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Volume I · The private diary, reimagined

A diary only you can read.

A private journal you can talk to — and it talks back, entirely on your device. A vault for what matters most. And a way to leave your words for the right people, long after you're gone.

End-to-end encrypted On-device AI Yours forever Free posthumous legacy

The most honest writing happens when no one is watching. We built a place where no one ever can.

01 · The Four Pillars

Built like a vault. Feels like a diary.

Most journal apps are either private or intelligent — never both. We refused that compromise. Here is what makes Encrypted Diary unlike anything else you have written in.

End-to-end encrypted

Your entries are encrypted on your device with AES-256 before they ever touch storage. The only key that unlocks them lives with you. Not us. Not anyone.

AES-256 · Zero-knowledge · Local-first

An on-device AI companion

A thoughtful AI that has read what only you have written — because it lives entirely on your device. It can discuss, summarize, and even write the story of your life. How our AI journaling works →

Runs locally · Never phones home · Optional

A vault for what matters

Not just a diary. Store your will, your last wishes, kept secrets, photos, recordings — sealed alongside the words that explain them.

Will + wishes + secrets · Partner discounts included

A legacy, on your terms

Choose what is released, to whom, and when — by date, by inactivity, by named contact, or never. Free posthumous publishing through FamilyTreesAI for those you wish to remember you.

Multiple release options · QR memorial · Free posthumous
02 · The Companion

An AI that knows only you.

Every other journaling app faces a contradiction: their AI features only work if their servers can read your entries. That isn't private. That isn't a diary.

So we built the AI into the diary itself. It runs on your computer, learns from no one but you, and never sends a single word over the network. The companion is as private as the diary it lives inside.

  • Initiates conversation — gentle prompts when you have been quiet, in your own rhythm.
  • Discusses your entries — ask it what you were worried about last fall, or what patterns it sees in your handwriting.
  • Speech-to-text dictation — speak your entries, transcribed locally.
  • Photos and recordings — captured, transcribed, and captioned, all on-device.
  • Summaries you actually want — week, month, year, or a lifetime overview.
  • Writes your life story — when you are ready, ask it to compose a memoir from the diary you have already lived.
You · Tuesday, 11:42 PM
"Hard day. Felt invisible in the meeting again, and Sam noticed without me saying anything. Don't know what to do with that."
Companion · A moment later
You mentioned feeling invisible in two entries last month — both Tuesdays, both before the same meeting. Would you like to look at them together?
You · A few seconds later
"Yes. And tell me what I sounded like a year ago today."
Companion · Working locally
Opening 14 entries from October–November. One year ago you wrote about a presentation you were dreading. You closed the entry with "I think I am stronger than I sound."
New · Companion Feature

Be the subject of your own feature article.

Most people don't journal because they don't know where to start. The blank page is the killer of every good intention.

Switch the Companion into News Reporter Mode and the dynamic flips. Now it is the journalist assigned to write your story — and you are the subject. It asks the questions a thoughtful reporter would ask. You answer in your own words. Over weeks or years, what emerges is a profile of you, written by you, drawn out one question at a time.

When you are ready, the Companion can compile the answers into a written feature — your story, in the voice of someone who has been listening carefully.

  • Tell me about the place you grew up. Not the city — the smell of the kitchen.
  • Who was the first person to believe in you?
  • What's something you used to think was important that no longer is?
  • What would you put on your wall if your grandchildren could only see one thing?
The Profile · Field Notes Filed Oct 14, 9:42pm
"I think my father was always proud of me. He just couldn't say it."
A continuing profile of the subject, drawn from interviews conducted over twenty-three months.
Question · 47
"When you think of your father, what do you see first?"
His hands. He was a builder, and there was always something on them — pencil lead, sawdust, a cut he hadn't told my mother about. I used to want to be smarter than him. Now I'd give anything to know what he knew with his hands.
Question · 48
"You said 'now.' What changed?"
I had a son.
Subject: You Companion · Reporting
04 · The Vault
Last Will & Testament
Sealed
Funeral & Final Wishes
For my family
A secret, kept
Never to be shared
A letter to my daughter
Her wedding day
Where I want to be remembered
Family only

More than entries. Everything that matters.

A diary is the place where you are most honest. So it is also the natural place for the things you are most afraid of misplacing.

