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Comparison · Collab
SiYuan vs Trilium Notes
A side-by-side editorial comparison of SiYuan and Trilium Notes — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:note-taking
SiYuan vs Trilium Notes: at a glance
What is SiYuan?
SiYuan 3.8.9 reaches RC, adding AI-agent extraction of images embedded in PDFs.
SiYuan moved 3.8.9 from beta.6 to rc.1 on Oct 28. The RC's only new item is AI-agent extraction of images embedded in PDFs; the rest of its long list matches beta.5's cumulative notes: pinned agent sessions, backlink filtering by database fields, block-reference collection through database automation, resizable table rows, mind-map themes and node copy/paste, TIFF previews and macOS proxy detection.
What is Trilium Notes?
Trilium spent a year adding what notes can hold; now it is fixing what happens to them.
Trilium Notes is a self-hosted hierarchical note application with an unusually broad content model — text, code, canvases, mind maps, and since 0.103.0 spreadsheets with formulas and OCR-extracted text from images, PDFs and Office files. Releases are large, quarterly, and explicit about breakage. The current release turns that attention inward: the database itself becomes something you can measure, clean, repair, and restore.
SiYuan vs Trilium Notes: editorial side-by-side
SiYuan
5.0COLLAB
SiYuan 3.8.9 reaches RC, adding AI-agent extraction of images embedded in PDFs.
◆ Current state
SiYuan moved 3.8.9 from beta.6 to rc.1 on Oct 28. The RC's only new item is AI-agent extraction of images embedded in PDFs; the rest of its long list matches beta.5's cumulative notes: pinned agent sessions, backlink filtering by database fields, block-reference collection through database automation, resizable table rows, mind-map themes and node copy/paste, TIFF previews and macOS proxy detection.
◆ Where it's heading
The 3.8.x line keeps turning databases and mind maps into structured tools that act on the block graph, and the built-in agent is gaining reach into document content such as PDFs. The release cadence is fast and noisy, with most builds repeating the same cumulative notes.
◆ Prediction
A stable 3.8.9 is likely within days, with little added beyond fixes now that it has reached RC.
Trilium Notes
6.3COLLAB
Trilium spent a year adding what notes can hold; now it is fixing what happens to them.
◆ Current state
Trilium Notes is a self-hosted hierarchical note application with an unusually broad content model — text, code, canvases, mind maps, and since 0.103.0 spreadsheets with formulas and OCR-extracted text from images, PDFs and Office files. Releases are large, quarterly, and explicit about breakage. The current release turns that attention inward: the database itself becomes something you can measure, clean, repair, and restore.
◆ Where it's heading
Two arcs run in parallel. One expands what a note can be, peaking with the spreadsheet note type and OCR that feeds extracted text into search. The other is about trust in the thing holding your knowledge base — a coordinated security release in April, then 0.105.0 shipping backup restore, a cleanup tool that honours versioning limits, compaction, integrity repair, and a space-usage treemap. The AI layer is being made self-hostable in the same spirit, moving from a fixed vendor model list to dynamic retrieval plus Ollama, LM Studio and any OpenAI-compatible provider. Breaking changes are frequent and documented up front rather than smuggled in.
◆ Prediction
The two features the maintainer explicitly links to funding — an official mobile application and multi-user support — are the stated backlog; nearer term, expect the spreadsheet note type to leave beta and the newly networked MCP interface to gain more surface.
Alternatives to SiYuan and Trilium Notes
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 Trilium Notes.
KACE
KACE extends its PHP2SHELL fix to the SDA deployment appliance, six days after disclosure.
Mattermost
Mattermost v12 puts user-scoped permissions, private models and audit trails on every agent action.
AFFiNE
AFFiNE's canaries stay on upkeep: a Swift Collections bump follows CVE and migration fixes.
Teable
Teable's Structured Query v2 now reports across multi-hop relations, with a strict mode against SQL.
Readwise
Readwise splits its bundle into Reader-only and Highlights-only plans and renames its first app.
See all SiYuan alternatives → · See all Trilium Notes alternatives →
Recent activity from SiYuan and Trilium Notes
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 RC1: AI agent extracts images from PDFs
- 1d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 6 (same notes as beta 5)
- 1d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 5: full notes incl. pinned agent sessions
- 2d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 4 improves LaTeX paste and import
- 2d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 3 (same notes as beta 1)
- 2d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 2 (same notes as beta 1)
- 2mo agoTrilium NotesBackups become restorable and the database becomes manageable ⚡
- 3mo agoTrilium NotesLLM providers become dynamic and self-hostable; OneNote import hardened
- 3mo agoTrilium NotesRelease-preparation tag for v0.104.0
- 5mo agoTrilium NotesSpreadsheet notes and OCR-backed search arrive ⚡
- 6mo agoTrilium NotesCoordinated security release across content handling and the desktop app
- 7mo agoTrilium NotesHotfix for mind map rendering and PDF viewer regressions
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SiYuan and Trilium Notes?
Both compete on the same themes — note-taking — within Collab. Trilium Notes 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 SiYuan better than Trilium Notes?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Trilium Notes 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 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 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.