Roam Research vs Scrintal

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

Scrintal

• Students and researchers mapping reading notes visually
• Writers who lay out a thesis or article on a canvas before drafting
• Small groups brainstorming on shared boards

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.

Scrintal

• There is no free plan and no direct trial; a 14-day trial is available only through an existing user's invite link.
• The single plan is billed annually at $108; the pricing data lists no monthly option.
• Refunds are limited to the first 7 days of a new subscription, once per user, and are not given after a trial.
• Desktop apps are offered for macOS and Windows; the site lists no mobile app.

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.

Scrintal

Infinite canvas boards

Boards hold notes, PDFs, videos and images side by side, so reading, watching and note-taking happen on one surface. Templates cover study and research.

Blocks that become docs

A note starts as a block on the canvas and can be turned into a full rich-text document with a click. Docs live in one library and are reused across boards.

Arrows and bi-directional links

Ideas are connected visually with arrows on a board, or through bi-directional links between docs.

AI Assistant

The site lists a built-in AI Assistant for repetitive, time-consuming work. Gobu, a separate product from the same company, is an AI research assistant.

Real-time collaboration

Subscribers share docs and boards with other Scrintal users by email address and work on them together in real time.

Markdown and PDF import and export

Existing Markdown files can be imported, and the whole archive can be downloaded as Markdown files.

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.

Scrintal

• Scrintal Pro$9

  per month, billed annually ($108 per year)

  Unlimited docs and boards, unlimited file uploads, real-time collaboration, priority support and community calls with the team.

Roam Research

No public discounts listed.

Scrintal

• Education

  30% student discount

  Scrintal's support docs offer students 30% off, applied automatically at checkout when subscribing with a university email address.