Disgraceful Upsell “Upgrade to Day One Gold” (Looking for alternatives)
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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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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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Thanks for the feedback. The Gold upgrade banner will be dismissable in the next update (2026.12.1)
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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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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.
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Hi everyone,
Thank you for sharing your feedback here.
For macOS users: the Gold upgrade banner was removed from the Mac sidebar in version 2026.12.1. Updating to that version or later should clear it there.
For those using the web app or Windows app version 2026.12.2, the “Upgrade to Day One Gold” banner in the sidebar does not currently have a dismiss or close option. It shows for all users who are not on a Gold plan, and right now, there is no way to hide or minimize it.
I have flagged this for the team to address. I cannot promise a timeline, but I wanted you to know it is on our radar.
