Reflect vs Roam Research
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Reflect
Open-source daily notes app with backlinks and local Markdown
Roam Research
Outliner for networked notes with bidirectional links
Where they differ
- Reflect starts at $9.99 per month, or $99 per year, for the iPhone and iPad app. Roam Research starts at $15 per month, or $165 per year ($13.75 a month).
- Reflect has a free plan. Roam Research does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only Reflect lists a browser extension.
- Only Roam Research lists a web app.
- Reflect is open source, according to its own site.
- Reflect also covers Markdown.
At a glance
| Reflect | Roam Research | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $9.99 per month, or $99 per year, for the iPhone and iPad app | $15 per month, or $165 per year ($13.75 a month) |
| Free plan | The Mac app is free and open source, with no subscription or account required. The iPhone and iPad app needs a paid subscription. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 31-day free trial, available only if you have never had a plan. |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| iOS | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Reflect App, LLC | Roam Research, Inc. |
| Price read from | apps.apple.com | frontdeskreview.com (not the vendor's own page) |
| Checked | Oct 4, 2026 | Oct 4, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Reflect
- Mac users who want free, open-source notes kept as plain Markdown files
- People who work from a daily note and link ideas together
- Users who prefer to bring their own AI provider and API key
Roam Research
- People who work from daily notes and want every block to be linkable
- Researchers who reference and reuse individual blocks across notes
- Groups sharing a graph who do not want to pay per collaborator
Worth knowing
Reflect
- Only the Mac app is free; the iPhone and iPad app requires a paid subscription.
- There is no web app, and the vendor says Windows and Android versions are not available and have no release dates.
- AI features need your own API key, and the AI provider bills that usage separately.
- Reflect Open adds no end-to-end encryption of its own; sync and encryption rely on iCloud Drive or Git.
Roam Research
- There is no free plan; after the 31-day trial a paid subscription is required.
- The lowest monthly-equivalent price, the Believer plan, is a single $500 payment covering 5 years.
- The local API used by the official MCP server and CLI works only in the desktop app, not the web version.
Key features
Reflect
- Local Markdown notes
- Notes are plain Markdown files in a folder you choose. There is no account, no telemetry and no Reflect-hosted cloud service.
- Daily notes and calendar
- The app starts on today's note. Apple Calendar events appear beside the daily note and can be turned into meeting notes.
- Wiki links and backlinks
- Double-bracket links connect notes into a graph, backlinks are tracked for each note, and one search covers notes, backlinks and tags.
- Optional AI with your own key
- Add an OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or OpenRouter key to ask questions about your notes, pull out takeaways and fix grammar. Requests go directly to the provider.
- Voice notes and transcription
- Record audio inside the app and transcribe it through the transcription provider you connect.
- Capture and sync
- The Reflect Capture Chrome extension saves links, selected text and screenshots. Notes sync between devices through iCloud Drive or Git.
Roam Research
- Bidirectional links and block references
- Pages link to each other in both directions, and individual blocks can be referenced from other notes.
- Daily notes
- Writing starts in a dated daily note, and links from there connect entries to the rest of the graph.
- Hosted, offline and encrypted graphs
- A graph can be hosted in Roam's cloud or kept offline as a local-only graph, and graphs can be encrypted. Paid plans allow unlimited private or public graphs.
- Shared graphs
- Plans include unlimited collaborators with no per-seat charge, and a graph can be edited on mobile and in the web app at the same time.
- Roam Depot extensions
- A marketplace of community-built extensions, which developers submit through GitHub pull requests.
- MCP server, CLI and SDKs
- An official MCP server and command-line tool connect Claude, Cursor and other AI assistants to a graph to read, write, search and query it.
Plans
Reflect
Mac app$0
Free and open source under the MIT license. No subscription and no account.
Reflect Pro (iPhone and iPad)$9.99
per month, or $99 per year (US App Store)
Subscription for the iPhone and iPad app, bought in the App Store, where prices are set per country.
Roam Research
Pro$15
per month, or $165 per year
Unlimited private or public graphs, unlimited collaborators, and API access and apps.
Believer$500
one payment for 5 years ($8.33 a month)
Everything in Pro, plus first access to new features, community calls with the team and priority support.
Ways to pay less
Reflect
- Annual discount
About 17% lower price with the yearly subscription
On the US App Store, Reflect Pro is $99 per year versus $9.99 per month, which works out to about 17% less over a year.
- Other savings
One year of the mobile app free for Classic subscribers
Reflect's site says paid Reflect Classic subscribers get one year of the iPhone and iPad app free.
Roam Research
No public discounts listed.
