Best Zinnia alternatives in 2026
The best Zinnia alternatives are Day One if you want a traditional journal, Diarium if you want a one-time purchase instead of a subscription, Journey if you want templates and prompts, and Natus if you journal to understand yourself rather than decorate pages. People leave Zinnia for three reasons: a subscription that is hard to cancel, projects lost to updates, and a free trial that gates almost everything behind it.
What Zinnia users say in their own reviews
Verbatim from public 1 and 2 star App Store reviews.
Impossible to end subscription1 star review
This may be a nice online journal, but cancelling the subscription is impossible. Still trying to cancel. Unsuccessfully. Stay away from this nefarious subscription.
Lost all my projects1 star review
I paid for this app in January and with the latest update, the app would not open. I reached out to tech support and was able to get the app to open but all my projects are gone. I lost 8 months worth of work that I am unable to get back.
Information missing1 star review
There have been frequent instances of going into my notes that I keep and having them go missing, or having blank pages in their place. I am not a fan of paying for these to be kept, and this being the result.
Too expensive1 star review
Everything I clicked on was always a free trial and I hate it so I quit this app.
The options
Day One
Best for: a traditional journal with real export
The benchmark for classic journaling: photos, locations, multiple journals, solid export tools. Its own 1 star reviews are about price and features moving to pricier tiers, not the writing experience.
Diarium
Best for: paying once, not forever
A one-time purchase that syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows. The pragmatic answer for people burned by journal subscriptions.
Journey
Best for: guided templates and structure
The closest to Zinnia's template-driven approach. Honest warning: its reviews flag billing problems and slow support, so manage the subscription through your Apple ID.
Natus(this is us)
Best for: a journal that reads back
A different job entirely. No stickers or spreads: a private journal, a First Reading built from your details, and every Sunday your week read back in your own words. For people who write to understand, not to decorate.
If you cannot get out of the subscription
The most alarming Zinnia reviews are about billing: subscriptions that will not cancel from inside the app and charges continuing after cancellation. Whatever you switch to, subscribe through your Apple ID so cancellation is in your Settings, not in their support queue.
If your pages went missing
Reviews describe notes vanishing, pages coming back blank, and one user who lost eight months of work to an update. Any journal you keep seriously needs an export habit, and apps like Day One and Diarium make that easy.
If you wanted meaning, not decoration
Zinnia is a beautiful planner first and a journal second. If the part you actually wanted was understanding yourself, that is a different tool, and it is what Natus was built for.
Common questions
- How do I cancel a Zinnia subscription?
- Through your Apple ID: Settings, your name, Subscriptions. Several 1 star reviews describe failing to cancel inside the app itself, which is exactly why Apple-side cancellation matters.
- Is there a journal app that will not lose my pages?
- Whatever you pick, export periodically. Day One and Diarium both have solid export. Lost entries are one of the most common complaints across every journal app we reviewed, Zinnia included.
- What if I do not care about pretty templates?
- Then a planner-journal is solving the wrong problem. If what you want is to understand what is going on with you, Natus is built for exactly that: less scrapbook, more mirror.