How to Clone Daylio
Micro-diary and mood tracker with no typing required
What is Daylio?
Daylio is a mood-tracking journal built on one sharp idea: journaling fails because writing is work, so remove the writing. You open the app, tap a mood face (rad to awful), tap a few activity icons (work, gym, friends, slept well), and you're done - a complete diary entry in five seconds. Over time those taps become charts: your mood trend, which activities correlate with good days, and a calendar of how the month felt. It is consistently one of the top-grossing apps in its category despite costing almost nothing to run.
The product is small on purpose. There is no social feed, no AI, no streaming - it is a local-first logging app with great charts. That minimalism is the whole point: the friction of a five-second entry is low enough that people actually keep a streak, and the streak is what makes the data (and the charts) valuable. Premium is a clean upsell - unlimited custom moods and activities, more chart types, themes, reminders and a PIN lock - sold as a yearly subscription or a one-time unlock.
For a cloner this is about as approachable as a paid app gets. Most of it can run on-device with no server at all; a backend only matters once you add cloud backup and cross-device sync. The opportunity is in the niche and the angle: a mood tracker built specifically for therapy clients, for chronic-illness symptom logging, for sobriety, for parents tracking a baby - or simply a better-designed, less cluttered version for one audience.
Who it's for: People who want to understand their moods and habits without the effort of a written journal - broad, skewing 16โ40 and mental-health-conscious. Clone opportunities target a specific use: therapy companions, symptom trackers for a chronic condition, sobriety logs, parenting/baby logs, or a particular aesthetic and language.
How Daylio makes money
- $ Daylio Premium subscription: roughly $2.99โ4.99/month or about $23.99โ35.99/year - cheap per unit, profitable at volume because the app costs almost nothing to serve.
- $ One-time lifetime unlock: a single in-app purchase for users who refuse subscriptions, a meaningful share of revenue for a low-priced utility.
- $ Premium feature gating: unlimited custom moods/activities, advanced statistics and correlations, extra themes, multiple daily reminders, PIN/biometric lock and color customization.
- $ Cloud backup as a premium hook: automatic encrypted backup and cross-device restore is a strong reason to upgrade for a journal people don't want to lose.
Rough estimate of app-store consumer spend based on public third-party reports; Daylio does not publish revenue. CloneMRR is not affiliated with Daylio; figures are for educational purposes.
Features to build
MVP ship this first
-
โ Tap-to-log entryPick a mood from a 5-face scale, tap activity icons, optionally add a one-line note - a full diary entry in a few taps, no typing required.
-
โ Mood scale & activitiesA default set of moods and common activity icons (work, exercise, friends, sleep, food) the user can toggle per entry.
-
โ Calendar & timelineA month calendar colored by daily mood plus a scrollable timeline of past entries.
-
โ Basic statsAverage mood, mood-over-time line chart, and a count of how often each activity appears - the reward for logging.
-
โ Reminders & streaksA scheduled daily reminder to log and a streak counter to build the habit.
-
โ Paywall + premium unlockFree tier with the core tracker; custom moods/activities, more charts and themes behind a subscription or one-time unlock (RevenueCat / Stripe).
Full version add later
-
+ Custom moods & activitiesCreate your own mood faces and activity icons with custom colors and groups - the top premium request.
-
+ Advanced statisticsMood-vs-activity correlations ('your mood is higher on gym days'), mood by weekday, yearly heat map, and exportable reports.
-
+ Cloud backup & syncEncrypted automatic backup and cross-device restore so a years-long journal is never lost (requires a backend).
-
+ GoalsTrack recurring goals (meditate 3x/week) alongside mood and see them in the stats.
-
+ Privacy lockPIN or biometric lock and optional end-to-end encryption for a private diary.
-
+ Themes & customizationColor themes, custom app icons and reorderable entry layout as premium personalization.
Recommended tech stack
| Layer | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile app | React Native (Expo) or a Next.js PWA | The app is local-first and interaction-light; Expo ships both stores, and a PWA is a fine MVP since most logic runs on-device. |
| Local storage | SQLite (expo-sqlite) or IndexedDB | Entries should work fully offline and instantly; keep the source of truth on the device and treat the cloud as backup. |
| Sync & backup (optional) | Supabase or Firebase | Only needed for cloud backup and cross-device sync - the main premium hook; keep it additive so the app works with no account. |
| Subscriptions | RevenueCat | Handles both the yearly subscription and the one-time lifetime unlock, plus free trials and receipt validation, in one SDK. |
| Charts | Victory Native / Recharts | The product IS the charts - a solid charting library for mood trends, correlations and heat maps is the core of premium. |
| Notifications | Expo Notifications | The daily reminder is what keeps the streak alive, which is what makes the data worth paying for. |
AI prompts to clone Daylio
Pick your builder, copy the prompt, paste it and iterate. Enter your email once to unlock all prompts on every page - we'll also send you this full prompt pack.
