SumizAI vs Halzy

What Halzy is

Halzy is a web-based OneNote alternative designed for versatile note-taking. It combines a free-form canvas (for typing and sketching) with built-in Markdown support, offering flexibility beyond a traditional, linear text notepad. The application comes from the United States and runs exclusively as an online service, under a freemium model.

Key features and functionality

The free-form canvas lets note elements be placed anywhere on screen, instead of being confined to a rigid, linear structure imposed top-down by a traditional text editor - a user can freely arrange text, sketches, and other elements the way that intuitively fits the structure of their thinking. Being able to both type and sketch on the same canvas means Halzy supports varied note-taking styles - from precise text to hand-drawn diagrams and drawings - in one coherent environment. Built-in Markdown support lets users who prefer simple, text-based formatting syntax use it directly on the canvas, combining visual flexibility with text formatting precision.

Who it's for

Halzy is aimed primarily at former OneNote users looking for a web alternative offering similar note-taking flexibility, but in a more modern, browser-based package. People combining text writing with sketching - students taking notes with diagrams, designers sketching ideas alongside text descriptions - appreciate the free-form canvas allowing both styles at once. Users who prefer Markdown formatting but also want to keep the freedom of visually arranging note elements find in Halzy a combination of both approaches. People dissatisfied with the rigid, linear structure of traditional text notepads choose Halzy for the flexibility of its free-form canvas.

Use cases

A student taking notes from a lecture combining theory with diagrams uses Halzy's free-form canvas to simultaneously write text and sketch illustrations explaining the topic being discussed. A designer working on a new idea places both a text description of the concept and quick visual sketches on the canvas, keeping both elements in the same coherent context. Someone migrating from OneNote moves their note-taking habits to Halzy, appreciating similar flexibility in a newer, web-based environment accessible from any browser. A developer keeping technical documentation uses the built-in Markdown support to format text while adding hand-drawn architecture diagrams on the same canvas.

Pricing and business model

Halzy runs on a freemium model, offering free access to core canvas note-taking functionality and a paid subscription unlocking expanded capabilities and larger note storage limits. This model lets former OneNote users test Halzy as an alternative before deciding on a paid subscription matched to how intensively they take notes.

Comparison with SumizAI

Halzy and SumizAI operate in entirely different areas of digital work. Halzy is a versatile note-taking tool combining a free-form canvas with Markdown, with no integration with artificial intelligence. SumizAI, by contrast, is a platform enabling conversations with multiple AI providers at once, unrelated to visual note-taking or sketching. Someone keeping their notes in Halzy might additionally use SumizAI when they need AI help researching a topic before saving it on their visual canvas.

AI notes on a free-form canvas

People pasting the results of conversations with AI models into Halzy as ai notes appreciate being able to freely place such text alongside related sketches or diagrams on the same canvas, instead of being confined to a linear structure. Built-in Markdown support means such ai notes keep readable formatting while staying flexible in their visual placement on the canvas. Halzy's flexibility means an ai notes entry from an AI consultation can naturally sit next to a hand-drawn diagram explaining the same concept, building a fuller, multi-modal record of thought. People bringing over their habits from OneNote appreciate that saving these notes alongside sketches feels just as intuitive as it did in the Microsoft tool they knew before.

What SumizAI is

A note-taking application built around a conversation with an AI model. You ask a question, the answer streams back, and the answers worth keeping become Markdown notes — filed into a vault that is a folder on your own disk.

A vault is a directory holding base.md, a generated table of contents up to six levels deep, and a notes/ folder with one .md file per note. Before a note is written it is checked against the ones already there, so the fourth note about the same idea gets merged instead of added. Links between notes are ordinary Markdown links to files that exist.

The model is never ours: you bring your own API key to one of seven providers — Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, a local Ollama or your own server — and pay that provider directly. A question sends the table of contents plus at most five relevant notes within a 24,000-character budget, and the app shows you which five it used.

Every answer kept this way becomes one of these ai notes, ready to search again months later without hunting back through old chats.

Side by side

Where they differ

• AlternativeTo's description of Halzy does not mention an AI model. That is the whole starting point in SumizAI: you have a conversation with a model on your own API key, and the answers worth keeping become notes without you filing them.
• Halzy is freemium: there is a free tier and a paid one, and the line between them is the thing to read before committing. SumizAI has one plan at a dollar a month, so there is no feature held back for a higher tier — and an unpaid account still opens and exports every vault it already has.
• Both keep Markdown, which makes moving between them mostly a matter of copying files. In SumizAI a vault is a directory holding base.md — a generated table of contents — and a notes/ folder with one .md file per note.
• Halzy offers a visual surface — a canvas, whiteboard or map. SumizAI has no canvas: the structure it maintains is a written table of contents in base.md, up to six levels deep, rebuilt as notes arrive.
• Halzy supports handwriting or drawing. SumizAI is typed text only.
• Halzy runs in the browser. SumizAI is a desktop and mobile application, and on the desktop the vault is a folder on your own disk rather than a document in someone's cloud.

Which one to pick