Beaver Notes vs Tangent Notes

Beaver Notes

• People who want notes kept on their own device with no account
• Windows, Mac and Linux users looking for an MIT-licensed notes app
• Markdown note-takers who want math, diagrams and file attachments

Tangent Notes

• Writers who follow links from note to note and want to keep their place
• Obsidian users who want another editor for the same linked files
• People who want Markdown notes with no account or server

Beaver Notes

• The stable release, 4.4.0, covers Windows, macOS and Linux only; the site says a mobile app is in the works and takes beta sign-ups.
• There is no hosted sync yet: you pick a folder in your own cloud or sync service. A hosted option, BeaverSync, is announced for later this year.
• Version 5 is a rewrite still in beta; real-time collaboration, version history, backlinks and plugins are planned for it.
• The docs say auto sync does not work on Linux folders mounted through GVFS.

Tangent Notes

• Desktop only: iOS and Android support is listed under "Much Later" on the roadmap.
• The download page calls the app an open alpha, and the roadmap says it is still in active development.
• There is no built-in sync or collaboration; the site points to Git, iCloud, Drive or Dropbox for syncing the files.
• Export to HTML or simplified Markdown is still on the roadmap.

Beaver Notes

Local Markdown notes

Notes are stored on your device and written in Markdown, with LaTeX equations, code blocks and Mermaid diagrams. No account or server is involved.

Note linking and labels

Notes can link to one another, and labels typed with a # sort and filter them. Home and Archive views show notes as cards that can be bookmarked.

Command Prompt

A command palette, available on every page, searches notes by title, content or label and runs commands such as opening settings.

Locked notes

A note can be locked with a password, which encrypts its content until the password is entered again.

Files, audio and drawings

PDFs, presentations, images and audio can be placed inside notes, and sketches or handwritten sections can be inserted as drawings.

Sync through your own storage

Sync works by choosing a folder inside a service such as Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud or Syncthing, with an auto-sync option or manual sync buttons.

Tangent Notes

Thread View

As you follow and create links, the notes behind you stay open as horizontally sliding panels, so you can move back and forth along the path you took.

Map View

A branching map of nodes and connections is built automatically from your writing and navigation, giving an overview of where you have been.

Markdown styled as you type

Markup is hidden once you move on and reappears when you return. Headers, highlights, lists, YAML front matter, LaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams and highlighted code blocks are supported.

Wiki links and backlinks

Double-bracket links connect notes by filename with autocomplete, and each note knows what links to it. Links in notes that come from Obsidian keep working.

Tags, to-dos and queries

Notes take nested tags and to-do checkboxes, and a custom query language finds notes by links, tags, to-dos or text. Queries can be saved and reused inside other queries.

Keyboard control and focus mode

Nearly every action has a customizable shortcut, with a command palette for the others. Focus mode narrows the view to one note, paragraph or sentence.

Beaver Notes

• Beaver Notes$0

  The full desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux, as installers or through Scoop, Homebrew, Flatpak and the AUR.

Tangent Notes

• Tangent$0

  The full desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux, offered as an open alpha. Linux builds are also on Flathub.