Planner & Journal
Planner & Journal by Pixite Inc. is a highly customizable digital journaling and planning app, praised for its creative tools and organization features, but recent updates have significantly increased paywall restrictions, leading to frustration among both free and premium users.
Planner & Journal, also known as Zinnia, is a digital journaling and planning application that offers extensive customization options with templates, stickers, and various pen styles. While long-term users appreciate its creative potential and organizational benefits, many recent reviews express significant dissatisfaction with the app's aggressive monetization model, which now locks many core features behind a subscription.
What users like
- Offers extensive customization with templates, stickers, and pens for creative journaling and planning.R4R5R10R11
- Helps users stay organized and keep track of tasks and schedules.R1R3R4R16
- Provides a therapeutic outlet for expressing feelings and managing anxiety.R2R10R21R22
- Allows easy linking of pages and sharing of crafted pages between planners.R17
What users complain about
- Many core features, including templates, stickers, and journal creation, are locked behind a paid subscription.R1R9R37R38
- Recent updates have made the app more restrictive for both free and existing premium users, with features previously available now requiring additional payment.R56R177R212R226
- Users report frequent crashes, glitches, and issues with data saving and syncing across devices.R15R88R120R123
- The subscription cost is considered too high by many users, especially given the limited free content.R37R44R98R109
- The free version is severely limited, often allowing only 3 pages per journal and a maximum of 5 journals.R8R25R167R168
- Some users experienced unauthorized charges after canceling free trials.R139
Latest update · v1.47
What the developer says changed (the verdict above weighs this against what reviewers report):
Zinnia 1.47 is here with an update that makes photo editing more flexible than ever. -Non-destructive Crop. Reframe your photos after cropping them. If your photo isn’t quite right, easily re-crop and re-position it within the frame without needing to load it again. -Under-the-hood development updates help keep Zinnia running smoothly and lay the groundwork for future improvements. This newest version also includes bug fixes and performance enhancements for a smoother, better Zinnia experience. Happy Planning!
Recurring themes
Who it's for
This app is for creative individuals who enjoy digital journaling, scrapbooking, and planning with extensive customization options, and who are willing to pay a premium subscription for full access to features R5R17. It is not for users seeking a completely free journaling experience, those on a tight budget, or individuals who require a highly stable and bug-free application for critical planning R37R38R123R134.
Evidence note: The recent reviews skew heavily negative, primarily due to the aggressive monetization model and reported bugs. While the lifetime rating is high, the recent sentiment indicates a significant decline in user satisfaction, suggesting a negative trajectory.
Frequently asked
Is Planner & Journal (Zinnia) free to use?
What is the cost of the subscription?
Does the app have technical issues?
What reviewers actually said
Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.
- [R4] I use this app all the time: I have been using this app for years now. There is so much to do on the app, different templates, stickers, ready made journals, etc. I don’t think I will ever get rid of this app. It has helped me stay organized with everything in my life and I cannot rate it highly enough.
- [R5] Easy to Personalize: This app is my favorite digital notebook app of all time. I’ve paid for several others and this is the one I want to keep. There’s a free version but the access to paper packs, notebook pens, and 1000’s of templates is unmatched. I love how I can create minimal, clean lined notebooks for studying and creative scrapbooking personal journals. The creator consistently updates the
- [R10] A beautiful and useful journal!: I use this for everything from biology to a personal diary! It’s full of amazing stickers and journal templates! Highly recommend!
- [R11] Best Journal App Hands-down!: Supports downloads, PDF uploads, stickers and so much more !
- [R1] Love this!: I use this app to plan my chores and what my day will be like with my Apple Pencil and it’s so fun! I gave this a 4 because you guys need to make more things free to use. Other than that, great aesthetic app!
- [R3] Zinnia: I lock this app so much it helps me keep track of my stuff so I don’t forget.
- [R16] From Isabella: It’s fun I could rite all my schedules and more thank you ❤️
- [R2] .m: I knows wil help so much with my anxiety
- [R21] Never been a journaler: I have always liked the thought of journaling but always find myself cleaning through notebooks where only the first ten pages are used. I have very much enjoyed the amount of features and themes in this app. It has been very therapeutic for my downtime, creative time, and for work
- [R22] Best Journaling App: I love how versatile and beautifully designed for creativity. It is also a great source for therapeutic journaling.
- [R17] Love this App: This app is so fun! I’ve created a home planner and work planner. You can link pages with ease without having to download into a separate app like other planners. You can share crafted pages between planners. I will definitely renew my subscription!
- [R9] Nice app but …..: Nice app I really like it it helps me rewind a little bit but what I don’t like is the limited stuff that I have to pay for but I still like it
- [R37] Money, money, money!: THIS APP IS UNUSABLE WITHOUT PAYING MONEY! IT KEEPS TELLING ME TO BUY THEIR STUPID SUBSCRIPTION! IT STRESSES ME OUT, NOT RELAXES ME!
- [R38] Thought I would love it….: I downloaded this thinking it was a great journaling book online but I also thought it was free. Newsflash, it was not free, I never got to actually use this app because of the payment. That’s the only thing. Please respond to this review zinnia team!
