Most productivity apps are bloated, track everything, and still feel like a chore to use. I wanted something different — so I built Souls.
Souls is a journaling and productivity app built around three things I couldn’t find anywhere else: simplicity, privacy, and design that doesn’t feel sterile.
Why I built it
I kept starting journals and dropping them after two weeks. The apps felt clinical. The interfaces were either too complex or too bare. I wanted something that felt like picking up a beautiful notebook — calm, focused, mine.
So I spent the last few months building exactly that.
What makes it different
→ Privacy-first by design — your entries stay yours, no data harvesting
→ Dark, moody aesthetic that actually feels good to open
→ **Cross-platform (web, mobile, desktop) **— write wherever you are
→ Stripped-down productivity layer — tasks without the noise
It’s not trying to be Notion. It’s not trying to be a habit tracker. It’s a quiet space to think, write, and organise your mind.
What I learned building it
The hardest part wasn’t the tech — it was resisting the urge to add more features. Every “nice to have” I removed made the app better. Simplicity is a product decision, not just a design one.
If you’re someone who’s tried journaling apps and given up, or if you’re tired of productivity tools that make you feel more overwhelmed — give Souls a try.
It just launched. I’d love your feedback.
→ <a href="http://soouls.in" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">soouls.in</a>
What’s your journaling/productivity setup?
#productivity#journaling#privacy#showdev#buildinpublic#design#sideproject#oss

Rudra Singh

Souls is a newly launched privacy-first journaling and productivity app built by an indie developer frustrated with bloated, data-harvesting alternatives. It focuses on simplicity, a dark aesthetic, cross-platform support (web, mobile, desktop), and a minimal task layer. The creator shares that the hardest lesson was resisting feature creep — every removed feature improved the product.

I built Souls — a privacy-first journaling app that actually makes you want to write