The 10 Best Mood Tracker Apps in 2026, Compared Properly

Most “best mood tracker” lists are written by people who installed ten apps on Tuesday and published on Wednesday. This one comes from the opposite direction: we build one of these apps (MoodKit — bias declared up front), we’ve spent months researching the other nine as competitors, and we’d rather tell you exactly which job each app wins than pretend ours wins them all.

It doesn’t. You’ll see.

Every price below is a US App Store figure checked in August 2026, and every rating is from the same date.

The field, in one table

App	Rating	Best at	Free tier	Paid (US)
Daylio	4.8 (61k)	Effortless daily logging	Generous	$35.99/yr · $59.99 lifetime
MoodKit	— (new)	Explaining what drives your mood	Trial only	$39.99/yr · $79.99 lifetime
Bearable	4.8 (6k)	Symptoms + mood together	Good, capped history	$34.99/yr
How We Feel	4.9 (29k)	Naming emotions, free	Everything free	—
Finch	4.9 (735k)	Motivation via pet	Very generous	$69.99/yr
eMoods	4.8 (4.2k)	Bipolar-spectrum charting	Solid	~$9.99/yr
Pixels	4.8 (41)	Year in Pixels, pay-once	Core free	~$4.99 once
stoic.	4.8 (35k)	Guided journaling ritual	Decent	$39.99/yr · $199.99 lifetime
DailyBean	4.8 (70k)	Simplest cute diary	Good	Small sub
Apple State of Mind	built-in	Zero-install logging	Free	—

Facts checked August 2026. Ratings are US App Store. MoodKit is too new for a meaningful rating count, so we’re not quoting one.

1. Daylio — the default, for good reasons

Two taps, a streak, a colorful month. Daylio has spent a decade making mood logging so cheap you keep doing it, and consistency beats sophistication you abandon. Photos, deep customization, Android, a real free tier, and a $59.99 lifetime.

Its ceiling is famous enough that its own featured review asks, “Am I learning anything from recording all of this?” Charts, yes. Answers, not really.

Get it if: you’re starting out and want the habit to stick. Skip it if: you already have a year of data and zero insight; that’s the switching point.

2. MoodKit — when you want the why

Ours, so judge accordingly. MoodKit exists for Daylio’s ceiling: it ranks your activities by measured effect on your mood (day counts shown under every claim), catches activity combinations, treats Apple Health sleep, exercise, and steps as ranked factors, and tests hunches with week-long self-experiments whose verdicts can be “this didn’t help.” Everything is computed on your phone. No AI, no account, and the only Year-in-Pixels Home Screen widget we know of.

Get it if: the question “what’s actually driving my mood?” is why you track. Skip it if: you want free forever, Android, photos, or symptom tracking; see the Daylio comparison for the full honest trade-off.

3. Bearable — the health-data heavyweight

Symptoms with severity, medications, energy, sleep, and mood, correlated across 30+ reports and exportable for your doctor. For chronic-illness tracking, Bearable has no real rival on this list.

The cost is effort (thorough check-ins take minutes), an account requirement, and time blocks that blur cause-and-effect timing. Bearable vs MoodKit draws the line between their jobs.

Get it if: mood is one of several health signals you track. Skip it if: you’ll resent ten-minute check-ins by week three.

4. How We Feel — the best free app in the category

Nonprofit, no ads, no upsell, ever. The Mood Meter’s 140+ emotion words genuinely teach you to name feelings, and the one-minute science videos are lovely. How We Feel is what we recommend to anyone who says “free, or I’m not trying it.”

Limits: thin analytics (its users’ own top request), no streaks, iOS 17+, optional AI features some of its community disliked.

Get it if: budget is zero or emotional vocabulary is the goal. Alternatives here when you hit the ceiling.

5. Finch — motivation in bird form

735,000 ratings at 4.9 stars says everything about how well the self-care pet loop works. Finch gets people doing the small things daily, and its free tier is real.

As a mood tracker it’s shallow — the community itself notes the missing analytics — which is why it shares this list with actual analysis tools. Finch vs MoodKit explains when each matters.

Get it if: showing up is the battle. Skip it if: you want data; the bird can’t help you there.

6. eMoods — the clinical specialist

Separate scales for depressed and elevated mood, irritability, anxiety, sleep, meds, and a clinician-ready PDF. Psychiatrists actually recommend eMoods, and Pro costs about $9.99 a year, the fairest paid pricing on this page.

The UI is dated, one entry per day, no Apple Health, and charts come uninterpreted. It’s a chart for your doctor, not an insight engine.

Get it if: you’re tracking mood episodes with a clinician involved.

7. Pixels — four dollars, forever

One tap colors your day; a year becomes a mosaic. Pixels is indie, respectful, and essentially a one-time ~$4.99 purchase in a category addicted to subscriptions.

Stats are descriptive only, and there are no widgets and no Apple Health. The pay-once round-up has its full context.

Get it if: minimalism and price honesty top your list.

8. stoic. — the journaling ritual

Morning prep, evening reflection, prompts, breathing, gratitude, mood checks. stoic. is for people who process life in words on a schedule.

It’s grown big and busy, needs iOS 17+, and its mood log records how you felt without capturing why. A reviewer literally asked for a mood-cause tracker; that’s a different app (see #2).

Get it if: guided writing is your medium.

9. DailyBean — the softest landing

One bean face a day, a few icons, done in thirty seconds. DailyBean (4.8★, 70k ratings) is what “low effort” should mean.

Get it if: every other app on this list sounds like homework.

10. Apple State of Mind — already on your iPhone

iOS 17+ logs moods natively in the Health app with Lock Screen and Watch access and end-to-end encryption. It records beautifully and explains nothing — no custom activities, no rankings, no experiments. Setup and workarounds in our Apple Health guide, and the head-to-head with a dedicated app is here.

Get it if: you want zero new apps. It’s also the perfect archive layer under a dedicated tracker.

How to actually choose

Ignore “best overall.” Pick your bottleneck:

• Habit won’t stick → Daylio or Finch.
• Data without understanding → MoodKit.
• Health condition in the picture → Bearable (general) or eMoods (bipolar-spectrum).
• Zero budget → How We Feel or State of Mind.
• Subscription allergy → Pixels, Daylio lifetime, or any pay-once option.

One honest closing note: whatever you install, the first two weeks of logging matter more than the choice. Every insight engine on this page, including ours, is only as good as the entries you feed it.