VNote vs Zim
We give VNote a 3.6 GPA and Zim a 3.4, out of 4.0. VNote grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
How we grade them
| 3.6GPAVNoteExcellent | 3.4GPAZimVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree and open source under the GNU LGPLv3 licence, with no account to create and no paid edition. | 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 | AThe full app is free on Windows, Linux and macOS, with nothing held back. There's even a separate reduced build for Windows 7. | AThe whole desktop wiki is free on Linux, Windows and macOS, plugins included. There's no paid tier, so nothing is held back. |
| Features | ALive preview in place or side by side, with MathJax for maths and PlantUML, Graphviz and Mermaid for diagrams. Mind maps are their own note type, and PDFs open in a built-in viewer with highlight and drawing tools. Vi mode looks after the keyboard crowd. Notes export to Markdown, HTML or PDF. | 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 | BNo rating on record, so a B is as high as we go. Notebooks are ordinary folders, so there's no database to look after. But VNote doesn't update itself: it only checks for a newer release, and you download and install each one by hand. | 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 10 or newer, Linux as an AppImage, and macOS 10.15 or newer. The docs list no iOS, Android or web version. Notebooks sync through the built-in Git client, or through any folder-sync service such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud or Google Drive. | 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 | free Markdown notes in plain folders on a desktop | 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: VNote and Zim. How we grade
Where they differ
- VNote is free. Zim is free.
- VNote also covers Markdown, templates and mind mapping.
- Zim also covers linked notes, wiki, daily notes and tasks.
In commonFree planWindowsLinuxmacOSOpen sourceLocal-firstNotes
At a glance
| VNote | Zim | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Free and open source under the GNU LGPLv3 license, with no account to create and no paid edition. Packages for each platform are on the project's GitHub and Gitee release pages. | 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 | VNoteX Team | Jaap Karssenberg |
| Price read from | docs.vnote.fun | zim-wiki.org |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
VNote
- People who want Markdown notes as plain files with no account
- Vi users and others who work mostly from the keyboard
- Keeping a notebook under Git version control
- Large, deeply nested personal knowledge bases
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
VNote
- Desktop only: packages exist for Windows, Linux and macOS, and the docs list no iOS, Android or web version.
- The docs say VNote is for single-user note-taking, with no real-time collaboration and no managed, account-based cloud service.
- VNote does not update itself. It only checks for a newer release, and each new version is downloaded and installed by hand.
- Tags, attachments, the recycle bin and Git sync work only in bundled notebooks, not in raw notebooks that browse an existing folder.
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
VNote
- Notebooks as plain folders
- A notebook is one directory of plain text files, mostly Markdown, with folders nested to any depth. There is no database, so notes can be copied, backed up or edited with other tools.
- Markdown editor with live preview
- In-place and side-by-side live preview, syntax highlighting and an interactive outline, with math rendered by MathJax and diagrams by PlantUML, Graphviz and Mermaid.
- Built-in Git sync
- A bundled notebook can clone, commit, fetch and push to a Git remote from inside the app, on demand or at a set interval, with a dialog for resolving conflicts.
- Mind maps and PDF annotation
- Mind maps are their own note type, edited on a node canvas. PDFs open in a built-in viewer with highlight, drawing and text-box tools, and the comments are saved beside the file.
- Vi mode and keyboard control
- Vi mode gives modal editing, and tabs, window splits, configurable shortcuts and a fuzzy search-and-jump entry box cover the rest from the keyboard.
- Export to Markdown, HTML and PDF
- Notes, folders or whole notebooks export to Markdown, HTML or PDF, and a custom command such as Pandoc reaches formats like docx and epub.
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
VNote
VNote$0
The full app for Windows 10 or newer, Linux (as an AppImage) and macOS 10.15 or newer, plus a separate reduced build for Windows 7.
Zim
Zim$0
The full desktop wiki for Linux, Windows and macOS, with its plugins.
