Mémoires

The easiest way to keep a journal or a diary on your Mac.

  • Create multiple entries per day
  • Change fonts and colors
  • Insert pictures and draw sketches
  • Encrypt journals with a password
Mémoires screenshot

Why Mémoires?

Mémoires is easy-to-use electronic journaling software used by thousands of people to keep their diaries, take notes for projects, write travel journals and more on their Macs.

It's a solid, well-built app designed exclusively for macOS, and thus launches faster, uses less memory, has familiar keyboard shortcuts, and integrates better with the rest of the system than other similar cross-platform or web apps.

Mémoires has been available for 15 years. Unlike many startups and web apps that will stop working or suddenly close your account without explanation, it will not disappear. Mémoires is on your Mac and your data is also on your Mac. You own the app and you own your data. That's the ultimate privacy — nobody else has your data, which is especially important for personal diaries.

There are no ads, no tracking, no subscriptions. Once you purchase the app, you can use it as long as you like. We also provide minor updates for free, and — to support development — charge a small fee for major version upgrades (but you are not required to upgrade). As old-school and honest as it gets.

What’s new in Mémoires 5?

Awesome dark mode. It even automatically adapts text and drawings to the right color.

Color labels for your entries. Group what you write with color labels and then easily browse entries by a label.

Redesigned Quick Drawing. Now featuring eraser, Touch Bar support, and better colors that work well on light and dark backgrounds.

Insert from iPhone or iPad. Use your iPhone or iPad to add a photo, draw a sketch or scan a document right into Mémoires on your Mac.

And more

Improved performance. We rewrote a lot of code and improved performance of switching between entries and saving journals.

Apple Silicon support. Now the Universal app for both Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) chips and Intel processors, so it works as fast as possible, natively.

Improved tabs. Turn on the tabbed mode in the app preferences and enjoy multiple journals in a single window.

macOS Ventura & Monterey support. Fresh new icons for the app and your journals, redesigned user interface, and other nits and bits.

Better Touch Bar support. Now you can easily create entries, switch between views, and do more from Touch Bar.

Enhanced file format. Automatically converts journals into the newer file format version.

Top Features

Simple and Beautiful

Mémoires has an easy-to-use, elegant interface and zero useless features. Start writing your journal right away instead of reading help files.

Browse or Quickly Search

Browse using the calendar or view all of your entries in a single list. You can also use instant search to find the entries you want to read or edit.

Spelling and Grammar

Spot and fix spelling and grammar mistakes as you type, or use the automatic correction. Improve your typography with smart quote and dash substitutions.

Full Screen Editing

Focus on writing your journal entries without distractions, because Mémoires comes with native full screen editing.

Encrypted Journals

Your personal diary is safe from prying eyes. Just set a password for your journal, and Mémoires will encrypt it with the secure AES-256 cipher.

It’s actual encryption, not just password protection. If you set a strong password, no one will be able to open your journal without knowing it (including us).

Keys are derived from the password using the state-of-the-art memory-hard scrypt key derivation function; data is encrypted with AES-256 in CBC mode and authenticated with the fast and secure keyed BLAKE2 hash function (Encrypt-then-MAC).

Standard File Format

The proven SQLite database file format recommended by the U.S. Library of Congress for long-term preservation of digital content, ensures that your data lasts for centuries, and protects against vendor lock-in. You can also export your journals to RTF, plain text, or PDF.

Autosave and Versions

Mémoires automatically saves your journals to your Mac, so you won’t lose them.

Backups

The program is fully compatible with Time Machine for seamless backups. Or you can use any backup solution, since your journals are just files.

Diary Printing

You can print the whole journal, only the entries for a specified period, or just a single entry.

Mémoires will automatically insert dates and titles where needed.

Journals are Files

With Mémoires, you can have as many journals as you like – each journal is a file that is stored wherever you want, just like your Pages or Word documents (but with a calendar and many entries inside, instead of pages). You can easily back them up, make copies, or even share them with friends and family who also have Mémoires installed.

Journal files displayed in Finder

Quick drawings

Just like in a paper journal, the Quick Drawing feature allows you to draw sketches, doodles, or anything you like right inside the Mémoires app using your Mac’s trackpad or mouse.

Alternatively, you can insert sketches from your iPad or iPhone by clicking Insert → Insert from iPhone or iPad. You can directly draw them on iPad (with Apple Pencil or finger) and iPhone or take a photo of your paper drawing.

Selected Reviews

“...a simple, elegant user interface”
Daring Fireball
”...it’s a great way to get your thoughts and ideas into physical form”
MacStories
“...its simple interface makes it ideal for keeping a basic personal journal”
MacWorld
Excellent App
by JanzieK

This is a great journal app. Very simple - easy to use. Love that I can add pictures! Highly recommend this app - For me, it was definitely worth the price. I got this app before the password capability and I gave it a 3 star because I really need the password. The developers added the password capability in a very timely fashion and now I give it a 5 STAR - it is definitely that. Thank you for the password protection capability.

Great product and thanks for delivering!
by Celal 01

I find Memoires to be a very useful app to journal electronically. Simple, no unnecessary fancy frills. The product went up from a 3 to a 5 after the encryption capability update. The price is just right too. Thanks for delivering another great product.

LOVE the Quick Drawing feature!
by CATENAsART

You don't have to be an artist to use the QUICK DRAWING feature, which was for me the main attraction. I've been using Memoires since it first appeared in the App Store, appreciate the easy UI and that it does exactly what it promises. ...

Simple but just what I need
by RR Arnold

I love this app - I have longed wished for a simple journal client for the mac that is viewed and interacted with through a calendar interface, which is exactly what Memoires provides. I love the fact that the journal db is a simple standard sqlite file that can be instantly saved to my dropbox folder for instantaneous backup any time I write or save a new entry. I love the fact that it now supports password encryption. The developer has been very responsive to my e-mails as well. Great job!

Much needed!
by restyintro

Love this app. Use this app all the time to free write and record my daily journal. It’s very simple to use, and with the new update, looks even better than ever. This app is simple and great!

Great App
by nehalem i7

Great for keeping a journal. I'm glad that it saves files in a standard format so that my journals will be readable for years. Worth every Penny.

Get the app

Download a free trial version of Mémoires and begin writing a diary on your Apple computer right away!

Get full version Download trial

By installing and using the program you agree to End-User License Agreement.