost every journaling app I tried before building Cozy charged a subscription. $5 a month here, $50 a year there. Software you keep paying rent on to read writing you already did. Cozy is the other thing. You pay for it once. You own that version. You keep using it. ## The price - **Desktop: $35 once.** One license covers every Mac and Windows you own. - **iPhone and iPad: $19.99 once, or free with a desktop license.** Cozy for iPhone and iPad is on the App Store as its own app. Buy it on its own, or enter your desktop key and it unlocks. - **No subscription.** No tiers. No account. - **A year of updates.** Every license includes one year. After that Cozy keeps working forever, and another year is an optional $17 if you want it. - **One license, every desktop.** A single payment covers Mac and Windows. ## Why this is possible Subscription pricing makes sense when the company has to keep something running for you, servers, sync, an account system. Cozy doesn't have any of that. Your journal is a folder of files on your own computer. Nothing on my side has to be up at 3 a.m. for your journal to work. Because the costs are mostly one-time (build the app, ship the app), the price can be one-time too. One email now and then I only email when there's something important to tell you. Reading this on your phone? Cozy is on [iPhone and iPad, in beta](https://testflight.apple.com/join/JEckW459). ## What you actually own When you buy Cozy, you get an application that opens, writes, and reads files in a folder you choose, on your computer, and on your phone. The folder is your journal. Both the app and the folder live on your own devices. If I get hit by a bus, the app you have keeps working. If you stop paying, you don't stop paying, there's nothing to stop. The journal is yours. ## For people tired of the subscription model A journal is the last place I want a monthly bill. You keep it for years, ideally decades. Paying rent on something you intend to keep forever has always felt backwards to me. Cozy is the version where you don't. * * * Related reading: [a private journaling app](https://cozyjournal.app/private-journaling-app/), [an offline journaling app](https://cozyjournal.app/offline-journaling-app/), [a journal in plain files](https://cozyjournal.app/markdown-journaling-app/), and [a Day One alternative without a subscription](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-day-one/). > After using Day One for 15 years, I've made the jump to another journaling app… The never ending push to upgrade, AI inclusion and lack of quality updates is just too much. I've moved to Cozy and I'm really enjoying it. Cozy is lightweight, actively being worked on… I had some issues with the import feature and the developer was very responsive, even releasing a fix that same day. [![](https://cozyjournal.app/reddit-icon.svg) u/akalanaya](https://www.reddit.com/r/dayoneapp/comments/1u4qty8/comment/orx5k4k/) ## Common questions Is there a one-time payment journaling app? Yes. Cozy is a one-time purchase: $35 once for the desktop app (Mac, Windows), and Cozy for iPhone and iPad is included with that license. On its own it's $19.99 once. No subscription tier. What does the price include? The desktop license is one payment that covers the app on every Mac and Windows you own, plus Cozy for iPhone and iPad. You download Cozy, then activate it with your license, the same key unlocks the phone app. Do I have to pay again when there's an update? Only if you want to. Every license includes one year of updates. After that year Cozy keeps working forever, exactly as it is, and another year of updates is an optional $17. Nothing stops working if you skip it. How does this compare to Day One or Bear pricing? Day One Silver is $49.99/year and Gold is $74.99/year. Bear Pro is $2.99/month or $29.99/year. Cozy is $35, once, for desktop, with the iPhone and iPad app included, no subscription. Why don't you charge a subscription? Cozy doesn't run a server. There's nothing that has to keep running for your journal to work, the entries are files on your computer. Charging monthly for software that lives on your own machine never felt right to me. --- Journaling App Without a Subscription, pay once Source: https://cozyjournal.app/no-subscription-journaling-app/ More: [llms.txt](https://cozyjournal.app/llms.txt) · [sitemap](https://cozyjournal.app/sitemap-index.xml) · [OpenAPI](https://cozyjournal.app/openapi.json)