Store your will alongside the reasoning behind it — with planned partner discounts if you need to draft one. Record your last wishes in your own voice. Keep the secrets you want kept, with rules you set for if and when they ever surface.

  • Your will — stored encrypted, with planned discounted pricing through partner attorneys (in-person and trusted online estate-planning services).
  • Last wishes — funeral preferences, organ donation, what to do with your accounts, what to play at the service.
  • Kept secrets — sealed away, with rules for if and when they ever reach anyone.
  • Photos, voice, video — for specific people, on specific days, far into the future.
05 · The Legacy

What happens to your diary after you?

Every other private diary has the same answer: nothing. Your family is locked out forever. The most honest record of you simply disappears.

We thought about that for a long time. Then we designed something better (rolling out after launch). You decide what survives you. You decide who reads it. You decide when.

  • By scheduled date — a daughter's wedding, a 30th birthday, January 1st 2070.
  • By inactivity — a "dead-man's-switch" you configure (6 months, a year, five years) with reminders before it ever triggers.
  • By legacy contact — a named person provides a death certificate; access is reviewed and granted.
  • By milestone — your delegate confirms an event before release.
  • Per-entry tagging — mark each entry for me only forever, for [name] after I'm gone, or for the world.
  • QR memorial scan — what you chose to share publicly, accessible by anyone who scans the code on your memorial card, headstone, or printed memoir.
  • FamilyTreesAI integration (coming) — our companion project will let you publish, posthumously and free, to your family tree, so your descendants can read your story in your own words for generations.
Sept 14, 2028 · Daughter's wedding
"To the woman my little girl became — a letter I have been writing since the day you were born."
After 12 months of inactivity
Legacy contact (my sister) notified. Sealed entries reviewed for release.
Posthumous, family-only
"The things I never said out loud. I hope you read them now and not before."
Posthumous, public via QR
"A life, in my own words. Selected chapters of the memoir I wrote with the Companion."
In Loving Memory
Eleanor Margaret Hayes
1962 — 2047
Scan to read her story,
in her own words.

"The most important things we leave behind are not the things at all."

A photograph from the Oregon coast
06 · Yours Forever

Most diaries are abandoned. Yours doesn't have to disappear with them.

Research is unkind to journaling apps. The youngest writers stop in their thirties. Life gets busy. The habit slips. And every subscription-based diary holds your words hostage the moment you stop paying — locking out the very person most likely to want them back ten years later.

% of adults who keep a diary, by age — and where most apps lose them
40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 37% 18–24 35% 25–34 15% 35–44 9% 45–54 10% 55–64 12% 65+ life happens here
Life gets busy in your mid-thirties. Most people stop journaling. With every subscription diary, that means you've lost your entries the moment you stop paying. With Encrypted Diary, you can come back to it ten years later — because it lives on your machine, encrypted, waiting for you. Stop paying for updates if you want. The diary is still yours.
07 · Five Years In

A diary that pays for itself, then keeps paying you.

Compare what you would spend with us against the going rate for a polished journaling app — and then ask yourself what happens to your entries if you ever stop paying.

Diary App
Five-Year Cost
You Own It?
Day One Premium
$34.99/yr × 5 = $174.95
No · access ends
Journey Premium
$29.99/yr × 5 = $149.95
No · access ends
Penzu Pro
$19.99/yr × 5 = $99.95
No · access ends
Encrypted Diary — license only
$79 once · then $0
Yes · forever
Encrypted Diary + Cloud (annual)
$79 + $29/yr × 5 = $224
Yes · forever
Encrypted Diary + Lifetime Cloud
$79 + $499 once = $578
Yes · forever, with cloud forever
Three years of any major subscription costs more than buying Encrypted Diary outright — and at the end of those three years, you own nothing. With us, you own the diary the day you buy it. Forever.

A gift that outlasts you.

For the graduate stepping into the rest of their life. For the new parents who will forget more than they remember. For grandparents whose stories deserve to be written down. For anyone you love.

Graduations New Parents Grandparents Anniversaries Retirements Birthdays Just Because
Gift a License →
08 · The Price of Privacy

Reserve your license — pay nothing today.

Encrypted Diary is in final development. Expected delivery: Summer 2026. Reserve your license now to lock in the $79 launch price (reg. $99). No charge until the day we deliver. Cancel any time. We will email you a single time when we ship.

