# Cozy vs Day One Both are journaling apps. The difference starts with what happens to your writing after you write it. ![The Cozy app icon next to the Day One app icon, separated by 'vs'.](https://cozyjournal.app/_astro/vs-dayone.DdjDxsg-_OxcPe.webp) Day One is the journaling app most people land on first. It's polished, it's everywhere, it works. I used it for a while. Most of the people who write to me about Cozy left it for the same reason: they opened their diary one morning and the app asked them to let an AI read it. ## Is Cozy a good Day One alternative? Cozy is a Day One alternative for one reason: your journal stays on your own computer as plain files, no AI ever reads it, and you pay once instead of every year. Your Day One export comes across in one step, photos and dates included. It isn't a like-for-like replacement, and I'd rather say so here than let you find out after paying. Day One runs on Android and the web, and it syncs for you. Cozy does neither. If those matter more than owning the files, stay where you are. If they don't, the rest of this page is the detail. ## The short version - **Whether an AI touches your writing.** Day One's Gold tier is built around AI features. Cozy has no AI, and never will. - **Whether your journal can come with you.** Your Day One export goes into Cozy in one step, entries and photos included. - **Where your entries live.** Day One stores them on their servers. Cozy stores them in a folder on your own computer, Mac or Windows. - **What format they're in.** Day One uses its own format that only its app can read. Cozy uses simple text files any app can open. - **How you pay.** Day One is a yearly subscription ($49.99 or $74.99 per year, depending on the tier). Cozy is $35 once for desktop, with Cozy for iPhone and iPad included. - **What happens if the app disappears.** With Day One, you need to export. With Cozy, you open your folder. ## The AI difference Day One's Gold tier is built around AI: it can summarise your entries, ask you questions about them, and write back to you about your own life. The features are opt-in, but the invitations to use them are not, and for a lot of people that was the moment the app stopped feeling private. Cozy has no AI in it. There's no chat window, no summary of your year, no assistant offering to look through what you wrote. Nothing you write is read, trained on, or sent anywhere, and there's no server for it to be sent to. That isn't a feature I haven't got round to yet, it's the point of the app. I wrote a longer post about [why Cozy doesn't have AI](https://cozyjournal.app/blog/why-cozy-doesnt-have-ai/) if you want the full reasoning. > I was a Day One user, but woke up one morning to them encouraging me to use AI to “interrogate” my journal. Nope. That sent me looking for an alternative. I really like Cozy so far! It's clean, it's easy to use, my Day One entries zipped right into it. Thank you! via email ## Bringing your Day One journal across This is the first thing people ask me, and fair enough. Nobody wants to retype ten years of diary. In Day One, export your journal as JSON. You get a zip. In Cozy, press **Import** next to Day One on the welcome screen and pick that zip. That's the whole move. One step, and it's all in. Your entries come across with their dates, titles and tags. Your photos and videos come with them, copied into the journal folder instead of left behind in the export. So do your places, which means the imported years show up on the map on the first day. A few things don't make the trip: the time of day, Day One's automatic weather and step count, and anything Day One keeps out of its export entirely. I wrote the move up in full, screenshots and all, in [how to move your Day One journal to Cozy](https://cozyjournal.app/blog/move-from-day-one/), including what doesn't come across. None of it touches Day One. An export is a copy, so your journal stays exactly where it is while you try Cozy with your real writing in it. > 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/) ## Where your journal lives Day One keeps your entries on their servers and syncs them down to your devices. They use end-to-end encryption, which is genuinely good. But the entries are still stored in a place you don't directly control, in a format only Day One can read. Cozy doesn't have a server. Your entries are saved as regular files inside a folder you choose. You can open that folder right now and read your entries in any text editor. They're just files. ## How sync works Day One handles sync for you. That's convenient, and it's part of what you pay for. Cozy doesn't handle sync. But because your journal is just a folder, you can put it inside iCloud, Dropbox, or any similar service and it syncs the same way your other files do. One less service to trust, one less account to manage. If Cozy for iPhone and iPad is part of your setup, use iCloud Drive, it's the only folder an iOS app is allowed to read. Not deciding today? 