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Comparison · Collab

SiYuan vs Tana

A side-by-side editorial comparison of SiYuan and Tana — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

SiYuan vs Tana: at a glance

FeatureSiYuanTana
SectorCollabCollab
Velocity score5.07.5
Sparks · 30d02
Top themespersonal-knowledge-management, open-source, mobile, plugin-apimeeting-agents, voice-agents, ai-chat, search
Last editorial update4d ago9d ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is SiYuan?

SiYuan v3.8.2 brings mobile marketplace, editor customization, and remote kernel support

SiYuan is in an active v3.8.2 beta cycle, delivering mobile marketplace access, customizable editor toolbar, configurable multiple fonts, large list rendering virtualization, independent Agent sessions, and expanded plugin APIs. Alpha builds introduce remote kernel connectivity.

Read the full SiYuan trajectory →

What is Tana?

Tana's voice agent starts doing concurrent background work inside live meetings.

Tana has spent the visible window building around the meeting rather than the note. The 28 August release turns the voice agent from an input method into a background worker: several requests run at once while the conversation continues, it acts in connected tools, and it reads the day's agenda, pinned items, captured outcomes and the shared screen for context. Around that sit a natural-language search that resolves plain questions into filter pills, a saveable search document, and a long tail of meeting-surface refinements.

Read the full Tana trajectory →

SiYuan vs Tana: editorial side-by-side

S
SiYuan
COLLAB
5.0

SiYuan v3.8.2 brings mobile marketplace, editor customization, and remote kernel support

◆ Current state

SiYuan is in an active v3.8.2 beta cycle, delivering mobile marketplace access, customizable editor toolbar, configurable multiple fonts, large list rendering virtualization, independent Agent sessions, and expanded plugin APIs. Alpha builds introduce remote kernel connectivity.

◆ Where it's heading

Sustained incremental progress with meaningful surface area: mobile parity is closing, plugin extensibility is deepening, and remote kernel support hints at future distributed or team use cases.

◆ Prediction

Plugin API maturation will attract ecosystem development comparable to Obsidian's; remote kernel support, still alpha, could eventually enable shared workspaces — a significant gap in the local-first PKM market.

T
Tana
COLLAB
7.5

Tana's voice agent starts doing concurrent background work inside live meetings.

◆ Current state

Tana has spent the visible window building around the meeting rather than the note. The 28 August release turns the voice agent from an input method into a background worker: several requests run at once while the conversation continues, it acts in connected tools, and it reads the day's agenda, pinned items, captured outcomes and the shared screen for context. Around that sit a natural-language search that resolves plain questions into filter pills, a saveable search document, and a long tail of meeting-surface refinements.

◆ Where it's heading

The through-line since July is Tana claiming the meeting itself — first as the default place to hold the call, then as the system that notices unscheduled ones, and now as an agent doing work during them. Each release has moved further from recording what happened toward acting while it happens. The supporting work is consolidating too: one transcript, one digest timeline, one filter bar, which is the housekeeping that follows a surface being used seriously.

◆ Prediction

Expect the concurrent agent to be given more tools to act in and the daily brief to grow beyond Slack, since both are described as user-editable rather than fixed. The open question these entries do not settle is how Tana handles an agent that edits documents mid-meeting when it gets one wrong.

Alternatives to SiYuan and Tana

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 Tana.

See all SiYuan alternatives → · See all Tana alternatives →

Recent activity from SiYuan and Tana

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 4d agoSiYuanv3.8.3-alpha.1: remote kernel, command registry, and mobile PDF annotations
  2. 10d agoSiYuanv3.8.2-beta.4: marketplace on mobile and customizable editor toolbar
  3. 10d agoSiYuanv3.8.2-beta.3: plugin APIs, mobile swipe gestures, and code block height control
  4. 10d agoSiYuanv3.8.2-beta.2: Protyle API stable DOM tracking and customizable startup screens
  5. 10d agoSiYuanv3.8.2-beta.1: agent session uploads, SVG notebook icons, and iOS PNG export speed
  6. 11d agoTanaMultitasking voice agent, natural language search and daily briefs
  7. 12d agoSiYuanv3.8.2-alpha.7: mobile UX, Agent access to kernel logs, and list rendering
  8. 18d agoTanaA clearer transcript, and proposals you can fix in place
  9. 20d agoTanaTana notices the meetings you didn't schedule
  10. 1mo agoTanaAI chat goes further before hitting usage limits
  11. 1mo agoTanaAsk the AI to pin things for you
  12. 1mo agoTanaStart, schedule, or capture external meetings right from Today

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between SiYuan and Tana?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Tana is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 2 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 Tana?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Tana is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 2 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 Tana?

Top Tana alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Tana alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tana for the full list with editorial commentary on each.