The Encrypted Diary — Lifetime License
$99 at launch $79
Buy once · Yours forever · Instant download (single-file diary + Windows companion beta)
Buy Now — $79
30-day money-back guarantee — no questions asked
By purchasing you confirm you understand: we never hold your keys — a lost passphrase cannot be recovered by anyone, including us. Read our sworn declaration →
Or, the Express Bundle

$99 to start — your license, plus your first year of software updates and 25GB encrypted cloud storage included. After year one, it renews automatically at $29/yr so your updates and storage keep working without a lapse — cancel any time, no questions asked.

Get the Express Bundle — $99 →
— or reserve & pay later —
Thank you. Your reservation is recorded. We'll email you once — when your diary is ready.
No charge today · Cancel any time · We email you once

Not ready to buy? Try the full app free for 14 days → No card, no signup.

Optional: updates & encrypted cloud

Want software updates, encrypted cross-device sync, and off-site backup of your encrypted diary? Choose the cadence that suits you. None of these is required to keep using your diary — they extend it. Each plan includes 25GB of encrypted cloud storage — plenty for a lifetime of text, and most photos and voice too. Need more? Extra storage is $10/year per 50GB.

Annual · or Monthly
Year by year
$29/year
or $2.99/month · stop any time
Software updates, encrypted cloud sync across all your devices, and off-site encrypted backup. Pay yearly ($29) or monthly ($2.99) — cancel whenever.
Reserve My License →
Lifetime
For the rest of your life
$499
Pays off after year 18
Updates and encrypted cloud, for the rest of your life. The choice for the person who intends to leave a complete diary behind.
Reserve My License →
Cloud storage add-on Bought the diary but want to add encrypted cloud storage later? Available for $29 — one year of off-site backup and sync (25GB included, $10/yr per extra 50GB), with no commitment beyond.
Reserve My License →

One license. Two forms. No fine print.

Diary Lite lives on your phone and in any browser — deliberately light, fully private, works on a ten-year-old handset. The Desktop Companion carries the heavy intelligence. Here is exactly which promise lives where:

Diary Lite
phone & browser
Desktop Companion
included, Windows
Encrypted diary — offline, yours forever
Interview mode & Life-Story chapters, printable story
Auto-lock, safekeeping kit, four looks
Voice entriesvia your keyboard's micon-device transcription
AI Companion — discusses entries, writes your memoir✓ on newer phones (2023+), 100% on-device✓ 100% local, via Ollama
Photos in entriescoming in a free update
Backupone-tap, to anywhere you trustyour house becomes your cloud

A lifetime of entries, photos, and voice adds up — and phones and tablets have finite storage (a desktop or laptop rarely will). We've made exporting your whole diary a single tap, any time, to anywhere you trust. If you'd rather not think about it as your diary grows, our optional encrypted cloud (25GB included) backs it up automatically, off your device — still end-to-end encrypted, still unreadable by us.

On the roadmap: a native mobile app with background home-backup, and the legacy-release watch service.

The Free Forever Path

Most companies hide this paragraph. Here is ours: you never have to pay us another dollar after the $79. Install the included desktop companion, leave your computer on once a week, and your own house does everything our cloud does — backups, sync, even the legacy watch. We'll show you exactly how, step by step, at no charge. We make less money when you choose this. We publish it anyway, because a diary you're locked into isn't private — it's hostage. The $29/year is for people who'd rather not think about it. Both kinds of customer are welcome here.

And if you stop paying? Your diary stays on your devices, and the last backup stays with us — sealed, unreadable to anyone including us, free to download the day you come back. We don't delete a life's writing over a missed payment. We don't have the heart.

09 · From the Makers

A word about us — and an open invitation.

Encrypted Diary is built by a small team rooted in Christian conviction. We believe in the quiet dignity of private words, in the responsibility of leaving wisdom for those who come after us, and in the goodness of building tools that respect the soul as much as the data.

The product is for everyone — Christian, agnostic, observant of another tradition, undecided. The encryption, the on-device companion, and the legacy features serve any life. We don't believe a person needs to share our beliefs to deserve a thoughtful product.

