The 8 best Roam Research alternatives
Roam Research scores 6.2 out of 10 here, and its weak spots are specific: the most expensive app here, competing against free ones. These are the apps that fix that, ranked by overall score.
Obsidian
Plain markdown files on your disk, with a plugin ecosystem bolted on top.
Win / Mac / iOS / Android / Linux
Gains you: voice recording, audio transcription, meeting recording. Same territory: linked thinking / pkm.
$4/mo
RemNote
Take notes and generate the flashcards in the same keystroke.
Web / Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android
Gains you: voice recording, audio transcription, handwriting / stylus. Same territory: linked thinking / pkm.
$8/mo
Heptabase
Notes on whiteboards, for when the outline is not the shape of the idea.
Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android / Web
Gains you: drawing canvas, folders / notebooks, multi-level folders. Same territory: linked thinking / pkm.
$11.99/mo
Capacities
A studio for your mind, organised by object type instead of folders.
Web / Mac / Win / iOS / Android
Gains you: voice recording, audio transcription, meeting recording. Same territory: linked thinking / pkm.
$12.99/mo
Tana
Supertags turn loose bullets into a structured database as you type.
Web / Mac / Win / iOS / Android
Gains you: voice recording, audio transcription, speaker identification. Same territory: linked thinking / pkm.
$10/mo
AFFiNE
Docs and an infinite whiteboard that are the same document.
Web / Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android · Open source
Gains you: meeting recording, drawing canvas, folders / notebooks. Same territory: linked thinking / pkm.
$8.90/mo
Amplenote
Notes and tasks that argue with each other until your day is planned.
Web / Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android
Gains you: folders / notebooks, multi-level folders, prompt templates. Same territory: linked thinking / pkm.
$7.99/mo
Joplin
Open source, end-to-end encrypted, and it syncs wherever you tell it to.
Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android / Web · Open source
Gains you: voice recording, handwriting / stylus, drawing canvas. Same territory: linked thinking / pkm.
$3/mo
Still not sure?
Filter the whole directory by the one feature you cannot live without, or browse by what you need the app for.