An offline journal app that needs no account, and stays on your device.
Sometimes you want to write before you trust anyone with it, including the app. Local Journal Mode lets you open Innerholm in your browser and start writing with no sign-up, no email, and no account. The journal is created on your device, encrypted with a passphrase only you hold, and it stays there.
Local Journal Mode is Innerholm's offline, no-account option. You start writing without signing up, and the journal lives in your browser's storage on that one device, encrypted with WebCrypto using a passphrase you choose. Nothing is sent to a server, so there is nothing to scan and nothing to train on. The honest trade: a local journal does not sync to your other devices, and if you forget the passphrase, the journal is gone, because the passphrase is never stored and never recoverable.
How a local journal works
You open Innerholm in any modern browser, choose Local Journal Mode, and set a passphrase. From there, every word you write is encrypted on your device before it is stored, with a key derived from that passphrase. The page does the writing, the encryption, and the storage all locally.
- No account, no email, no sign-up You start writing immediately. There is no identity for Innerholm to hold.
- It lives on your device and stays there The journal is kept in your browser's local storage on the device you wrote it on. There is no server copy.
- Encrypted on-device with your passphrase WebCrypto encrypts the entries with a key only your passphrase can derive. The passphrase never leaves the device.
- Nothing to install It runs in your browser. No download, no app store, no setup.
The trade, stated plainly
A journal that stays entirely on your device buys you something real, and it costs you something real. We would rather you know both before you start than discover the second one later.
No cloud sync. Because a local journal never reaches a server, it cannot appear on your other devices. It is the journal on this laptop, or this phone, not the journal in your account. If you want the same journals on your desktop and your phone, that is what the account-based, synced version of Innerholm is for.
No recovery if you forget the passphrase. The passphrase is never sent anywhere and is never stored, so there is no reset link and no support request that can open the journal for you. If it is lost, the entries are gone. That is not a gap in the design. It is the design: a journal no one but you can open is also a journal no one but you can recover. Choose a passphrase you can remember, and write it down somewhere safe if that helps.
Local Journal Mode vs the synced app
Innerholm comes in two shapes, and you can use both. The difference is where the journal lives.
- Local Journal Mode, on-device, no account, no sync
- The synced app, account-based, needs a connection, syncs across devices
- Local, the passphrase is yours alone
- Synced, stored on the server, never scanned
- Local, best for a private, single-device journal
- Synced, best when you write from more than one place
The synced app is account-based and needs a connection so your journals can sync, and it carries the same privacy commitments: no content scanning, no AI training, no profiling, no ads. AI is off by default there, and you can also seal an individual synced journal end-to-end if you want that level on a journal that still syncs.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Innerholm as a journal app without an account?
Yes. Local Journal Mode lets you start writing without signing up. There is no account, no email, and no sign-in. The journal is created on your device and stays there. The trade is that a local journal does not sync to other devices and is not backed up to any server, because nothing ever leaves the device you wrote it on.
Where is a local journal stored?
On your device, in your browser's local storage, encrypted with WebCrypto using a key derived from a passphrase you choose. Innerholm never receives the entries and never receives the passphrase. There is no server copy of a local journal at all.
What happens if I forget the passphrase for a local journal?
The journal is gone. The passphrase is never sent anywhere and is never recoverable, so there is no reset link and no support request that can bring it back. That is the deliberate trade for a journal that no one but you can open. Choose a passphrase you can remember, and write it down somewhere safe if that helps.
Does a local journal work offline?
Once the page has loaded in your browser, a local journal works without a connection, because the writing, the encryption, and the storage all happen on your device. The synced version of Innerholm is different: it is account-based and needs a connection so your journals can sync across devices.
Does Local Journal Mode work on an iPhone or iPad?
Yes, with one difference worth knowing before you start. On Chrome or Edge on a computer, a local journal also mirrors itself into a .innerholm file you choose and keeps that file current on its own. Safari on iPhone and iPad has no equivalent, so there the journal lives in the browser's own storage and the second copy is manual: tap "Download journal file" whenever you want a file, and it lands in Files like any other download. Innerholm asks Safari to keep that storage, every time a local journal is created or unlocked, but that is a request rather than a guarantee, and Safari can still clear a site's storage after seven days of Safari use without you opening the site.
Two habits settle it. Open the journal now and then, and add Innerholm to your Home Screen, which Safari keeps for as long as you use it. Add it before you start the journal rather than after: a Home Screen app has its own storage, separate from Safari's, so a journal begun in Safari stays in Safari.
Is Innerholm free to use?
Yes. Innerholm's core is free, with no credit card to start, and Local Journal Mode needs no account at all. Innerholm+ opens the full shelf of editions at $40/year, and there is no upsell pressure to start writing.
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