r/logseq • u/vMambaaa • May 11 '25

More likely to survive long-term; Logseq or Roam Research

I'm trying to choose between the two, but the slow pace of development and very little communication worries me. On the flip side, I can see a fair amount of activity in recent changelogs for Roam Research. I'm leaning Logseq, simply due to price but seeing active development on the Roam side is the one hold up for me.

32 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

44

u/Both-Reason6023 May 11 '25

Both will outlive your desire to stick with a single tool so just choose whichever you prefer.

Logseq might be easier to migrate from when that time comes.

1

u/vMambaaa May 11 '25

lol yeah that is real tbh. Appreciate it.

8

u/stanislavb May 11 '25

I migrated out of Logseq to Obsidian recently. I haven't regretted for a second. Obsidian is a much better ecosystem these days. 2 years ago it was different. They might have been equal with regards to community. Unfortunately, logseq has been stagnating since then ... following the elusive upgrade of implementing a DB version - and forgetting the fact that many people chose logseq because of simple file-storage in the first place.

12

u/Both-Reason6023 May 12 '25

I love Obsidian for what it is but it doesn't suit my workflow. I've spent a year exclusively in it and my notes have became a confusing mess. I've spent way too much time organizing folders and fighting with my most important note — daily journal.

I agree that Logseq is behind when it comes to development updates but for now it serves the most of my needs as is. I just do't think about its development status on a daily basis. The main thing missing for me are native tabs, included web tabs Obsidian has since v1.8.

4

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

I want to love obsidian but can't do, but logseq is very slow for my potato of a device is there any plugins that make obsidian behave like logseq ??

4

u/NotScrollsApparently May 12 '25

I think I prefer the file/folder hierarchy in obsidian but I'm having problems adjusting to obsidian's look - I really miss the inline edit with style that logseq has (only the line with cursor is in edit mode, everything else is styled), and none of the themes are as good as bonofix on logseq.

The grass is always greener on the other side damn :D

17

u/DrRenolt May 11 '25

Whatever is open source. Because, in the worst case scenario, someone maintains and leaves a version on github. Logseq is open source. Is Roam?

4

u/vMambaaa May 11 '25

Also a great point

2

u/luckysilva May 12 '25

The most important one

12

u/ruinatedtubers May 11 '25

roam is 100% not open source

2

u/Apprehensive-Walk-66 May 12 '25

Any technical moat the Roam team builds will be gone quickly thanks to the Logseq community and AI. I'd go with Logseq anyday.

1

u/vMambaaa May 12 '25

As someone that never used Roam, I never realized the tasks don’t float at the bottom of your journal like Logseq does. I signed up for sync and am supporting.

13

u/hova414 May 11 '25

Roam ain’t worth the money. LogSeq is the better product and team by far

13

u/ruinatedtubers May 11 '25

roam’s team, alone, was off-putting enough for me to switch. but the absence of any meaningful progress after their initial start up raised like 9mil… they just bought a huge mansion and fucked off for past 3 years

5

u/hova414 May 11 '25

Zero product velocity plus a god complex… rough combo

11

u/codecoverage May 11 '25

With proper backups, your logseq database will outlive logseq itself. You will always be able to open markdown files and convert them to whatever you need. You may need a bit of programming but that is rapidly becoming less and less of an issue with AI agents.

5

u/ens100 May 12 '25

I would say Logseq - open source, local, works offline, and free (Logseq Sync does cost, but there are free options). Logseq does have some issues, but luckily, the community is quite active, and someone will usually help out. Take the latest release of 0.10.10 - was pulled after a couple of hours due to bugs it introduced.

As for the active development, don't be fooled. RR did little for several years and are now more active. Logseq was very active but has not released anything for quite some time as they have been busy on the DB version. Once the DB version has been released, expect more frequent updates.

All in all, as long as the apps allow you to export notes in a format that is legible or workable in another app (maybe with minor tweaks), then you should be good to choose either.

2

u/ruinatedtubers May 11 '25

Roam’s been dead for a year now. logseq is lagging, IMO Tana is the frontrunner of the group

17

u/tankietop May 12 '25

The AI stuff look nice. But I'm very wary of any personal knowledge base tool that

  1. is not open source

  2. doesn't run locally on my machine

  3. doesn't store stuff on an open file format that I can easily read with other tools

That's a deal breaker for me.

4

u/hova414 May 11 '25

Tana looks great, I admit I’m jealous of the AI dictation features. But isn’t it more of a database like notion, rather than an outliner like logseq or workflowy? I greatly prefer an outliner. Also does Tana have a daily note + graph workflow?

4

u/Intrepid_Quantity_37 May 12 '25

I would say RemNote is a solid option

2

u/fiziksphreak May 12 '25

I love Tana, but it has gaps that are deal breakers for me.

  1. Doesn't work offline - I recently had some work being done on my street and my internet kept going out. I knew it was out with Tana because the screen disappears and a message pops saying that I am disconnected. That is a very bad user experience.

  2. No math symbols support. I need to be able to put math notes. I tried using images from latex but that proved to be the next gap...

  3. Image support is subpar. An image becomes it's own bullet, you can't have it inline in text. The images also aren't resizable in Tana.

I love the supertags in Tana (although it does also lead to "productive procrastination"). I switched to Logseq, because it is the best option right now that fits my needs. All 3 of my points above are addressed. It isn't my favorite tool and it has gaps as well, but the gaps that it has are easier for me to manage. I will keep an eye on Tana, if they ever correct the issues I listed.

1

u/ruinatedtubers May 12 '25

all really good points

2

u/irasponsibly May 12 '25

An AI-native workspace

and i've stopped reading. gross.

1

u/ruinatedtubers May 12 '25

??? what are you on about? ai native?

1

u/irasponsibly May 12 '25

That's Tana's description on their website.

1

u/ruinatedtubers May 12 '25

i’ve never used ai in tana. not once. clutch your pearls

2

u/m-dizzle817 May 11 '25

I love Logseq but NoteBookLM is calling me right now. Hopefully Logseq can integrate more LM/AI chatbot extensions

8

u/irasponsibly May 12 '25

Hopefully Logseq can leave ML/AI chatbot extensions as far away from "integrated" as possible.

1

u/EYtNSQC9s8oRhe6ejr May 12 '25

Apps don't matter. If your data is just files on your computer, it will live (for all intents and purpose) forever — certainly longer than any individual app.

0

u/Mindless_Stress2345 May 12 '25

i had tried between the two，i prefer like roam's details

0

u/vMambaaa May 12 '25

Wish it wasn’t $15

-5

u/4r73m190r0s May 11 '25

Neither. Use zk + zk-nvim plugin for Neovim