Penzu

In-app purchases
4.1
10.7K reviews
Content rating
Everyone
500K+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
Learn more
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About this app

Penzu

* Used by over 1 million people around the world
* Best free journal in any app store
* Syncs to the web and other mobile platforms for free

Penzu is the most popular free diary, journal and notepad. It’s the best place to keep your most private thoughts safe and secure. Sync your journals to Penzu where your notes are accessible from almost any device in the world. So simple and fun that you’ll leave your paper diary behind!

FEATURES

* Unlimited journaling
* Sync journals with Penzu cloud for free
* Customize your journal covers
* Receive reminders to write
* Lock journals with a password
* Encrypt your journals
* Add photos
* Lock app with a PIN
* Search journals
* Add tags
* Write offline
and more...

WHY PENZU?

Penzu is a diary and personal journal that is focused on privacy. With a unique and compelling user experience, it makes writing online as easy and intuitive as writing on a pad of paper.


PRIVACY

Your journal and your thoughts aren’t always meant to be shared — some things are supposed to be private! Use Penzu to jot down whatever you want. Then lock your journal with a password (or even encryption) so no one can read it but you! Furthermore, you can lock the entire app with a PIN in the event that someone gets access to your mobile device.


PENZU

Unlike other journal apps, Penzu has a web-based counterpart. So you can access your journals and diary from any web browser and other devices. Penzu is constantly being updated and improved so that the writing experience is effortless and reliable.


SUBSCRIPTION INFO

This app is free to download but requires a free Penzu account in order to start writing.

Upgrading to Penzu Pro costs $4.99 per month or $19.99 per year. Your subscription will auto-renew unless you cancel manually.
Updated on
Apr 9, 2026

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
This app may collect these data types
Personal info, Photos and videos and 2 others
Data is encrypted in transit
You can request that data be deleted

Ratings and reviews

4.1
10.1K reviews
Jordan J.
April 13, 2026
My favorite journaling app I purchased the Pro+! I use it mainly on my mobile for convenience, the desktop version runs perfectly. Now on the mobile (android) version there seems to be a bug. As I'm typing it will shift the cursor to the beginning of the page and delete the last paragraph I was typing. It happened 3 times within 6 minutes of journaling. I just stopped because I'm annoyed with retyping the same paragraph & the more I type the more is lost. Please fix this.
18 people found this review helpful
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AMMA L
November 19, 2025
I love it. It would be nice to have more features in the paid version (which I have). In the past, we could choose inside of each journal (example: lined, unlined, etc). I like how we can have multiple journals (keeps me organized). Even if you delete the app, as long as the account is open, all is saved. I just love it. Thank you!
11 people found this review helpful
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Xuan Chai
January 2, 2026
The app is good. I don't like the automatic copying (of the first sentence) feature in the automatic recall. This is a journal therefore I'd like to keep everything private. Furthermore when traveling across multiple time zones, the streak gets lost. Recently, I traveled from east coast of US to Asia with 13 hour time difference, my streak was okay going over but completely lost coming back. This to me is the most annoying part of this app.
1 person found this review helpful
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What’s new

A fresh new look for Penzu. This release modernizes the app’s design and improves key journaling flows like locking, sharing, reminders, and onboarding for a smoother, more polished experience.