What ROMA is
AlternativeTo lists ROMA without a category. It is recorded as Free, Open Source — Apache-2.0, from International. It ships on Mac, Linux, Self-Hosted, Docker. The topics its entry raises are self-hosting and tasks.
That is our reading of the record. For AlternativeTo's own wording, see its page for ROMA — the facts above were read on 2026-08-16.
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Licence | Open Source — Apache-2.0 |
| Category | AlternativeTo does not say |
| Origin | International |
| Platforms | Mac, Linux, Self-Hosted, Docker |
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.
Side by side
| Side by side | SumizAI | ROMA |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1/month, one plan, 7-day trial without a card | Free |
| Licence | Proprietary | Open Source — Apache-2.0 |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android | Mac, Linux, Self-Hosted, Docker |
| Category | Note-taking — AI chat into Markdown | AlternativeTo does not say |
| Where notes live | Standard .md files in a folder you choose | AlternativeTo does not say |
| AI model | Seven providers, always on your own API key | Its description does not mention AI |
| Origin | Poland, EU | International |
Where they differ
- AlternativeTo's description of ROMA 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.
- ROMA is open source (Apache-2.0), and SumizAI is not. If reading the source is what decides it for you, that is a real argument for ROMA. The guarantee SumizAI offers instead is structural rather than legal: the notes are Markdown files in a folder you chose, so they open in any editor whether or not the application is running.
- AlternativeTo's description of ROMA does not mention Markdown, so check what format your notes end up in before you fill it up. SumizAI writes standard
.mdfiles to a folder you picked, and an unpaid account can still export all of them. - ROMA can be self-hosted. SumizAI has nothing to host on the desktop — the vault is a folder on your machine — and if you want the model on your own hardware too, a local Ollama is one of the seven providers it speaks to.
- ROMA also does tasks. SumizAI does not — no boards, no due dates, no projects. It files knowledge, not work.
- AlternativeTo lists no mobile version of ROMA. SumizAI runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.
Which one to pick
Reasons to pick ROMA
- the source is open and you want to read it
- it costs nothing
- you want tasks and notes in one place
- you would rather host it yourself
Reasons to pick SumizAI
- the notes you want already exist inside conversations with an AI model
- you want the filing — title, chapter, duplicate check — to happen without you
- you want the result as plain
.mdfiles in a folder you picked - you would rather pay your AI provider directly than have a note app resell the model
Facts about ROMA: AlternativeTo, read 2026-08-16. SumizAI is not affiliated with ROMA, and the name is used only to identify the product being compared.
Taken from the AlternativeTo lists: ChatGPT.