Free Private Photo Journal & Diary for iPhone

A Free Journal App with Clear Limits — and No Ads.

Stillkeep gives you a practical free journal app for iPhone without hiding the starter limits. Create up to 3 Eras with 20 Moments per Era, pair photos with notes, revisit memories with Look Back, sync privately with iCloud, and export an Era as a PDF.

Download Free on App Store On your computer?Scan with your iPhone

Free to start · Private iCloud sync · Zero ads in the app · iOS 17.6+

What you can create on the free starter plan:

Up to 3 Eras 20 Moments per Era Photos + written notes Private iCloud sync

What Is Included in the Free Version?

This page is specifically about the free Stillkeep plan. You can start a real journal without entering a large archive first or guessing which basics are paywalled. The starter tier is intentionally bounded: up to 3 Eras and 20 Moments inside each Era.

Up to 60 Moments: Use three separate Eras with as many as 20 photo-and-note Moments in each — enough to test travel, family, daily reflection or another journaling style.
Photos & Notes Together: A Moment keeps the image and its written context in one place instead of splitting the memory between Photos and a notes app.
Look Back: Resurface older Moments by date so the free journal is useful for revisiting memories, not only recording them.
PDF Export: Export an Era as a formatted PDF when you want a portable copy outside the app.
Private Apple Sync: In the Stillkeep app, there are no third-party analytics, advertising SDKs or cross-app tracking; Stillkeep uses Apple infrastructure including CloudKit for its sync architecture.

Free Should Be Easy to Understand

The starter plan is not described as unlimited. Its boundaries are shown up front, so you can decide whether 3 Eras and 20 Moments per Era fit the way you want to journal before upgrading.

7.9 MB

Featherlight app binary size that leaves your phone storage completely unclogged.

Private by design

Local-first privacy backed by secure Apple CloudKit sync across your personal devices.

Free Starter Plan

Up to 3 Eras and 20 Moments per Era with clear, transparent free-tier limits.

Home

Return to the main Stillkeep overview and explore the complete application suite.

Journal App Overview

Compare the broader journal workflow, organization model, Look Back feature and export options.

Memory Journal Guide

See how a photo-and-writing memory journal differs from a static scrapbook or an unfiltered camera roll.

Master Resource Index

Browse the technical architecture, privacy guides, published essays and product background behind Stillkeep.

Start Stillkeep free on iPhone with up to 3 Eras and 20 Moments in each Era. Premium raises those limits for a larger long-term journal.

From the Developer Journal

Deep dives into the architecture, design choices, and philosophy behind Stillkeep.

Moving from Folders to Visual Eras

The design thinking behind Stillkeep’s move from folders toward visual, thematic chapters of a life.

Beyond the Camera Roll

A developer essay on turning selected camera-roll photos into memories with written context instead of another pile of digital clutter.

Start a free journal and see whether the Era format fits you.

Try Stillkeep free on iPhone — a private, ad-free-in-app journal built in Dublin for keeping photos and their stories together.

Download Stillkeep Free On your computer?Scan with your iPhone