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). ## Pricing Cozy is $35, once. One license covers every Mac and Windows computer you own, and Cozy for iPhone and iPad comes with it. Day One is a subscription: $49.99 a year for Silver, or $74.99 a year for Gold, which is the tier with the AI features. You keep paying every year to keep using it. Day One does have a free Basic tier, with limits: one photo per entry, and no sync across devices. Bought on its own, Cozy for iPhone and iPad is $19.99, once. No subscription, ever. Put another way: Cozy for your computer and your phone is $35, paid one time. Day One Silver is $49.99 a year, every year, for as long as you want to keep reading your own diary. ## If the company goes away This is the part I think about most. If Day One shuts down or changes direction, you have to export your entries before you lose access. If you miss the window, your journal is gone. If Cozy shuts down, you open your folder and keep going. The files were always yours. That's the whole point. ## So which one is for you? If you want sync handled for you across every device you own, including Android and the web, and you don't mind paying every year, Day One does that better than anyone. If you want a quiet journal that lives on your own Mac, PC, iPhone and iPad, in files you control, paid for once, that's what Cozy is for. * * * Comparing other apps? Read [Cozy vs Obsidian](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-obsidian/), [Cozy vs Bear](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-bear/), [Cozy vs Diarium](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-diarium/), or [Cozy vs Apple Journal](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-apple-journal/). ## Common questions Does Cozy have AI features like Day One? No, and it never will. Day One's Gold tier is built around AI, and the app prompts you to use it on your entries. Cozy has no AI in it at all, nothing you write is read, trained on, or sent anywhere. Can I bring my Day One entries and photos into Cozy? Yes, in one step. Export your Day One journal as JSON, then point Cozy at the zip. Your entries come across with their dates, tags and places, and your photos and videos come with them. The import runs on your own computer. [Moving your Day One journal to Cozy](https://cozyjournal.app/blog/move-from-day-one/) walks through it and lists the few things that don't transfer. Where do Cozy and Day One store your entries? Day One stores entries on its own servers and syncs them to your devices. Cozy stores entries as plain files in a folder on your own computer, Mac or Windows, there is no Cozy server. Does Cozy run on Windows? Yes. Cozy runs on macOS and Windows, and one license covers every computer you own. Cozy for iPhone and iPad is included with it. What file format does each app use? Day One uses a proprietary format that only its app can read. Cozy uses simple text files that any text editor can open. How much does each app cost? Day One is a yearly subscription: $49.99/year for Silver or $74.99/year for Gold. Cozy is $35 once for the desktop app, and Cozy for iPhone and iPad is included in that license ($19.99 on its own), with no subscription. What are the main Day One alternatives? The ones people actually move to: Diarium, if you want the closest feel to Day One for a one-time price and you're on Windows too. Apple Journal, if you're entirely on Apple devices and want free. Journey, if you want cloud sync everywhere including Android. Obsidian, if you already live in plain text and don't mind building the journal part yourself. And Cozy, if what you want is your journal as your own files, with no AI and no subscription. There are honest write-ups of [Cozy vs Diarium](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-diarium/), [Cozy vs Apple Journal](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-apple-journal/), [Cozy vs Journey](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-journey/) and [Cozy vs Obsidian](https://cozyjournal.app/vs-obsidian/) if you want the detail. What's the best Day One alternative for people who want plain files? If your reason for leaving Day One is that you want your entries as files on your own computer, in a format any text editor can open, Cozy is built around exactly that idea. What happens to your journal if the app shuts down? With Day One, you must export your entries before losing access. With Cozy, your journal is already a folder of files on your computer, you simply keep the folder. Does Cozy sync across devices? Cozy does not run its own sync service. Because your journal is just a folder, you can place it inside iCloud, Dropbox, or any similar service to sync it between computers. If you also use Cozy on your iPhone or iPad, it has to be iCloud Drive, that's the only service iOS lets an app read a folder from. --- Day One alternative, Cozy: plain files, no subscription Source: https://cozyjournal.app/vs-day-one/ More: [llms.txt](https://cozyjournal.app/llms.txt) · [sitemap](https://cozyjournal.app/sitemap-index.xml) · [OpenAPI](https://cozyjournal.app/openapi.json)