SumizAI vs SourCherry

What SourCherry is

What SourCherry is

SourCherry is an Android app that opens databases created in CherryTree — a popular, hierarchical notebook app for desktop systems. The app supports reading existing databases and basic note editing, giving CherryTree users access to their notes from a phone even though the desktop app itself has no official mobile version. The project is fully open source, released under the GPL-3.0 license, and available through F-Droid for people who prefer free software.

Key features

Reading CherryTree databases lets users open a file created on a computer without needing to convert the format or sync through an external cloud service. Basic note editing allows fixing text, appending new fragments, or marking tasks as done, though it doesn't offer the full feature set available in the desktop version. Preserving CherryTree's hierarchical structure — a tree of notes nested inside each other — lets users navigate the same note organization they're used to on the computer. Availability through F-Droid, an alternative app store free of Google oversight, appeals to users who value open software.

Who it's for

SourCherry appeals to existing CherryTree desktop users who want access to their notes from a phone too, without migrating to a completely different note-taking system. Developers and free-software enthusiasts who care about open source code and independence from closed platforms find a natural solution here to the problem of mobile access to CherryTree.

Use cases

In practice, SourCherry works well when you need to quickly check a note saved in CherryTree on your computer while away from home — checking a shopping list, say, or a fragment of technical documentation stored in the note tree. Users can also add a short thought or mark a task done directly from the phone, so the change is waiting ready the next time CherryTree opens on the computer.

Pricing and business model

SourCherry is entirely free and open source, released under the GPL-3.0 license. The absence of any fees and any freemium model reflects the project's nature as a community tool, built by and for CherryTree users rather than as a commercial product.

Limitations and what to watch for

The app offers only basic editing, so advanced formatting or structural features available in desktop CherryTree may not be fully supported on the phone. Android-only availability means iPhone users have no mobile access to their CherryTree databases at all. Because it's a smaller community project, the pace of development and support tends to be slower than with commercial notes apps.

AI notes and the CherryTree format

SourCherry has no AI model integration, so preserving an ai notes entry from a conversation with an assistant inside a CherryTree database means adding it by hand to the right node in the note tree — either on the computer in CherryTree, or directly in SourCherry on the phone using basic editing. For users accustomed to the CherryTree format, that means ai notes become part of the same hierarchical structure as the rest of their notes, though the process of adding them stays fully manual.

CherryTree as a format, not just an app

CherryTree is valued in the open source community for its flexible, hierarchical way of organizing notes, where each node in the tree can hold formatted text, images, tables, or syntax-highlighted code snippets. By opening the same database format, SourCherry preserves that structure on a mobile device, instead of forcing users to export notes to a simpler format that loses part of the original organization.

The community around the project

As a smaller open source project, SourCherry develops at a pace set by community involvement rather than by a company's business plan. Bug reports and feature requests go straight to the developers through the public code repository, which for some users is a more transparent way to influence a tool's direction than a closed customer support system in commercial apps.

Offline as the default mode

Because SourCherry works directly on the database file rather than syncing with a server, the app runs fully offline — notes are available and editable regardless of whether the phone currently has an internet connection. That's a real advantage for people who often work in places with unreliable signal.

One file, two devices

The typical SourCherry workflow involves keeping one CherryTree database file and moving it manually between computer and phone — via a cable, a file cloud, or a local network, for instance. That's less convenient than automatic cloud sync, but it also means not having to trust any external service with the content of the notes, including any ai notes pasted in from assistant conversations.

What's worth checking before choosing

Before making SourCherry your main way of accessing CherryTree notes from a phone, check whether basic editing covers your needs, or whether you'd rather use the app just for reading and small fixes, leaving bigger changes for the computer.

For whom manual sync isn't enough

Similarly, people who want ai notes from AI conversations to land in their system automatically, without manual copying on each device separately, will find more friction here than in tools built around the cloud from the ground up.

Bottom line

SourCherry is a niche but functional tool giving CherryTree users mobile access to their notes on Android. Anyone who wants ai notes from AI conversations to land automatically in an organized structure without manually typing them on a phone should consider a tool built around that workflow.

Comparison with SumizAI

SourCherry and SumizAI operate in entirely different niches. SourCherry is a mobile companion for an existing desktop CherryTree notebook, providing read access and basic editing of the same hierarchical note database. SumizAI generates ai notes directly from a conversation with an AI model — answers worth keeping land automatically as Markdown files in a vault the user owns, independent of the CherryTree format. Anyone who already has a system built in CherryTree can treat SumizAI as a separate source of these notes, later moved by hand into their main note tree.

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 SourCherry 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.
• SourCherry is open source (GPL-3.0), and SumizAI is not. If reading the source is what decides it for you, that is a real argument for SourCherry. 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 SourCherry does not mention Markdown, so check what format your notes end up in before you fill it up. SumizAI writes standard .md files to a folder you picked, and an unpaid account can still export all of them.
• SourCherry also does tasks. SumizAI does not — no boards, no due dates, no projects. It files knowledge, not work.

Which one to pick