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How to Clone Daylio

Micro-diary and mood tracker with no typing required

iOS easy to clone Freemium (free core tracking, premium subscription or one-time unlock)
Est. monthly revenue
$0.5Mโ€“$1.5M/mo
rough estimate, 2024
MVP build time
3โ€“7 days with AI builders
full version: 1 month
Clone prompts
5 builders
Lovable ยท Bolt ยท Cursor ยท v0 ยท Base44
Briefing

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 16โ€“40 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.

Revenue model

How Daylio makes money

Revenue estimate
$0.5Mโ€“$1.5M/mo

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.

Spec sheet

Features to build

MVP ship this first

  • โœ“ Tap-to-log entry
    Pick 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.
  • โœ“ Mood scale & activities
    A default set of moods and common activity icons (work, exercise, friends, sleep, food) the user can toggle per entry.
  • โœ“ Calendar & timeline
    A month calendar colored by daily mood plus a scrollable timeline of past entries.
  • โœ“ Basic stats
    Average mood, mood-over-time line chart, and a count of how often each activity appears - the reward for logging.
  • โœ“ Reminders & streaks
    A scheduled daily reminder to log and a streak counter to build the habit.
  • โœ“ Paywall + premium unlock
    Free tier with the core tracker; custom moods/activities, more charts and themes behind a subscription or one-time unlock (RevenueCat / Stripe).
~ 3โ€“7 days with AI builders

Full version add later

  • + Custom moods & activities
    Create your own mood faces and activity icons with custom colors and groups - the top premium request.
  • + Advanced statistics
    Mood-vs-activity correlations ('your mood is higher on gym days'), mood by weekday, yearly heat map, and exportable reports.
  • + Cloud backup & sync
    Encrypted automatic backup and cross-device restore so a years-long journal is never lost (requires a backend).
  • + Goals
    Track recurring goals (meditate 3x/week) alongside mood and see them in the stats.
  • + Privacy lock
    PIN or biometric lock and optional end-to-end encryption for a private diary.
  • + Themes & customization
    Color themes, custom app icons and reorderable entry layout as premium personalization.
~ 1 month
Architecture

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.
The payload

AI prompts to clone Daylio

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daylio-lovable.md
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
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Loadout

Tools to build your Daylio clone

Exit strategy

How to make money with a Daylio clone

01

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.

02

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.

03

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.

04

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.

Intel

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 $0.5โ€“1.5 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.

Next targets

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.