RNote vs SiYuan
RNote
rnote.org
SiYuan
b3log.orgSide by side
| Figure | RNote | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | £1.67/mo | $64/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 5 |
| Spec score · Note-taking apps | 8.2 (#93) | 9.1 (#12) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Note sharing | Yes | Yes |
| Offline access | Yes | Yes |
| Supported platforms | web | Windows,macOS,Linux,iOS,Android,web interface,Chrome/Edge extension,API,Docker self-hosting |
| Privacy | The privacy policy says notes are not shared or used for advertising and personal data is not sold, rented, or shared for marketing. | The privacy policy says SiYuan does not collect user personal information or usage data and that data is kept on the user's device under their control. |
| Purpose | RNote is an online note-taking tool for capturing and organizing ideas. | SiYuan describes itself as a privacy-first personal knowledge management system supporting Markdown, block-level references, and bidirectional links. |
Plans
SiYuan
- FreeFree
- PRO Features$64 a month
- Subscription$148 a month
- PRO Features$64, paid once
- Subscription$148, paid once
In their own words
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.