--- title: "SumizAI vs SiYuan" url: "https://sumizai.com/alternative-to/sumizai-alternative-to-siyuan.html" date: "2026-08-14T00:00:00+02:00" modified: "2026-08-14T00:00:00+02:00" description: "Looking for a SiYuan alternative? SumizAI and SiYuan side by side: price, licence, platforms and what each one actually does." tags: ["ai notes", "sumizai", "siyuan", "alternative to SiYuan"] --- # SumizAI vs SiYuan Looking for a SiYuan alternative? SumizAI and SiYuan side by side: price, licence, platforms and what each one actually does. ## What SiYuan is SiYuan is a desktop Markdown notes app built around two mechanisms: fine-grained block-level references and bidirectional linking. Instead of linking whole documents, SiYuan lets users reference a single paragraph, list, or heading inside a note, giving far finer-grained connections than typical file-to-file linking. The WYSIWYG editor renders formatted text live, with no need to switch between an edit mode and a preview. The project is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license, guaranteeing the code stays open to community audit and modification. Key features: Block-level references let users quote and link a specific fragment of a note rather than the whole document, which makes a huge difference in linking precision for large, elaborate note collections. Bidirectional linking automatically shows which other blocks reference the fragment currently being viewed, surfacing context without manual searching. The WYSIWYG editor renders Markdown live, so bold text, lists, or tables look exactly as they will in the finished note right away. The app runs on desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux) and mobile (Android, iPhone), with sync between them. The open-source freemium model means core functionality is free, while paid add-ons fund the project's continued development. Who it's for: SiYuan appeals to people building an elaborate, precisely interlinked knowledge base — researchers citing specific source fragments, writers tracking connections between threads at the sentence or paragraph level, and developers who value open code and the option to self-host or modify the tool. Users frustrated by whole-document-level linking in other notebooks find a more precise alternative in SiYuan. Use cases: In practice, SiYuan works well for writing an academic paper, where every citation can link directly to the specific paragraph of a source instead of the entire reference document. Someone keeping a project journal can reference a specific decision made three weeks earlier by linking straight to that one sentence, rather than the whole note from that day. A team documenting a complex system can build a web of mutual references between individual requirements, rather than entire specification documents. Pricing and business model: SiYuan is free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 license — the core desktop app requires no payment. Paid add-ons, such as the official cloud sync service or extra file storage, are available on a subscription basis for people who'd rather not set up their own syncing. That model lets free users tap the app's full functionality locally, paying only for the convenience of official cloud infrastructure. Limitations and what to watch for: Block-level linking precision comes at the cost of a more complex interface than simpler notebooks — a new user needs time to understand the difference between linking a document and linking a specific block. The community around SiYuan is smaller than around more widely known notebooks, meaning fewer ready-made guides and plugins built by other users. AI notes at block level: SiYuan has no built-in AI model integration in its core version, but the precision of block-level linking means manually pasted ai notes from an assistant conversation can be attached to a very specific fragment of existing knowledge, not just the whole document. That still requires manually copying the conversation content and manually adding block-level references to related notes — SiYuan doesn't do this automatically. A knowledge graph at paragraph level: SiYuan also renders a visual graph of connections, much like other tools built on bidirectional linking, but because nodes in that graph can represent individual blocks rather than only whole documents, the connection map tends to be denser and more detailed. For a user browsing hundreds of ai notes pasted in by hand over months, that density can help surface non-obvious connections between seemingly unrelated AI conversations. Export and data portability: Despite its advanced reference system, SiYuan stores data in a format that can be exported to standard Markdown, protecting against lock-in to a single tool. That matters for people investing time in building a precise network of ai notes who want assurance that work won't be lost if they ever decide to switch apps. Daily working rhythm: In day-to-day use, SiYuan works well as a tool for gradual, layered knowledge building — a single note is rarely the final product, more often a starting point that gets further references and block-level detail added over time. That way of working rewards patience: the payoff of a dense connection network only becomes visible after weeks of regular additions, not from creating one large note in a single sitting. Multilingual support and local storage: The app supports multiple interface languages and stores all data locally on the device, unless the user deliberately turns on the official cloud sync. AI notes pasted in by hand from assistant conversations land straight on the user's own disk, then, with no third-party server in between, which matters to people who value privacy when choosing a tool. Advanced full-text search: Built-in full-text search in SiYuan searches the content of every block, not just note titles, which matters a great deal with thousands of small, precisely linked fragments when trying to find a specific thought from months ago without remembering exactly which note it lived in. What's worth checking before choosing: Before switching to SiYuan, it's worth testing whether block-level references actually match your way of thinking about notes — for some people that precision is a revelation, for others an unnecessary complication compared to simpler whole-document linking. Bottom line: SiYuan is a precise, open-source tool for building a densely interlinked knowledge base at the level of individual text blocks. Anyone who wants ai notes from AI conversations to land automatically in such a precise network of connections should consider a tool built specifically around that workflow. Comparison with SumizAI: SiYuan and SumizAI agree on the importance of precise connections between fragments of knowledge, but differ in where the content comes from. SiYuan is a notebook a person fills by hand, using block-level references to build a dense web of connections over years of work. SumizAI generates ai notes directly from a conversation with an AI model, turning worthwhile answers into ready Markdown files without manual retyping and without manually adding references. Anyone already building a precise system in SiYuan can treat SumizAI as a source of raw material — these notes ready for further linking into the main system. **Key facts** - Price: Freemium - License: Open Source - Origin: China - Category: Note-taking, Todo List Manager ## 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. ## Where they differ - AlternativeTo's description of SiYuan 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. - SiYuan is open source (AGPL-3.0), and SumizAI is not. If reading the source is what decides it for you, that is a real argument for SiYuan. 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. - SiYuan 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. - SiYuan is described in terms of linking notes together. SumizAI links them too, but deliberately without a syntax of its own: a link is an ordinary Markdown link, `[Title](file-name.md)`, and the model may only point at a file that actually exists. There are no wiki-style `[[…]]` links to lose on export. - SiYuan 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. Full side-by-side comparison table and pricing: [https://sumizai.com/alternative-to/sumizai-alternative-to-siyuan.html](https://sumizai.com/alternative-to/sumizai-alternative-to-siyuan.html)