Build a no-typing mood-tracking diary web app called Tally, modeled on Daylio.
## Core concept
Journaling without writing. The user logs a day in seconds: pick a mood from a 5-face scale, tap a few activity icons, optionally add a short note. Over time the app turns those taps into charts and a colored calendar. Core tracking is free; custom moods/activities, advanced stats and themes are premium (yearly subscription or a one-time unlock).
## Pages
1. Landing page: clean friendly hero, headline 'Your diary, in five seconds a day.', screenshot of the mood calendar, three benefit cards, pricing (yearly $29.99 / lifetime $59.99), FAQ
2. Onboarding: 3 quick steps - name, pick a daily reminder time, log your first mood - that drop the user straight into a populated app
3. Today / Log: a big mood picker (5 faces: rad, good, meh, bad, awful), a grid of toggleable activity icons grouped by category, an optional one-line note, a Save button; saving returns to the timeline
4. Calendar: a month grid where each day is colored by its mood; tapping a day shows that entry
Tools to build your Daylio clone
Describe your app in plain English and Lovable builds a full-stack web app with auth, database and deployment included.
Best for: Full-stack web apps without writing code
StackBlitz's AI builder. Prompt, run and edit full-stack apps directly in the browser, then deploy in one click.
Best for: Rapid prototypes and web apps
AI app builder with built-in database, auth and hosting. Strong for internal tools and CRUD-heavy products.
Best for: Dashboards, marketplaces and internal tools
The AI code editor. Full control over your codebase with AI agents that write and refactor code for you.
Best for: Developers who want full code ownership
Generates production-grade React + Tailwind UI from a prompt, deployable to Vercel instantly.
Best for: Polished UI and front-ends
Workers, Pages, R2 and D1 - host your clone on a global edge network with a generous free tier.
Best for: Serverless apps and APIs
Cheap VPS and managed hosting with an AI website builder. Easiest way to put a clone online on a budget.
Best for: Budget VPS and WordPress-style sites
How to make money with a Daylio clone
Clone the tracker for a clinical or niche use
A mood tracker built for therapy clients (shareable reports for sessions), for symptom logging in a chronic condition, for sobriety, or for parents tracking a baby beats a generic one because the moods, activities and charts are tailored - and the audience is willing to pay.
Offer both subscription and lifetime
Daylio's audience includes people who hate recurring charges. Offering a one-time lifetime unlock alongside the yearly plan captures both wallets and reduces friction on a low-priced utility.
Cloud backup as the upgrade hook
A journal people keep for years is something they're terrified to lose. Make encrypted cloud backup and cross-device sync the clearest reason to go premium - it converts long-term users who'd never pay for charts alone.
Sell the data back as insight reports
Premium monthly and yearly 'recap' reports (your happiest day, your best activity, mood by season) are cheap to generate, delightful to receive, and give an annual subscriber a reason to stay through renewal.
Frequently asked questions
How much money does Daylio make?
Daylio doesn't publish revenue, but third-party estimates put its app-store consumer spend in the high six to low seven figures per month, roughly $0.5โ1.5 million. It's profitable because per-user cost is near zero - much of the app runs on-device - and it monetizes a huge install base with cheap subscriptions and lifetime unlocks.
How hard is it to build a Daylio clone?
It's one of the easiest paid apps to clone. The core is a local-first logging app with good charts and reminders - no marketplace, no social graph, no AI, and a server is optional until you add cloud backup. A solo builder can ship a working MVP in under a week with AI tools.
Is it legal to clone Daylio?
Yes - mood tracking, activity icons and statistics are features and ideas, which aren't protected. You can't copy Daylio's name, logo, specific icon artwork or screenshots. Use an original brand, design your own mood faces and icons, and write your own copy.
What tech stack should I use for a mood tracker?
Keep it local-first: React Native (Expo) or a Next.js PWA with on-device storage (SQLite or IndexedDB), a charting library like Victory or Recharts, Expo Notifications for the daily reminder, and RevenueCat for the subscription and lifetime unlock. Add Supabase or Firebase only when you build cloud backup and sync.
How much does it cost to build a Daylio clone?
Very little. Because most of it runs on-device, you can prototype with no backend cost at all; even with cloud backup, Supabase and RevenueCat free tiers cover an early launch, so monthly running cost can be under $25. The main investment is design - a clean mood scale and a coherent icon set.
Why does removing the writing make a journaling app work?
Written journaling has high friction, so most people quit within days. A five-second tap entry is low-effort enough to keep a daily streak, and the streak is what produces the data that makes the charts - and the insights - worth paying for. Reducing friction, not adding features, is the entire product strategy.
More apps to clone
CloneMRR is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Daylio. Revenue figures are rough estimates based on public reports and are provided for educational purposes only. "Cloning" here means building an original product inspired by a proven business model - never copy a brand's name, logo, content or code.