Bike Outliner vs Zavala

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.

Zavala is a free, open-source outliner for arranging information in related hierarchical rows. Its outlines support note taking, task lists, brainstorming, project planning, project management, and documentation. The app works offline and can sync through iCloud, which requires iCloud Drive setup; outlines can also be shared through iCloud for real-time collaboration with other Zavala users. It imports and exports OPML, Markdown, and HTML, can print outlines, and lists PDF among its export formats. A share extension downloads a web page and attempts to convert it into an editable outline, with results depending on that page’s structure. Apple Shortcuts actions support creating, finding, editing, exporting, and manipulating outlines and rows. Locked outlines encrypt rows and images on disk and during iCloud sync with AES-GCM and a 256-bit key, but titles, tags, and some metadata are not encrypted. Zavala runs on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS; current listings require version 26 or later.