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The open-source Airtable ships daily, hardening self-host admin controls and AI governance
Comparison · Collab
Trilium Notes vs SiYuan
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Trilium Notes and SiYuan — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:note-takinglocal-first
Trilium Notes vs SiYuan: at a glance
What is Trilium Notes?
A local-first note app hardens its imports and keeps AI optional
Trilium, now maintained as the TriliumNext community fork, is a local-first hierarchical note application on a steady monthly point-release cadence. Recent work centers on import fidelity, note-type expansion (spreadsheets and OCR in 0.103), security patches, and a pragmatic LLM stance: it removed bundled LLM integration in 0.102.0, then reintroduced a lighter, provider-backed model selector.
What is SiYuan?
A relentless release grind hardening databases and cross-platform editing, no single pivot in sight
SiYuan is deep in its 3.7.x cycle, shipping alpha, beta, and stable builds within days of each other. The work concentrates on two fronts: maturing its inline database feature (relation backlinks, column alignment, deep links, item templates) and grinding down cross-platform rough edges across iOS, iPad, Android, and HarmonyOS. This is a local-first notes tool being polished, not redirected.
Trilium Notes vs SiYuan: editorial side-by-side
Trilium Notes
5.0COLLAB
A local-first note app hardens its imports and keeps AI optional
◆ Current state
Trilium, now maintained as the TriliumNext community fork, is a local-first hierarchical note application on a steady monthly point-release cadence. Recent work centers on import fidelity, note-type expansion (spreadsheets and OCR in 0.103), security patches, and a pragmatic LLM stance: it removed bundled LLM integration in 0.102.0, then reintroduced a lighter, provider-backed model selector.
◆ Where it's heading
The fork is stabilizing and broadening ingest and interop — robust OneNote migration with device-code web authentication and multi-hour token refresh — while keeping AI optional and provider-driven rather than baked in. The direction is a dependable self-hosted knowledge base that reclaims data locked in other tools.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued import and format-fidelity work plus incremental, provider-dynamic LLM options rather than a bundled AI push; official mobile and multi-user remain community-demand items gated on funding.
SiYuan
6.3COLLAB
A relentless release grind hardening databases and cross-platform editing, no single pivot in sight
◆ Current state
SiYuan is deep in its 3.7.x cycle, shipping alpha, beta, and stable builds within days of each other. The work concentrates on two fronts: maturing its inline database feature (relation backlinks, column alignment, deep links, item templates) and grinding down cross-platform rough edges across iOS, iPad, Android, and HarmonyOS. This is a local-first notes tool being polished, not redirected.
◆ Where it's heading
The database layer is becoming SiYuan's center of gravity — each release adds another Notion-style capability (templates, deep links, backlinks in the attribute panel) rather than editor primitives. In parallel, mobile and HarmonyOS parity keeps eating release notes, suggesting the team is chasing feature symmetry across an unusually wide platform spread. Expect the database to keep accreting relational features until it rivals a light structured-data workspace.
◆ Prediction
The next stable (v3.7.4) will likely consolidate the current alpha database and export fixes without a headline feature; a larger database or AI-editing push is the more probable place a genuine direction change would surface.
Alternatives to Trilium Notes and SiYuan
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 Trilium Notes or SiYuan.
Paperless-ngx
Paperless-ngx ships its 3.0 rewrite, then patches the landing hard
HelloID
HelloID grinds on access-governance precision through steady release trains.
Avoma
Avoma buries real agent-native moves under a wall of SEO comparison posts
GitHub
GitHub is retrofitting its whole surface around autonomous Copilot agents.
Notion
Notion is turning its workspace into an orchestration layer for external AI agents.
See all Trilium Notes alternatives → · See all SiYuan alternatives →
Recent activity from Trilium Notes and SiYuan
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6h agoSiYuanRelation-selector row opening tweaked (v3.7.4-alpha.2)
- 1d agoTrilium Notesv0.104.1
- 2d agoSiYuanv3.7.4-alpha.1: export fixes, formula clipping, HarmonyOS batch insert
- 5d agoSiYuanv3.7.3 stable: database alignment, relation backlinks, deep links
- 6d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.3: block dragging, search ranking, onboarding
- 7d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.2: pre-release iteration
- 7d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.1: onboarding, editable top-level docs, update flow
- 8d agoTrilium Notesv0.104.0
- 2mo agoTrilium Notesv0.103.0
- 3mo agoTrilium Notesv0.102.2
- 4mo agoTrilium Notesv0.102.1
- 4mo agoTrilium Notesv0.102.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Trilium Notes and SiYuan?
Both compete on the same themes — note-taking, local-first — within Collab. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 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 Trilium Notes better than SiYuan?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 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 Trilium Notes?
Top Trilium Notes alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Trilium Notes alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/trilium for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
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.