Bulletlist vs Zavala

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.

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.