An offline journal app you can use without an account

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.

Want a journal that syncs across your devices but is still sealed so even Innerholm cannot read it? That is the optional per-journal end-to-end encryption in the main app, marked "Just for you". Read more about encrypted journals or the broader private journal app.

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.

Is Innerholm free to use?

Yes. Innerholm is free during early access, with no credit card to start, and Local Journal Mode needs no account at all. A paid Innerholm+ tier is planned, but it is not priced yet and there is no upsell pressure to start writing.

An offline journal app that needs no account, and stays on your device.