When comparing Zim Wiki w/ journal plugin vs Trilium Notes, the Slant community recommends Trilium Notes for most people. In the question“What is the best single-user wiki?” Trilium Notes is ranked 6th while Zim Wiki w/ journal plugin is ranked 12th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Plain text file structure
Pro Write a journal when you want
There are 3 options for writing frequencies: daily, weekly, or monthly. It's great that you can configure it, because not everybody writes a daily journal but because there are set days, you will be more motivated to actually write in your journal on those set days.
Pro Note encryption
Pro Free and open source software
Pro Excellent WYSIWYG interface
Pro Attributes that can be assigned to nodes and inherited
Pro Graph of node connectivity
Pro Note versioning
Pro Synchronization with a server
You can set up synchronization but you need a server to do this.
Pro Database storage rather than files
This enables the tool to do a lot of things that would be difficult with plain text file storage.
Pro Archival functionality
Cons
Con Interface can be confusing
There is a fair amount of flexibility to the interface but it can also become confusing, especially when some parts are not necessarily simple to use. Most of the basic features nevertheless are intuitive.
Con Database storage rather than files
This makes it a little less simple to work with (also has benefits).
Con Not markdown
It will import and export markdown but it does not store content as markdown. This isn't necessarily a problem if you don't need it.
Con Synchronization requires use of Trilium's sync server
This can be problematic to set up unless you have a web server that will support the requirements of this.