SiYuan vs Lionote
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SiYuan
A privacy-focused personal knowledge management system that allows offline use and encrypted data synchronization. It combines blocks, outlines, and bidirectional links to help users organize and refine their thoughts.
- Privacy-first design
- Offline data storage
- End-to-end encrypted sync
- Block-based organization
- Outline structuring
- Bidirectional linking
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SiYuan is a privacy-first personal knowledge management system that supports complete offline use, as well as end-to-end encrypted data sync. Fuse blocks, outlines, and bidirectional links to refactor your thinking.
Lionote
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Lionote is a freedom, privacy-first, local personal data hub, based on note app but beyond note app. Freely use a variety of information formats to record and create(Text, Whiteboard, Mind Map, Flowchart, UML, Markdown, AI assistant, Audio, Image, File, Schedule Management etc.). All notes are saved locally as files, you don't have to worry about losing them due to cloud server error. Sync is fully encrypted (PBKDF2+RandomSalt+AES), No one can see your notes
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Lionote at 4 against SiYuan's 2. Lionote also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. SiYuan sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Lionote sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
SiYuan ships an update weekly, Lionote every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SiYuan | Lionote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (30 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 30 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 11 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 434 MB | 108 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Yunnan Liandi Technology Co., Ltd. | 杭州草莓互娱科技有限公司 |
In-app purchases
SiYuan
- PRO Features$79.99
- Subscription$188.99
Lionote
- VIP1, one month$0.69
- VIP2, one month$1.69
- VIP3, one month$6.29
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- VIP1, one year$7.59
- VIP2, one year$17.90
- VIP3, one year$64.90
