I made a chart comparing Logseq to several other leading PKMs. I was surprised how many of them lack some basic things I’ve come to expect working with logseq, such as the ability to zoom in on a node in the outline, or use status markers for tasks, etc. On the other hand, some of them do better than logseq in other areas, such as having better mobile apps and syncing with your calendar.
Unfortunately, the chart doesn’t really tell you how it feels to use an app. Some of the apps that are closest to Logseq in terms of feature count are apps I would never seriously consider using because of the overall user experience. (Though probably the column that captures this best is the outlining column - almost none of the apps listed meet my basic expectations for an outliner.)
Still, since all these apps are growing at a very rapid pace, I think the real value of this graph for me is the ability to check back in six months, or a year, and see how each of these apps has changed in that time. I often find myself downloading an app I’ve already looked at before and this way I can remember what was missing the last time I tested it.
Note: Please read the text below the chart before commenting. Thanks!
It’s funny that a table praising Logseq is published as a Notion page ;). Maybe that should trigger some introspection?
As for the table itself, it’s strange to disregard plugins just because they’re plugins. Does anyone think that VSCode or Chrome or Firefox are worse than the alternatives just because a lot of their functionality depends on plugins/add-ons? If anything, shouldn’t the availability/quality of plugins count as an advantage?
Of course one should check whether the resulting functionality is good or not, but that wasn’t even considered here.
Finally, the data exchange format being a full point for Logseq just because it uses Markdown, without considering how dirty actually is its output, makes me think this needs a lot more of detail to be useful at all.
Logseq just lost a half a dozen widely used plugins because the developer withdrew them from the store. Some Obsidian plugins I like have ceased development. Chrome or VSCode have huge user bases and often multiple plugins that achieve the same functionality, but with a smaller app like most PKMs I’m not going to trust any critical workflow related features to plugins. And, in my experience, the functionality of plugin-based solutions for core features is never as good as built-in options.
Notion is more useful for publishing right now, that doesn’t make it a good PKM for my needs, which are the focus of this chart.
Finally, regarding Markdown, the point is that your data isn’t trapped in Logseq, not whether or not the output looks pretty. One can easily run some scripts to clean up the markdown coding if you need to.
As I said in my notes below the chart (which I asked people to read before commenting), this is a subjective and idiosyncratic look at these features from the point of view of someone who likes Logseq and wants to see how other apps compare. If it isn’t useful for you, feel free to make your own chart.
I just tried to remember some IDE that doesn’t use plugins, and … I can’t! Even Eclipse, NetBeans, or even emacs use them.
Maybe it’s not about plugins, but about the plugin host being unreliable. So yeah, I get how a Logseq user could think that functionality needs to be built in…
I’ll never understand why a platform built around daily notes, native tasks, and no folders doesn’t have a native calendar or calendar sync. It seems like a missed opportunity.
This being posted on Notion is a -1 for Logseq; to this day, it’s all or nothing with publishing.
I’m testing the database, and it feels promising. However, I still need another PKM system for mobile, timeblocking, and page sharing.
Logseq is the only platform in this list that has not been updated in 8 months. I wonder how many will come back that left and felt abandoned.
I love Logseq, but it is behind and will take a lot of time to pull the adhesive off.
Actually it is being updated nearly every day. It is just that they are refactoring the app, so the new version is currently still in alpha. But you can already try it out if you like. More info here: Questions about the upcoming database version
Publishing will be part of the new version of the app, though I think it might be a “pro” feature: part of the plan to make future development of the app sustainable, along with sync and real time collaboration.
But I won’t write more about the refactoring in this thread, which is focused on the current MD version for now.
What I learned from my effort to compare 12 other PKMs to Logseq:
1. I can’t live without “click to zoom” outlining.
Ever since I first used Workflowy, I’ve never wanted to use a note taking app that didn’t have this, and yet very few PKMs implement this. Besides Logseq, only Orca and Tana have it, though there is a plugin that will implement it in Obsidian.
2. I need a full fledged task manager.
This is why I originally switched from Roam to Logseq. Most PKMs have some kind of task check boxes, and some have the ability to expand on those via “supertags” of some kind, but very few have built-in task managers that let you assign a status and a deadline to individual tasks, not to mention having repeating tasks and priorities, etc. Besides Logseq only Amplenote fit the bill, though there are plugins for Orca and Obsidian that bring them a bit closer to Logseq.
3. Aliases are essential.
I have come to depend on the alias feature in Logseq. For one thing, I live and work in a multilingual environment and often refer to the same thing using different langauges. Having true aliases makes the wikilinks feature of Logseq work for me no matter which word I use. Some apps, like Obsidian, let you use different text to link to something, but it isn’t the same as having true parity between different names for the same page. Besides Logseq, Remnote, Reflect, Orca, and Siyuan are the only ones I found that have this ability.
4. Logseq falls short with mobile and calendars
Although Logseq beat out all the competitors in almost every feature I looked at, there were two where it fell short. Almost all the apps (except Orca, Siyuan, and Tana) had full fledged mobile apps that seem to be more robust than what Logseq currently offers. Hopefully that will be fixed with the upgrade to the DB version. Also, a number of apps allowed you to sync your calendars with the PKM, something I hope Logseq will eventually adopt.
Even Eclipse, NetBeans, or even emacs use them.