CherryTree vs Zim
We give CherryTree and Zim the same GPA: 3.4 out of 4.0. They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
CherryTree
Hierarchical desktop notes with rich text and code highlighting
Free
How we grade them
| 3.4GPACherryTreeVery good | 3.4GPAZimVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AIt's free software under the GPL, version 3 or later. Every download on the project page costs nothing, and the only money mentioned is a link to a donation page. | AIt's free. Zim is open source under the GPL 2.0, and its download page lists no paid edition. Paid note apps typically start at about $5.99 a month. |
| Free plan and trial | AAll of it is free: the Windows installer and portable archive, the Linux packages and the macOS installer. There's no paid tier to hold anything back. | AThe whole desktop wiki is free on Linux, Windows and macOS, plugins included. There's no paid tier, so nothing is held back. |
| Features | BNested nodes, rich text, code with syntax highlighting, images, embedded files, LaTeX equations and find and replace across the whole tree. Solid. But tables only hold plain text, there's no sync of its own on the listing, and the online manual is described as old and discontinued. | BPages nest like an outline, links are tracked in both directions, and plugins add a task list, an equation editor and calendar pages for a journal. Solid. But notebooks have no encryption or password, and the FAQ sends you to an outside tool for that. |
| Ease of use | BInstall it, make a document and start adding nodes. There's no App Store rating on record to go by, so a B is as high as we go. Don't lean on the manual, which the project page calls old and discontinued. | BNo App Store rating on record, so B is as high as we go. There's an installer for Windows and an app for macOS, and most Linux distributions package it. Link to a page that doesn't exist and Zim makes it for you. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWindows, Mac and Linux, with a portable Windows build and Linux packages from PPA to Flatpak and Snap. There's no official mobile app. The project page points to SourCherry, a third-party Android project, and the listing shows no integrations. | BWindows, macOS and Linux, and the version control plugin talks to Git, Mercurial or Bazaar. No phone or web version. Syncing means copying the notebook folder with something like Dropbox. |
| Best for | a free notes tree that lives in one file | a personal wiki kept as text files on your computer |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: CherryTree and Zim. How we grade
Where they differ
- CherryTree is free. Zim is free.
- Zim also covers linked notes, wiki, daily notes and tasks.
In commonFree planWindowsmacOSLinuxOpen sourceLocal-firstNotes
At a glance
| CherryTree | Zim | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Free software under the GNU GPL version 3 or later. Every download on the project page is free; the site only links to a donation page. | Open-source software under the GPL 2.0 license. The download page offers the source, a Windows installer, a macOS app and Linux packages, and lists no paid edition. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | Giuseppe Penone and Evgenii Gurianov | Jaap Karssenberg |
| Price read from | giuspen.net | zim-wiki.org |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
CherryTree
- Keeping structured notes and code snippets in one local file
- Linux, Windows and macOS users who want the same notebook app on each
- Moving notes out of older outliners such as KeepNote, Tomboy or Zim
Zim
- A personal wiki or scratch book kept as files on your own disk
- Daily or weekly journals and meeting or lecture notes
- People who want their notes under Git or another version control system
Worth knowing
CherryTree
- There is no official mobile app; the project page points to SourCherry, a third-party Android project.
- Password protection is available only for single-file storage, and an unprotected copy is extracted to a temporary folder while the document is open.
- Tables are limited to cells of plain text.
- The project page describes the online user manual as old and discontinued.
Zim
- Notebooks have no built-in encryption or password protection; the FAQ points to an outside tool such as encfs.
- Zim is written as a single-user program, so shared notebooks rely on a version control system to merge changes.
- The download page covers Linux, BSD, Windows and macOS only, and syncing means copying the notebook folder with a service such as Dropbox.
- The Windows installer supports 64-bit systems only, and the macOS app supports macOS Big Sur through Sequoia.
Key features
CherryTree
- Tree of nodes
- Notes are nodes that nest to any depth and can be rearranged by drag and drop. Text and images can link to other nodes, anchors, files, folders and web pages.
- Rich text and code
- Rich text nodes sit alongside code nodes and codeboxes with syntax highlighting, and code can be run through a configurable terminal command.
- Images, tables, files and math
- Inserts images that can be resized and rotated, simple tables with CSV import and export, embedded files and rendered LaTeX equations.
- Single-file or multi-file storage
- A document is one XML or SQLite file, or a set of files and directories. Single-file documents can be password protected using 7-Zip.
- Import and export
- Imports HTML, plain text and files from apps such as KeepNote, Zim, Tomboy, NoteCase and KeyNote, and exports to HTML, plain text and PDF.
- Find and replace across the tree
- Searches or replaces within one node, a node and its subnodes, or every node, and can build a table of contents from headings.
Zim
- Plain-text wiki pages
- Every page is a text file with wiki markup and images are ordinary linked files, so the content stays readable in other editors and file managers.
- Links in both directions
- Linking to a page that does not exist creates it. Zim tracks all links and shows, for each page, which other pages link to it.
- Hierarchical notebooks
- Pages nest as sub-pages in a folder structure, much like an outliner, and each page can carry attachments.
- Plugins
- Plugins add a task list dialog, an equation editor, calendar pages for daily or weekly journals, spell checking and a tray icon.
- Version control
- A Version Control plugin works with Git, Mercurial or Bazaar, which also lets several people merge changes to one notebook.
- HTML export
- Notes can be exported to HTML for publishing; the project's own website is written in Zim.
Plans
CherryTree
CherryTree$0
The full app as a Windows installer or portable archive, Linux packages (PPA, .deb, AppImage, Flatpak, Snap) and a macOS installer.
Zim
Zim$0
The full desktop wiki for Linux, Windows and macOS, with its plugins.
