Microsoft OneNote vs SiYuan
Microsoft OneNote
microsoft.com
SiYuan
b3log.orgSide by side
| Figure | Microsoft OneNote | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.33/mo | $148/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 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 | 11 | 4 |
| Spec score · Note-taking apps | 9.0 (#17) | 9.1 (#12) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | OneDrive,SharePoint,Microsoft Graph,Zapier,Salesforce,Trello,Basecamp,Wufoo,Twitter,Feedly | 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 | OneNote supports sharing ideas and creating together with others. | 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
Microsoft OneNote
- Microsoft 365 Personal$9.99 a month
- Microsoft 365 Personal$99.99 a year
- Microsoft 365 Personal$99.99 a year
- Microsoft 365 Family$12.99 a month
- Microsoft 365 Family$129.99 a year
- Microsoft 365 Family$129.99 a year
- Microsoft 365 Premium$19.99 a month
- Microsoft 365 Premium$199.99 a year
- Microsoft 365 Premium$199.99 a year
- Office Home 2024$179.99, paid once
SiYuan
- FreeFree
- Subscription$148 a month
- PRO Features$64, paid once
- Subscription$148, paid once
In their own words
Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
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.