Goodnotes vs SiYuan
Goodnotes
goodnotes.com
SiYuan
b3log.orgSide by side
| Figure | Goodnotes | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1/mo | $64/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 13 | 5 |
| Spec score · Note-taking apps | 9.5 (#2) | 9.1 (#12) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | The help center documents automatic backup to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or WebDAV on iOS and iPadOS. | Paid options include third-party S3 and WebDAV data sync and backup; users must provide their own storage, and Nutstore is not supported for WebDAV. |
| Note sharing | Yes | Yes |
| Offline access | Yes | Yes |
| Supported platforms | web,windows,macos,ios,android | Windows,macOS,Linux,iOS,Android,web interface,Chrome/Edge extension,API,Docker self-hosting |
| Storage limit | 5 | 8 |
Plans
Goodnotes
- FreeFree
- Essential$11.99 a year
- Pro$35.99 a year
- AI Pass$9.99 a month
- Teams$120 a year
- EnterprisePriced on request
- EnterprisePrice not published
- Special EditionPriced on request
- Special EditionPrice not published
- Goodnotes Essential$11.99 a year
SiYuan
- FreeFree
- PRO Features$64 a month
- Subscription$148 a month
- PRO Features$64, paid once
- Subscription$148, paid once
In their own words
Goodnotes
Goodnotes is a note-taking app from Goodnotes, a company founded in 2011 and based in London. It runs on Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows, with offline access, note sharing, and real-time collaboration. Listed integrations include Google Calendar, Google Drive, ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Calendar. The Free plan costs nothing and includes three notebooks, three text documents, three whiteboards, three folders, 100 MB of storage, and a 5 MB import limit. Essential costs $11.99 a year and includes 5 GB of storage and unlimited files, with a 7-day free trial. Pro costs $35.99 a year and includes unlimited files, also with a 7-day trial. Teams costs $120 a year and adds collaboration, SAML SSO, domain control, consolidated billing, and user and admin management. AI Pass is a $9.99 a month add-on with approximately 6,300 additional AI credits per month; availability varies by region and eligible plan. Enterprise and Special Edition have no listed prices.
SiYuan
SiYuan is a personal knowledge management system for building a linked collection of notes. It supports Markdown, block-level references and bidirectional links, and organizes content into blocks with more than 20 block-level and more than 10 span-level element types. Backlinks can be filtered and searched; relationship graphs are available across a notebook and at block level. Databases support relations, rollups and templates, while flashcards use the FSRS spaced-repetition algorithm. Its AI feature connects to OpenAI for writing continuation, translation, summaries, brainstorming and grammar or spelling corrections. SiYuan supports offline access, and the maker describes multi-device synchronization as incremental and end-to-end encrypted. It is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and the web, with a Chrome/Edge extension, API and Docker self-hosting. The maker says data stays under the user's control on their device. Free access is free; PRO Features is listed at $64 a month with lifetime-use wording, and Subscription at $148 a month with 8GB cloud storage.