AFFiNE vs SiYuan
Side-by-side trajectory, velocity, and editorial themes.
AFFiNE is building import on-ramps off Notion and OneNote while stabilizing iOS.
AFFiNE ships a fast canary stream alongside a 0.27 beta line. The recent arc centers on migration on-ramps — a OneNote importer and Notion Markdown zip imports that resolve internal links into linked pages — plus iOS stabilization and a nodemailer security bump. The newest release is a batch of iOS keyboard, image-picker, and scrolling fixes.
The importer investment reads as a deliberate play to lower switching costs from Notion and OneNote, the two incumbents AFFiNE competes with for knowledge-base users. Alongside it, the team is hardening the mobile client and terminology (cloud → sync/self-hosted), signaling a push toward production readiness across platforms.
Expect more importer coverage and continued iOS/desktop polish as 0.27 moves toward a stable release. The link-resolution work suggests deeper fidelity for migrated workspaces next.
SiYuan rides its 3.7 overhaul with rapid alpha polish on mobile and cross-platform
SiYuan is an open-source, local-first knowledge base. Its 3.7 line was a throughout renewal — a redesigned UI, a kernel plugin system, and a CLI — and the feed since has been a fast cadence of alpha releases (3.7.1, 3.7.2) grinding on mobile editing and cross-platform quirks across Android, HarmonyOS, iOS, and the Microsoft Store build.
The work is consolidating the 3.7 overhaul along three lines: extensibility (kernel plugins), cross-platform parity (HarmonyOS now treated as a first-class target alongside Android and iOS), and mobile editing polish. The 'step toward intelligence' language hints at AI features, but the concrete shipping is platform breadth and extensibility.
Expect 3.7.2 to stabilize out of alpha with continued mobile and HarmonyOS fixes; the kernel plugin system points toward a growing third-party plugin ecosystem as the next surface.
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