Bulletlist vs TreeLine
Bulletlist
bulletlist.orgTreeLine
treeline.bellz.orgSide by side
| Figure | Bulletlist | TreeLine |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Outlining Software | 8.2 (#12) | 7.4 (#17) |
| Support | The docs direct users to [email protected]. | Doug Bell welcomes feedback, bug reports, and suggestions by email, and the site points TreeLine users to a mailing list. |
Plans
In their own words
Bulletlist
Bulletlist is an infinitely nested outliner for organizing material as bullets, with any bullet able to open as its own page. A bullet can hold multiline comments or a complete Markdown document, and the app includes nine templates such as Zettelkasten, PARA, and Getting Things Done. Users can paste nested lists from Workflowy, Notion, Google Docs, or Markdown, or import OPML files; entire outlines can be exported as OPML or plain text. It works offline, saves edits on the device first, and merges edits made across separate devices. Keyboard shortcuts include ⌘K to find a bullet by name. The web app can be installed from a browser, and native apps are available for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Mac. Every feature is free, with no caps or locked tiers. Sign-in uses a code sent by email instead of a password. The maker says outline content is not used for ads, sold, or used to train anything; Google Analytics measures usage without seeing bullets, notes, or searches.
TreeLine
TreeLine is a free, offline information organizer for Linux, Windows, and macOS. It stores records in a tree, with fields on each node acting like a small database. Fields can contain plain or rich text, HTML, numbers, dates, times, booleans, and URLs. One file can hold several node types, each with its own fields and formatting. Search commands find node data, while filters present matching nodes in a flat view. Node output can appear on screen, be printed, or be exported to HTML. Files use JSON and may be compressed or encrypted automatically. Import and export cover plain text, delimited tables, older TreeLine files, Mozilla and XBEL bookmarks, generic XML, and ODF text outlines. Additional exports include CSV, PDF, tab-indented text, and TreeLine format. Windows installers target Windows 10 and 11. Linux installation requires Python 3.9 or newer, Qt 6.4 or newer, and PyQt 6.4 or newer. macOS is not formally supported; a third-party MacPorts version is suggested. The free plan is free under GNU GPL v2 or later.