Roam Research vs Tana Outliner
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Roam Research
Outliner for networked notes with bidirectional links
Tana Outliner
Outliner with supertags, daily notes and built-in AI features
Where they differ
- Roam Research starts at $15 per month, or $165 per year ($13.75 a month). Tana Outliner starts at $8 per month, billed yearly.
- Tana Outliner has a free plan. Roam Research does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only Tana Outliner lists Windows, Linux and Android apps.
- Tana Outliner also covers meeting notes and tasks.
At a glance
| Roam Research | Tana Outliner | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $15 per month, or $165 per year ($13.75 a month) | $8 per month, billed yearly |
| Free plan | None | 500 AI credits a month, up to 3 workspaces, 0.5 GB of file storage and a 5 MB upload limit, with supertags, tasks and public page links. Free users cannot buy extra credits. |
| Free trial | 31-day free trial, available only if you have never had a plan. | 14-day free trial of the paid plans. |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Roam Research, Inc. | Tana Inc. |
| Price read from | frontdeskreview.com (not the vendor's own page) | outliner.tana.inc |
| Checked | Oct 4, 2026 | Oct 4, 2026 |
Who each one suits
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
Tana Outliner
- People who want structured notes built from typed objects with fields
- Outliner users who want meeting and voice transcription in the same tool
- Building a personal system around daily notes and live queries
Worth knowing
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.
Tana Outliner
- AI features run on monthly credits (500 on the Free plan), and Free users cannot top up.
- Google Calendar sync and unlimited workspaces need Plus; the Readwise integration and Input API need Pro.
- The Free plan is limited to 3 workspaces, 0.5 GB of file storage and 5 MB per upload.
- The name Tana now also refers to a separate meeting platform from the same company at tana.inc, with its own pricing.
Key features
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.
Tana Outliner
- Outliner with supertags
- Everything is a node in an infinite outline. Applying a supertag turns a node into a typed object with a template of fields.
- Day nodes
- Each day has its own page, called a day node, which serves as the place for daily notes and quick capture.
- Views and search nodes
- The same nodes can be shown as an outline, table, cards, calendar or list. Search nodes are live queries that find and display matching nodes.
- Meeting notetaker and voice memos
- The notetaker records audio from your computer and transcribes it in real time, and voice memos are transcribed too. Both draw on the monthly AI credits.
- AI chat and custom workflows
- AI chat, command nodes and image generation are built in. Custom AI workflows with a choice of models need the Plus plan.
- Capture, publishing and apps
- Any node can become a public web page. A desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux works offline, and iOS and Android apps capture text, voice and photos.
Plans
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.
Tana Outliner
Free$0
500 AI credits a month, up to 3 workspaces, 0.5 GB of file storage and a 5 MB upload limit.
Plus$8
per month, billed yearly
2,000 AI credits a month, unlimited workspaces, Google Calendar sync, meeting notifications, custom AI workflows and password-protected shared pages.
Pro$14
per month, billed yearly
5,000 AI credits a month and everything in Plus, plus the Readwise integration, Input API access and template publishing.
Ways to pay less
Roam Research
No public discounts listed.
Tana Outliner
- Annual discount
Save 22% with yearly billing
The Tana Outliner pricing page labels yearly billing as saving 22% compared with paying monthly.
- Education
50% off for students and academics
Students and academics get a 50% discount: Plus costs $5 per month or $48 per year, and Pro costs $9 per month or $84 per year.
- Nonprofit
50% off for NGOs
NGOs receive the same 50% discount: Plus costs $5 per month or $48 per year, and Pro costs $9 per month or $84 per year.