That said: we also offer a Christian Edition — with scripture-aware prompts, prayer-journal features, a Companion shaped by historic Christian wisdom, and tools for passing faith through generations. It is the same diary, dressed for a different room.

We began beta testing with real people in Albany, Oregon — actual families writing actual entries, before we ever opened this more broadly. Nothing here was designed in a vacuum.

From the small team behind Encrypted Diary.

The Christian Edition — included with every license

Reserving a license? Christian Edition is yours at no extra cost, with three years of complimentary updates. Same encryption, same Vault, same Legacy — with scripture integration, a faith-shaped Companion, daily verse, and a curated 24/7 prayer-line directory layered on top.

See The Edition →
10 · Questions, Honestly Answered

Things you should ask before trusting us with your diary.

What does "reserve" mean? Am I being charged?
No. Reservation is free. You give us your email; we record your name on the list and the $79 launch price is locked in for you. When the diary is ready to ship (target: Summer 2026), we'll email you exactly once with a link to complete your purchase through Stripe. You may cancel any time before then by ignoring our email or replying with "remove me." We never auto-charge.
Why reserve rather than just buy?
Because Encrypted Diary is in final development and we will not take your money for something we have not delivered. The reservation system serves two purposes: it lets us notify you when we ship, and it locks in the $79 launch price even if we raise prices before then. We'd rather build a smaller list of people who genuinely want the product than rush a sale and disappoint.
If I stop paying the $29/year, do I lose my diary?
No. The diary is yours the moment you buy the license. Stop paying for updates and cloud anytime — your existing diary stays on your device, encrypted, accessible, fully yours. You will simply stop receiving new updates and cloud sync. You can resume the cloud service at any point in the future, with the $29 first-year add-on. And anything you already backed up with us stays stored — sealed and unreadable to anyone including us — free to download whenever you return. We don't delete a life's writing over a missed payment.
Is the AI really on-device? It seems too good to be true.
Yes. The Companion is a language model that runs entirely on your computer — it is downloaded with the app, never communicates over the network, and never sees a server. This is why we are confident calling the diary truly private. Every other journaling app that offers AI features must transmit your entries to its servers for processing. Ours does not.
What if I die without telling anyone about my diary?
That is exactly what the Legacy options are for. Configure the dead-man's-switch (we recommend twelve months) and your named legacy contacts will be notified after a period of inactivity, with reminders sent to you first. Provide a death certificate at the appropriate time and they unlock the entries you marked for them. Or use the free FamilyTreesAI integration to publish what you wish your descendants to read.
How does the QR memorial scan work?
For entries you mark as "public after I'm gone," the app generates a permanent encrypted link and a QR code you can print on memorial cards, headstones, or the cover of a printed memoir. Anyone who scans the code reads only what you chose to share publicly. The rest of your diary remains sealed.
What about my will and last wishes — is there really a legal-services discount?
Yes. Encrypted Diary partners with established estate and will-preparation services to offer discounted drafting and legal review for license holders. The diary itself can store the final document encrypted, alongside your written reasoning, last wishes, and a private explanation for your family. Details and partner list available after purchase.
Can the Companion really write my life story?
When you have written enough that there is a story to tell — typically a year or more of entries — you can ask the Companion to compose a memoir from what you have already written. You choose the shape (chronological, thematic, person-by-person), the length, and what to include. The result is a draft memoir, written in your voice, that you can edit, print, and leave behind. None of it leaves your device unless you choose to share it.
What platforms does Encrypted Diary run on?
Mac, Windows, and Linux desktop at launch — the on-device AI requires real compute, which desktops handle best. Mobile companion apps for iOS and Android are on the roadmap and will be included in active update tiers when released.
Is this a good gift?
Genuinely yes. A diary that lasts a lifetime is one of the most meaningful gifts you can give — to a graduate, to new parents, to grandparents, or to anyone you love. Gift licenses are available as a one-time purchase with no recurring obligation for the recipient. They open it and it is theirs.
What is FamilyTreesAI and what does "free posthumous" mean?
FamilyTreesAI is a family-tree platform where your descendants can build out the family history. Encrypted Diary integrates with it at no cost for the posthumous publication of your selected entries — meaning long after you are gone, your grandchildren and great-grandchildren can find your diary entries attached to your node in the family tree, in your own words. You choose during your life exactly what is published and what is not.