Free, no ads

A free diary app with no ads and nothing to hide

Purple Diary is a free diary app you can download and write in today, with no ads and no data selling. The everyday journaling and the app lock cost nothing. There is a paid tier, and this page is honest about exactly what it adds, so you can decide for yourself.

What you actually get for free

Plenty of apps call themselves free and then lock the parts you wanted behind a paywall the moment you start. Purple Diary works the other way around. The free version is a complete diary, not a trial, and it stays that way for as long as you use it.

• Real writing. A comfortable rich text editor for daily entries, plus photo attachments and voice notes for the things words alone cannot hold.
• The lock. A PIN code, and biometric unlock with Face ID, Touch ID, or a fingerprint on devices that support it. It re-locks when you leave the app, so your journal is private by default.
• Mood and tags. Log your mood and review it over time, and organize entries with tags so any past day is easy to find again.
• Sync everywhere. Your diary follows you across every device you own, with nothing extra to pay for the sync itself.

You can also make the space your own with ten theme colors in light and dark, adjustable fonts and text sizes, and feed options that change how past entries appear. None of that is held back for paying users.

No ads, and your data stays yours

When something is free, the fair question is how it pays for itself. A lot of free apps answer that with advertising or by quietly selling what they learn about you. For a diary that would be the worst possible trade, because the whole point is that your private thoughts stay private.

Purple Diary shows no ads. It does not sell your data, and it does not read or reuse the content of your entries for anything other than running the app for you. The reason the free diary app can exist without ads is simple: it is funded by the people who choose to buy the optional premium features, not by turning your journal into a product.

Why "free" matters more for a diary

A free calculator is just convenient. A free diary is something more, because cost can quietly shape how honest you are. If writing tomorrow depends on remembering to renew a subscription, the habit gets fragile, and a habit you are anxious about is a habit you tend to drop. Knowing the core app is free, with the lock included, takes that worry off the table. You write because you want to, not because a timer is running.

The paid tier, explained honestly

Here is the part many pages skip. Purple Diary does have a paid tier, and it comes in two shapes: an optional subscription, and a one-time lifetime purchase for people who would rather pay once than pay monthly. Both add premium extras on top of the free app.

What they do not do is take anything away. Writing, the lock, photos, voice notes, mood tracking, tags, customization, and sync are all in the free version and stay there. The paid tier is there for people who want to support the app and get the extras, never as a wall in front of keeping a basic private journal. Purple Diary is rated 4.5 stars by more than 500 people, and that balance is a big part of why. If privacy is your main reason for choosing it, the private journal app page goes deeper on how your entries are kept to yourself.

Frequently asked questions