Daylio Alternative: Track What It Cost, Not How It Felt
If you want a Daylio alternative that gives you numbers you can act on, Bounded Self is the short list. You rate the energy cost of each activity on a 1–10 scale. The app builds a receipt for your day. Full JSON export, no ads, no data selling — free tier, not a trial.
Daylio asks how you feel. That’s it. The emoji lands, the chart updates, and nothing changes. Bounded Self tracks cost — and when something that usually costs 3 starts costing 8, it surfaces that. No native iOS or Android app. No gamification, no streaks. That’s intentional.
| Feature | Bounded Self | Daylio |
|---|---|---|
| Energy cost tracking (1-10 scale) | ||
| Mood logging | ||
| Activity tagging | ||
| Energy budgeting (envelope-style) | ||
| Cost-shift detection | ||
| Time-of-day patterns | ||
| Category breakdown analysis | ||
| People & location tracking | ||
| Full JSON data export | ||
| No ads on free tier | ||
| Web app (no install required) | ||
| Native iOS and Android app | ||
| 5+ years as established product | ||
| Gamification and daily goals |
Included Not included
Different tools for different questions. See which fits yours.
When Daylio is the right choice
Daylio is the better tool if you want a native mobile, gamified goals to build a logging habit, or you already have years of mood data there and the switching cost isn't worth it. Daylio answers how you felt today. Bounded Self answers what changed this week/month/year, and why. Different questions.
Energy tracking, not mood logging
Daylio asks how you feel. Bounded Self asks what it cost. You assign a numeric energy cost to every activity, and over time you can see which activities cost the most and whether those costs are changing. If something that usually costs 3 starts costing 8, Bounded Self flags it. Daylio can tell you your mood dropped Monday. It can't tell you the budget meeting is the thing that changed.
Budget your energy like money
Set a weekly energy budget for meetings, admin work, and creative focus, the same way you'd allocate money across categories. When meetings eat into your focus budget, you see it. Bounded Self applies envelope budgeting to your capacity. Free tier: full energy tracking, history, and export. Premium: set weekly targets per category, track actual spending, and get notified when a category runs over. No gamification. No motivational quotes. Your data is the point.
What Daylio's own privacy label shows
Daylio's App Store privacy label indicates the app collects data linked to your identity for analytics and advertising purposes. Their free tier is ad-supported. Common model, but it means your emotional data is part of the product, not just the input. Bounded Self takes a different approach: no ads on any tier, no data sharing with third parties, no analytics SDKs that phone home. Revenue comes from premium subscriptions. Your data stays yours. Full export on request. Delete within 30 days (backups included).
Switching from Daylio
Daylio Premium lets you export your history as CSV. Bounded Self uses a different data model (energy cost per activity, not mood per day) so there's no direct import path. Most people who switch start fresh. You're not losing data. You're switching from mood labels to cost numbers, and most people find the cost data more useful within a week. What you keep is the habit of logging. What changes is the insight: instead of a mood chart, you get a cost ledger with categories, trends, and early warning signals when something starts costing more than it should.
How the pricing compares
Daylio's free tier is ad-supported with limited features. Daylio Premium removes ads and unlocks advanced features for approximately $2.99/month (as of their App Store listing, March 2026). Bounded Self's free tier has no ads, no entry limits, entry history, and data export. Premium adds envelope budgeting, custom categories, experiments, journal, social tracking, and detailed reports. See full pricing.
Common questions
What’s the main difference between Daylio and Bounded Self?▾
Daylio logs mood as an emoji or label. Bounded Self logs energy cost as a number (1–10) per activity (with an emoji to numeric mapping available). The numeric model supports rolling averages, cost-shift detection, and envelope budgeting — none of which are possible with mood labels. Daylio tells you how you felt. Bounded Self tells you what changed, where it changed, and then the tools to see if your efforts move in your intended direction.
Does Daylio sell your data?▾
Daylio’s App Store privacy label indicates data is collected for analytics and advertising. Bounded Self does not sell, share, or monetize your data in any way. Revenue comes from premium subscriptions only.
Can I export my Daylio data to Bounded Self?▾
Daylio Premium offers CSV export. Bounded Self uses a different data model (energy cost per activity, not mood per day), so there’s no direct import. Most switchers start fresh — the first week of numeric tracking produces more actionable data than months of mood labels.
Is Bounded Self free?▾
Free tier: unlimited energy tracking, entry history, mood tagging, data export. Dashboard charts cover 7 days. Premium unlocks longer analysis windows plus budgeting, custom categories, experiments, and detailed reports.
Does Bounded Self use gamification or daily goals?▾
No. There are no streaks, points, or reminders telling you to maintain a run. Bounded Self tracks trend lines and cost shifts. You track when it’s useful, not to feed an app. If your goal is gamified motivation, Daylio is the better fit. If your goal is data you can act on, Bounded Self is built for that.
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