All Apps List - A Wiki of tools in the PKM and productivity space

Community Projects
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This is a regularly updated list of applications, tools, and services in the Personal Knowledge Management and Productivity space. It is intended to be comprehensive if not exhaustive. Note that our focus here is primarily on tools for personal or small team use, we are not intending to list a majority of enterprise-level options.

Tools are organized by type, with brief descriptions and links to more information (generally the official website). Applications are listed in no particular order (for now) and formatting is a work-in-progress. Reviews or other 3rd party resources are provided where possible. When an app fits into multiple categories it will be listed in all, with reference back to a primary one for the bulk of the information.

This post is open for editing once you reach a certain level in the forums here, which you can attain simply by interacting - posting topics and replies, etc. Feel free to suggest new apps or other edits in the replies below until youā€™re able to edit directly!

Personal Knowledge Management Tools
Knowledgebase and Wiki

  • Notion

Highly capable, flexible tool combining wiki functions, databases, and more. Free for personal use.

https://notion.so

  • Obsidian

A local-file MarkDown-based knowledgebase tool, with a wide variety of customisations, support for a broad array of PKM workflows and a note graph currently considered industry-leading.

https://obsidian.md

  • Kosmik (WIP)

https://lithium.paris/

Note taking

  • Google Keep

An easy-to-use and widely-available note app and web-clipper with strong Google integration.

https://www.google.com.au/keep/

Outliners

  • Roam Research

https://roamresearch.com/

  • RemNote

https://www.remnote.io/document/7AeAFioweH63j887v

  • Dynalist

https://dynalist.io/why

  • Workflowy

Infinitely-nestable bullet points with multiple view modes makes this one of the most powerful yet simple tools for getting complex ideas down fast.

https://workflowy.com/

  • Logseq

  • Athens Research

Annotation tools

  • Codex (WIP)

  • Worldbrainā€™s Memex (web)

  • Hypothes.is (web, PDF)

  • Airr (Podcast annotation)

  • LiquidText (PDF)

  • Polar (PDF)

  • Readwise (annotation hub)

Read it laters

  • Instapaper

  • Pocket

Productivity Tools
Personal Task Managers

ToDoist

TickTick

ClickUp

Possibly the best-value full-blooded project management SaaS out there right now. Every new update brings profound new capability to the service and its ease of use, flexibility, and visual appeal are industry-leading.

https://clickup.com/

Airtable Database for a Master Task List :

  • We really appreciate the efforts of @lordrudraksh, for sharing with us his airtable database, that already contains a pre-seeded list of apps that we are trying to cover here.
  • This might be a better way to keep track, due to itā€™s filter and tagging features. I hope everyone findā€™s it useful
  • Kindly contribute to the list by posting about any app that you think should make it into the list.
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Several tag suggestions
Keeping historical data. How do you approach accessing things that you "have backed up somewhere around here"?
The ABCs of PKM: a community wiki glossary [Project idea]
#2

Help you ! https://www.notion.so/Artificial-Brain-Networked-notebook-app-a131b468fc6f43218fb8105430304709

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#3

Thanks for the link. I had already bookmarked it, but Iā€™m not sure Iā€™ve read it yet.

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#4

How can you use Obsidian as an outliner?

(btw I am searching an outliner with local data storage)

#5

Well it behaves like an outliner if you need it to .
Indents , collapses etc

But I agree , it should rather be under PKM . Its not a traditional outliner .
@Oshyan your thoughts ?

#6

I sense a problem with listing these tools here , some of the tools canā€™t be defined as specifically under PKM / outliner / not taking . They often overlap and also occupy the grey areas . We need a table where we can have multi-select options . Something like notion or walling might be a good way to do this . Notion might be best I think .

#7

Yeah, I definitely have it bookmarked and itā€™s a great resource! Thanks. :slight_smile:

What is the differences between ā€œbehaves like an outlinerā€ and ā€œis an outlinerā€? Is Obsidian too broadly functional to be an outliner?

Perhaps. But itā€™s very often spoken of in the same context as Roam, which is an outliner (and, well, more, but also still an outliner). Weā€™re getting into definition of terms to some degreeā€¦

I did already address that tools may exist in multiple areas:

That is undoubtedly the ideal, however it makes it harder to edit collaboratively (potentially). And is also a bigger project. Here we have something simple, collaboratively editable, and which can be evolved over time. It can be ā€œgood enoughā€ as a basic list, though it is certainly not the best possible reference, and I wouldnā€™t really intend it to be.

That said, if people generally feel itā€™s not a useful enough approach to the problem, we can do something else. I donā€™t have time/energy to set it up in a different way, hence this Wiki-driven discussion thread. But Iā€™d welcome anyone elseā€™s efforts for sure!

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#8

Iā€™ve already request this feature. Iā€™ll push it after v1.0.0

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#9

Coda.io have advanced table features than Notionā€™s.

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#10

Yes , it is . Itā€™s a blend between traditional word processor styled writing and can go outline if you want it . But it doesnā€™t lock you in with that . Thatā€™s kind of what I like about it the most !

Interesting , what category would that fall under ?

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#11

I agree, Obsidian is too far removed from that kind of functionality to be an outliner, though you could create multiple outlines in it.

My go-to outliner has always been Workflowy. Boi oh Boi is that one hell of a system. Itā€™s an Olympic-level bullet-point athlete.

Also, Coda was pleasant to use when it first launched, I can only imagine itā€™s powerfull as hell now. That being said, I absolutely canā€™t afford it when I can use python, csv, sheets, and excel to replace AirTable, which is more powerful, but far less portable (compared to Coda).

If I could get the full versions of Coda or Airtable for free Iā€™d probably never leave my computer. This especially goes for Airtable.

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#12

Excellent, then there is consensus! (at least on Obsidian) And the solution is clear: someone should edit it. Itā€™s a wiki, go for it! :grin:

#13

Iā€™ll do it ā€¦ as soon as I work out how ā€¦ :slight_smile:

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#14

Thereā€™s an edit link at the bottom of the first post in this chain. Does that help?

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#15

Sadly I donā€™t think itā€™s visible to me. From what I can tell, Iā€™m not a full member of the forum, only a basic one. I might not have access to that functionality.

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#16

Hah! Youā€™re totally right, somehow we hadnā€™t given you proper permissions yet. Sorry about that! You should have access now. :slight_smile:

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#17

Heh, I thought it was something tied to how many times Iā€™d posted. Grazie ragazzi!

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#18

Iā€™ve added a few more details based on apps that Iā€™ve used. Iā€™ll add more once I get the chance.

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#19

whatever. But Coda.io 's focus is not on note taking software

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#20

Codaā€™s more of a collaboration tool. It takes a lot of features from software like Airtable and Sheets, gives it a strong presentation layer, then puts a lot of focus on collaboration and sharing. Steve is right, it would be my last choice for note-taking, but for showing your results to a colleague from another department or a client, itā€™s probably the best thing short of Jupyter or Collab. When I last used it, it was certainly ā€˜best of the restā€™, it just costs a lot.

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