Disgraceful Upsell “Upgrade to Day One Gold” (Looking for alternatives)

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  mrbrownjeremy · Member · June 15, 2026 at 7:36 am

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  It’s disgusting. I’m 10+ years as a paid subscriber. The app has barely evolved. Same UX, same feature set, almost nothing added in years. And the reward for that loyalty is a permanent upsell shoved in the sidebar. You don’t get to collect a decade of subscription money and then treat your users like a funnel.

  Can anyone recommend alternatives? Diarly looks good but I’m unsure how much conviction the dev has. Or maybe Apple’s Journal app?

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  frowningsteve · Member · June 15, 2026 at 10:18 am

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  I won’t advise for or against leaving Day One Journal (this discussion group belongs to them). I would, however, list the reasons why I can’t use Apple Journal. It’s missing a lot of the features Day One has now and missing even some basic journalling/editing/composing features.

  • Does not support Markdown formatting.
  • No apparent support for tags?! (Any form or syntax.)
  • Cannot get a sharable link to an entry for use in another entry.
  • Cannot get a sharable link to an entry for use externally in another app.
  • Cannot highlight text & insert sharable link to element in another app.
  • Cannot highlight text & insert link to a web page.
  • No journal entry templates.
  • No support for paragraph styles (H1, H2, code block, indented, etc.).
  • No equivalent to Timeline view in Day One.
  • Cannot open a journal entry in separate window.
  • No choice for enabling or disabling Apple AI.
  • No journalling statistics (streaks, etc.).

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  staff-donnie · Staff · June 18, 2026 at 10:36 am

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  Thanks for the feedback. The Gold upgrade banner will be dismissable in the next update (2026.12.1)

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  mrbrownjeremy · Member · June 18, 2026 at 8:08 pm

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  I appreciate the prompt update. It’s unfortunate that upsells still exist throughout the app, which reinforces my notion that I need to start looking elsewhere for an app that doesn’t intrude on the intimate space that a journal should be. That said, I can at least keep using Day One while I search without that little needle in my eye, which deserves recognition.

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  termoe6a3ea39505 · Member · June 24, 2026 at 6:57 am

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  I’m using DayOne on the web and the Windows app, version 2026.12.2. I can’t find any way to dismiss the Gold upgrade banner. Can you please describe where I can find his function.