Penzu

Penzu was recommended by a pro who was helping me with journaling. I started it for that purpose, and the encryption option gave me peace of mind. I am a writer, a game designer, a Toastmaster, and was an MFA student for 2 years. Penzu allows me to create individual journals for each topic, and to search all of them at will. I kept a journal for each term in school and typed my notes straight into it. Searching for answers to questions even now is easy. I draft my Toastmaster speeches in it, and the wordcount is right there, and I have easy access to drafts and all my previous things. In addition, I keep other notes about great resources, things I need to do as a club officer, etc. As a game designer/creative, I keep all of my ideas in one place. Any snipped of an idea goes into the appropriate Penzu journal for later harvest (or at least so I can let go of it knowing its there if I ever want to retrieve it). I have had a hiccup only once with the sync problem. As a developer, I know no software is perfect, and there are a lot of factors that go into such hiccups. We ask a lot of software nowadays, and I find Penzu to be reliable. The only other thing that makes me a bit sad, although it also makes me happy, is that even Penzu can’t break into your encrypted journals if you lose the password—or at least the couldn’t a few years ago. I highly recommend it.

- Tatanka_Nui

I have been using this app for many years but there have been a number of glitches, including not syncing up with multiple devices. The most recent issue, which is why I rated it a one, is that I literally cannot add anything into a journal on any of my mobile devices. I paid the premium fee, I contacted customer service, and all they’ve been able to do is ask me questions about ridiculous things that of course anyone would have done. Did you update the app? Did you delete the app and reload it? Of course. And yet the app doesn’t work on my any mobile device. If you add text to a journal it simply does not save. The only way to update any entry or have any new entry be saved is to go onto your computer, add your journal entry there and then you will see it on your device. This is archaic and ridiculous. I have also lost countless entries until I realized that nothing was getting saved on my iPad. The only response they’ve given me is that at some point they are going to give us an updated app. That’s extremely unhelpful. I’m going to switch over to a different online journal today and stop my premium subscription to Penzu. I suggest anyone who is considering downloading this app for the first time not do it until they fix whatever this problem is that literally destroys your ability to use their app on the go. For anyone who does extensive journaling, not being able to do it on your mobile app is ridiculous.

- Bramante68

Every time I tap on the calendar icon in an entry the app crashes on my iPhone 12 Pro Max. Every. Time. Even tried uninstalling/reinstalling and the issue persisted. I am often up after midnight and need to write about the previous calendar day. So this is kind of a dealbreaker for me. If that wasn’t enough, I’ve gotten 4 emails from the Penzu service in 2 days and there is no easy way to opt out of them. There is no unsub link in the nag emails and no “unsub all” link in the other emails—so you have to log in to the service to opt out of everything. You can unsub all from the unsub link but the UI doesn’t make it obvious at all. What’s even worse is that when you log in via the “manage email preferences” link on your phone it says “This page cannot be accessed via mobile. Please download our free mobile app or try again from your computer.” What is this company thinking? Just trying out this app has become a much bigger hassle than it’s been worth considering I deleted it within an hour of installing it. It feels like the developers of this app need to consider the customer experience more. Or the non-customer experience in this case. Now that I have opted out of these emails I am not looking back.

- nthpete