Best Roam Research Alternatives & Competitors in 2025

A second brain, for you, forever. Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.

Key Obsidian.md features:

Local-first Markdown Support Bidirectional Linking Customizability

All-in-one workspace. One tool for your whole team. Write, plan, and get organized.

Key Notion features:

All-in-One Workspace Highly Customizable Collaboration Features Cross-Platform Availability

Create in-app experiences with the most straightforward product adoption platform — quick implementation, lasting user engagement.

Key UserGuiding features:

User Onboarding Guides Hotspots Onboarding Checklists Knowledge Base

Try for free paid Free Trial $69.0 / Monthly (Basic; Guides & Checklists, Knowledge Base, In-app Surveys)

Logseq is a local-first, non-linear, outliner notebook for organizing and sharing your personal knowledge base.

Key Logseq features:

Bidirectional Linking Graph View Markdown Support Local Storage

Open Source free

Bring your life's work together in one digital workspace. Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas, write meaningful words, and move your important projects forward.

Key Evernote features:

Cross-Platform Compatibility Organizational Tools Web Clipper Collaboration Features

Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor. .

Key Joplin features:

Open Source Cross-Platform End-to-End Encryption Rich Text Support

Open Source free

A better way to organize your mind.

Key Workflowy features:

Kanban boards Tags Search and Filtering Files & Attachments

freemium $4.99 / Monthly (Workflowy Pro)

Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It's free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details. .

Key Trello features:

User-Friendly Interface Collaborative Features Customization Options Cross-Platform Availability

freemium $12.5 / Monthly (Per user - Business Class)

a non-linear personal web notebook.

Key TiddlyWiki features:

Flexible and customizable Self-contained No server needed Active community

Open Source

All-in-One Tool For Thinking & Learning.

Key RemNote features:

Spaced Repetition Knowledge Management Note-taking and Flashcards Bi-directional Linking

AI-native productivity platform for digital creators, builders and entrepreneurs to get 10x work done in half the time.

freemium $9.0 / Monthly (Starter)

Write Markdown documents with a comprehensive GUI and many workflow/time management tools.

Key Zettlr features:

Markdown Support Zettelkasten Methodology Cross-Platform Compatibility Open Source

Open Source

Personal knowledge management and sharing on VSCode & GitHub.

Key Foam features:

Open Source Markdown Support Integration with Visual Studio Code Graph View

Open Source

Get the OneNote app for free on your tablet, phone, and computer, so you can capture your ideas and to-do lists in one place wherever you are. Or try OneNote with Office for free.

Key OneNote features:

Cross-Platform Accessibility Collaboration Features Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem Flexible Organization