Todays vs Day One
Two Different Paths to Personal Growth
Day One has been the gold standard for digital journaling for over a decade. It’s comprehensive, polished, and mature. So when people ask us why we built Todays, knowing Day One exists, we tell them this: They’re different tools for different kinds of growth.
The Daily Question
Day One asks, “What happened in your life?” It’s built for capturing the full richness of life – photos, locations, audio recordings, and long-form writing. It’s like a digital memoir in the making.
Todays asks a simpler but perhaps more challenging question: “Did I spend this day the way I want to spend my days?”
Different Philosophies
Day One is built around the idea of comprehensive life capture. It wants you to record everything – the big moments and the small ones, the photos and the thoughts, the places and the weather. It’s a beautiful tool for this purpose, and it does it exceptionally well.
Todays comes from a different philosophy. As Richard Rohr says, “The present moment has no competition; it is not judged in comparison to any other.” Instead of trying to capture everything, Todays helps you focus on what matters most in your daily experience.
The Power of Patterns
While Day One excels at rich media journaling – multiple journals, photos, tags, and locations – Todays focuses on the patterns that make up your life. Think of it this way: Day One is like writing your life’s story, while Todays is like having a daily conversation with yourself about how that story is unfolding.
You can track specific metrics in Todays that matter to you: your energy levels, your focus, your habits, your mood. But it’s not just about collecting data. It’s about noticing patterns. It’s about understanding which days feel “green” (good) and which feel “red” (needs improvement), and making intentional shifts based on what you learn.
Health Integration
Both apps can integrate with your health data, but they do it differently. Day One can include your daily activity as part of your journal entry. Todays treats your health data as an integral part of your daily patterns, helping you see how your physical well-being connects to other aspects of your life.
AI as a Reflection Partner
While Day One has traditional journaling prompts, Todays uses AI as a thoughtful companion in your reflection practice. It can help you spot patterns you might miss, clean up your entries, and engage in meaningful conversations about your data. It’s like having a friend who remembers everything and helps you connect the dots.
The Interface Philosophy
Day One’s interface is built for browsing and reliving memories. It’s beautiful, with full-screen photos, maps, and timelines. It’s perfect for looking back and remembering.
Todays’ interface is built for insight. The main view shows your metrics over time, making patterns visible at a glance. It’s not just about remembering what happened – it’s about understanding how you’re living. Of course you can reflect later, but the main view is about understanding your life right now.
Privacy and Data
Both apps take privacy seriously. Day One offers end-to-end encryption for your memories. Todays keeps your health data local and gives you control over what’s shared with its AI features. Both sync across devices, though Day One has its own sync service while Todays uses iCloud.
Day One’s Privacy Statement
Day One certainly emphasizes that it’s a private journal. But take a look at the Data Linked to You section on their App Store page. It’s telling that Day One links all sorts of content back to you on their servers.
Privacy Statement for Todays
Todays is different. Your data is only ever stored on device and in an iCloud container that only your Apple ID can access. If you use our AI features, your data is sent to our AI partner, but then promptly deleted from their servers after 30 days. We don’t even know your email address!
Employees of here & co. literally cannot access your data, whereas employees of Day One likely can unless you use their end-to-end encryption feature.
Why Choose One Over the Other?
Here’s the thing: you might not have to choose. Many people use both, because they serve different purposes.
Use Day One when you want to:
- Create a rich, multimedia journal of your life
- Capture important moments with photos and details
- Write long-form reflections
- Create different journals for different aspects of life
Use Todays when you want to:
- Understand the patterns in your daily life
- Track specific metrics that matter to you
- Get AI-powered insights about your habits
- Make intentional improvements to your daily experience
- Ensure nobody else can access your data
The Bottom Line
As Oliver Burkeman reminds us in “Four Thousand Weeks,” life is nothing but a succession of present moments. Day One helps you remember those moments. Todays helps you ensure you’re making the most of them.
If you’re looking for a beautiful way to capture and preserve your life’s journey, Day One is an excellent choice. But if you’re looking to understand and improve the patterns that make up your daily experience – if you want to make each “today” better than the last – then Todays might be what you’re looking for.
Ready to make Today better? Grab Todays on the App Store.