Knowledge management is the way you organize all of your notes, data, plans, and really your life itself.
The ability to do so in a quick, and easy manner depends on your tool of choice. Now I spent half a decade or more in Notion, and I realized very quickly how downhill that tool has gotten. From bugs, performance issues, and even holistic design bottlenecks.
The latter being more because it is too free form, and the only structure is what YOU make in it. Causing there to be this constant need to change it up or revamp. I found myself moving tools last year. Notion to Obsidian, then to Capacities, to Acreom, and then now finally back to Obsidian.
Along the way I tried a ton of tools, and went on huge rabbit holes to find EVERY tool on the market. Here are the best that I found (not really in any particular order)!
Notion
Honestly I think this is quite more overrated, and while I almost went back to it for the Notion Calendar. The usability issues caused me to not want to touch it again. I moved almost completely off of it finally.
Justin WattDirector of Ops & Marketing, MetaLab
AnyType
Could not stand their need for changing every single term. Calling a database a set is one thing, but trying to learn a whole new language while trying to learn a new tool.
It overall has a lot of unique features that set it apart though.
Tools that are cool, but need a lot of work:
I felt like not enough people know about these, and while I don't suggest you use them just yet as your main thing. Perhaps try them out.
Acreom
I spent so much time trying to make this one work. They had failed to market that they got rid of their calendar feature (which was one of the only things setting it truly apart). Instead opting for a timeline, that was pretty minimal.
The team is really smart behind it, but after almost losing half or all of my data twice I was done.
Reor Project
Part of why I moved to Obsidian in the first place was so that I could use local ai models with my data. Still haven't done that, but this has it built in!
Reor
Appflowy
It actually worked better for me in some ways than AnyType or Affine did, but the interface is in some need of TLC. The amount of wasted space, from the margins and padding were so frustrating. Especially on database screen.
Logseq
While it has such a clean interface, the lack of features it has compared to Obsidian; Just doesn't seem to make it as viable.
Affine
Personally I feel like it is a better version of Anytype, but it still felt like it didn't give enough to replace my current tech stack.
Remnote
Not super experienced with this one, but I hear so many people rave about it.
Capacities
I tried using this. I really tried. However issues with text boxes, selecting/highlighting, and poor load times. All caused me to leave it eventually. I also am not sure still how I feel about ONLY having databases.
The Best - Obisidian
By far the most versatile, yet also relatively minimalist tool on the market. I hated it when I first tried it, but then again I think that happened to me with most of these tools. My second try was last year, and I moved half of my data into it.
I would have done more, but I couldn't replace the Notion databases I had made into it. I think even now the project management plugins are still quite lacking. However I found new ways to go about it, and after moving even more stuff into Acreom right before this.
I was able to move from Notion, Capacities, Acreom, all into Obsidian. I find that having it all in one place, especially in a tool that loads it well. It is unbeatable in my experience.
You have to choose what works best for you.
Does my opinion come from a sheer amount of experience, and having tried so many tools? Yes. However that is it, as it is my own opinion, for my own knowledge management. What works for me may not work for you. Perhaps you're the post it note kind of person, so something like Remnote or Saner is much better for YOU as an individual.
There are a ton of tools I chose to not share, as they did not seem like the best choice for most people. Those being like Roam, Heptabase, mem, clemory, or scrintal.
This is why I made this post, to at least tell you what I think are the best, and then you can experiment from there!