- [R56] Critical regression in user experience and subscription value.: As a long-term, dedicated user and current premium subscriber, I am profoundly disappointed by the recent shift in Zinnia’s monetization model. Historically, I have valued this app for its seamless creative workflow; however, the recent implementation of aggressive paywalls for core assets, specifically stickers and the creation of new
- [R177] I love this app, but the update….: I absolutely love this app, it helps me stay really organised everyday. The all ready made journals are really nice! But ever since this new update, I can’t start any of the made journals because i need a subscription and I don’t really want to pay for a journal. Can you please let the made journals free again, that would be great!
- [R212] Love it, but scared to update: I love the app, but I have read so many reviews warning that if I update I’ll lose access to loads of features. Please revert this back, downloads will plummet if it continues like this. This affect of the recent update isn’t even mentioned when you look at what the update will do.
- [R226] NEW UPDATE !!: so i used to love zinnia, i would use it all the time to make calendars, bullet journal, or do school projects. now that they’ve added this new update tho, zinnia is becoming more and more frustrating to me as i can’t access anything without having to pay. thanks a lot, guys. great job 👏
- [R15] Trash worst app: Glitches, keep typing random stuff, worst app ever, I want to sue this useless game.
- [R88] It’s okay when it doesn’t break: It’s constantly deleting words I have written when I exit the journal, I’m trying to use it to take notes but if this keeps happening may have to stop paying for premium and find something else
- [R120] Glitches: I have been paying for this for a month now and when I open up the app it glitches rarely works .I need to speak to someone about this
- [R123] I love planning in the app but…: I love making planners with this app. But I have not been able to rely in it as a planner as it has two huge problems for me: 1. It crashes too many times when I’m working on it, which is a major inconvenience when using it daily. 2. It does not always work offline which makes it unreliable for serious planning specially when Im travelling which is when I need my
- [R44] Puede mejorar: Es buena sii,solo q cobra mucho 😪😓
- [R98] Ugh: Well I was annoyed that y’all wanted me to pay a fee for something I could with pencil and paper. But the app is ok but obviously the premium version is way better than the normal version. FIX IT!!!!!!!!!
- [R109] why do i have to pay money!?: it is so expensive stop making apps you have to pay for just make this free!
- [R8] Pretty good: This app is fun but you get bored of it and you get a limited amout of pages
- [R25] DEVELOPERS PLEASE READ!!!!!: I just got a new ipad to journal on and I wanted a app that not only I could journal on but also have templates so I could track other things and have way more creativity and I loved this app!!!……….. For all of 2 seconds. I was soooo happy I finally found an app that I liked and that had lots of options, until I figured out that more than half of it you need to buy “p
- [R167] Irritating and a waste of time, fix it: I thought I finally found a good journaling app. It was, until they started the stupid rule that each journal has three pages, and you have to pay to get more pages and more than three journals. It’s literally a scam, not to mention the fact you have to pay for more than a few stickers? Honestly, it’s outraging and a scam. I’m going to stop using the app,
- [R168] /: So got this app a year ago and … I mean it was still pretty good but there wasn’t really that much to do and I really wis h u could add more pages to it so yeah. Ty
- [R139] Took money without permission: Absolutely disgusted, i deleted this app as it was very hard to use, i had applied for a free trial and cancelled it before i uninstalled the app and i have woke up today with 34.99 taken out of my bank account my bank won’t refund this and i am absolutely appalled
- [R127] Nice app let down by Subsciption Model: At a time when a lot of people are having to cut back on subscriptions due to the cost of living, it is always a shame to see yet another Subscription only app or service. This is a very nice app but the subscription model is both greedy and unfriendly, I consider this app to be a luxury so I will not be signing up to 1 whole year! If the owners of this ap
- [R135] Money: Me personally am not a money spender.I know the game is not designed for secondary school age people but I thought this would be my big break where I could finally get organised.I was fully prepared to burn all my paper journals that get ruined so easily! The point is you need to pay money while I know £34 per year isn’t that much compared to other apps they hang it over your head! You ca
- [R14] Use every day: I use this app for everything! I love that I can make new journals for everything and how simple it is.
- [R52] Pay to Use: You have to pay to use anything.
- [R147] Expensive: Way too expensive!! I can't afford £60 for 1 YEAR
- [R210] Good App.. HOWEVER..: I honestly do love this app, I would generally purchase it/also use it a lot more daily if A) It was a ONE off payment or B) At least cheaper annually! 😔 As you can only do so much with the free version, I can’t use it as much as I would too which is a shame as I know this app is the type of app I’m looking for journaling wise!
- [R211] Good app: It’s a really good app and I’d happily use it but it’s a shame you have to pay monthly to subscribe to it. Some people don’t have the money to be paying for a scrapbook app. A one time price would be better
- [R134] Great but having to pay isn’t great: The app is brilliant, don’t get my lower review wrong, but having to pay for a simple writing app on a subscription basis is just wrong, I believe for £35 I should get everything for life, I used this to help my mental health by journaling and I am a tech guy so I like to use the Apple Pencil to journal rather than pen and paper. It’s a shame that such a great
Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store