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Comparison · Collab
SiYuan vs Readarr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of SiYuan and Readarr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
SiYuan vs Readarr: at a glance
What is SiYuan?
SiYuan's 3.8 branch turns a local-first notebook into an agent-readable knowledge store.
SiYuan publishes near-daily alpha tags whose notes are cumulative, so each release restates the previous one's feature list and appends what is new. The 3.7.4 line was pure enhancement work — Android and HarmonyOS parity, export fidelity, Pandoc packaging, drag-and-drop and font handling. The 3.8.0 line, opened on 4 August, carries four genuinely new features that had no predecessor in 3.7.4: OIDC authentication, an AI Agent, semantic search via embeddings and reranking, and MCP support.
What is Readarr?
Six releases of small fixes and translations, then nothing since June 2025.
Readarr's last six entries run from March to June 2025 and are uniformly small: a truncated root-folder path, remote image links for posters and covers, NLog message templating, disabled SelectInput options, Weblate translation batches. Every entry opens with the same instructions about switching to the develop branch and not updating inside a running Docker container. Nothing in this window adds capability, and no entry has appeared in over a year.
SiYuan vs Readarr: editorial side-by-side
SiYuan
6.3COLLAB
SiYuan's 3.8 branch turns a local-first notebook into an agent-readable knowledge store.
◆ Current state
SiYuan publishes near-daily alpha tags whose notes are cumulative, so each release restates the previous one's feature list and appends what is new. The 3.7.4 line was pure enhancement work — Android and HarmonyOS parity, export fidelity, Pandoc packaging, drag-and-drop and font handling. The 3.8.0 line, opened on 4 August, carries four genuinely new features that had no predecessor in 3.7.4: OIDC authentication, an AI Agent, semantic search via embeddings and reranking, and MCP support.
◆ Where it's heading
The mobile and export grind continues underneath, but the branch cut is where the direction changed. Semantic search plus MCP means the vault becomes queryable by meaning and reachable by external agents, while OIDC is the first real answer for multi-user or organizational deployment — a notable turn for a product built around single-user local storage. The alpha.3 addition of LAN peer-assisted sync acceleration points the same way: sync is being optimized for several devices, or several people, on one network.
◆ Prediction
Expect the 3.8 alphas to keep layering onto the AI Agent and MCP surfaces — most likely which blocks or notebooks an agent may read, since OIDC arriving in the same release implies identity is about to gate access rather than just login.
Readarr
0.0COLLAB
Six releases of small fixes and translations, then nothing since June 2025.
◆ Current state
Readarr's last six entries run from March to June 2025 and are uniformly small: a truncated root-folder path, remote image links for posters and covers, NLog message templating, disabled SelectInput options, Weblate translation batches. Every entry opens with the same instructions about switching to the develop branch and not updating inside a running Docker container. Nothing in this window adds capability, and no entry has appeared in over a year.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern is a project in caretaker mode: auto-generated commit lists, incremental UI corrections, and internal work like using ReflectionOnly types to avoid loading assemblies unnecessarily. Volume held steady at roughly one release every one to two weeks until it stopped entirely. The entries themselves give no reason for the halt.
◆ Prediction
The changelog offers no signal of resumed development; without new entries there is nothing here to project forward beyond the fact that the feed went quiet after 0.4.18.
Alternatives to SiYuan and Readarr
Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either SiYuan or Readarr.
LibrePhotos
Five repos became one, and the authorization model got a public-safe user view.
Komga
A mature media server whose releases are format edge cases and Kobo plumbing.
Prowlarr
A steady indexer-maintenance cadence: fixes, definitions, translations, repeat.
noVNC
noVNC ships about once a year, and its betas and finals carry identical notes.
Lidarr
Lidarr's release notes still tell you not to update Radarr — the fork's seams are showing.
See all SiYuan alternatives → · See all Readarr alternatives →
Recent activity from SiYuan and Readarr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 13h agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.0-alpha.3 adds LAN peer-assisted sync acceleration
- 1d agoSiYuanSiYuan v3.8.0-alpha.2
- 2d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8 opens with AI Agent, semantic search, MCP, and OIDC ⚡
- 4d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.7.4-alpha.6: tab dragging, child docs, S Pen hover
- 5d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.7.4-alpha.5: database performance and mobile audio recording
- 5d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.7.4-alpha.4: S Pen popovers and export file handling
- 1y agoReadarr0.4.18.2805 avoids loading unnecessary assemblies
- 1y agoReadarr0.4.17.2801 returns remote image links for posters and covers
- 1y agoReadarr0.4.16.2793 fixes a truncated root folder path
- 1y agoReadarr0.4.15.2787 switches log messages to templates
- 1y agoReadarr0.4.14.2782 fixes adding an author before root folders load
- 1y agoReadarr0.4.13.2760 improves author status and loading-error display
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SiYuan and Readarr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is SiYuan better than Readarr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to SiYuan?
Top SiYuan alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "SiYuan alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/siyuan for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Readarr?
Top Readarr alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Readarr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/readarr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.