Bike Outliner vs The Visual Outliner
Bike Outliner
hogbaysoftware.comThe Visual Outliner
visualoutliner.comSide by side
| Figure | Bike Outliner | The Visual Outliner |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1.67/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Outlining Software | 8.4 (#8) | 6.9 (#21) |
| Purpose | Bike is a Mac writing and outlining app for thinking, writing, organizing, lists, notes, and documents. | The Visual Outliner is a hierarchical multi-level outliner for organizing ideas. |
| Support | Hog Bay Software provides support forums for Bike Outliner, TaskPaper, and WriteRoom. | The maker lists [email protected] as its support email. |
Plans
Bike Outliner
- Free modeFree
- Bike License – Monthly$2.99 a month
- Bike License – Yearly$19.99 a year
- One-Time Purchase License (Hog Bay Software)Price not published
The Visual Outliner
- Visual Outliner for Windows FULL VERSION$59.95, paid once
In their own words
Bike Outliner
Bike Outliner is a macOS app for thinking, writing, organizing lists, notes, and documents. Its outlines support headings, ordered lists, task lists, and other row types, while a rich text editor handles formatting. Full-screen, typewriter, and focus modes provide distraction-free writing. Navigation includes keyboard movement by focus heading, back and forward controls, breadcrumbs, inline buttons, and a navigation bar. Deep links remain valid when an outline file is moved or renamed. Bike uses an HTML-based .bike format and also supports .opml and .txt files, with Markdown support, printing, Quick Look previews, and Finder thumbnails. Scripts, Shortcuts, and AppleScript can control the app. Free mode never expires and covers reading, writing, and editing outlines; additional row types, rich text formatting, Shortcut Actions, and AppleScript require purchase.
The Visual Outliner
The Visual Outliner has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.