Ampersand vs
Logseq
Logseq is free, open source and an outliner — and it has split into a file version that is frozen and a database version that is not.
Logseq is free, open source under AGPL-3.0, actively committed to, and one of the few apps in this category that has never asked anyone for a subscription. It is also an outliner: every line is a block in a bullet tree, and links, queries and references work at block level. That is a difference of kind rather than of quality. People who think in outlines get something from Logseq that a document editor structurally cannot give them, and if that is you, the rest of this page is beside the point — use an outliner.
The thing worth knowing before anything else is that Logseq has split in two. The original file-based codebase, the one that keeps plain Markdown or Org files on disk where any editor can read them, now receives security and Electron maintenance and no new features. The new flagship, Logseq 2.0, shipped as a beta on 13 July 2026 and keeps its canonical data in a SQLite database with a proprietary internal schema. Export to Markdown exists, and so does a graph importer, but the two formats are not interoperable and the import has documented lossy limits — a block carrying several queries, embeds or quotes brings only the first one across. So staying on plain, portable files now means deliberately staying on the branch that has stopped getting features. That is a hard migration for a well-liked project to be in the middle of, and it is stated here as a fact rather than as a point being scored.
Ampersand starts from the file question and works outward. Notes are plain .md in a folder you chose, in a document editor rather than an outliner, with the heavy tools — real PDF and Word export, per-note encryption, bring-your-own-key AI, meeting transcription — written as first-party features. In exchange it is closed-source, it costs $29 once for the Pro half, it has no plugins, and it has no phone app at all. Against an app that is AGPL, free forever and on both stores, those are not small concessions and this page does not pretend they are.
Ampersand and Logseq, row by row
Every row states what both apps do. A dot marks whichever one leads — including the rows Logseq takes.
| Feature | Ampersand | Logseq |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, then a one-time $29 (regularly $49) for export, AI agents, encryption and extra vaults. Never a subscription. | Advantage: Logseq.Free forever with no paywalled core features. Logseq Sync is still a beta gated behind an Open Collective donation tier, and 2.0’s real-time sync is an alpha that is free during testing. |
| Where notes live | Advantage: Ampersand.A folder you pick. Plain .md files with optional YAML frontmatter. | Two answers since the split. The file-based version keeps plain Markdown, or Org if you chose Org for that graph, on disk. Logseq 2.0 — the version being developed — keeps its canonical data in a SQLite database with a proprietary internal schema, with Markdown export as a way out rather than the storage format. |
| Works offline | Everything except cloud AI, and running a local model removes even that. | Everything, in both versions. Sync is optional and nothing needs an account. |
| Platforms | macOS 14+, Windows 10+ and Linux, on both Intel/AMD and ARM. There is no phone app yet. | Advantage: Logseq.The file-based version runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. Logseq 2.0 is desktop plus a mobile app that is iOS today, with Android stated as coming. |
| Editing model | A document editor. Blocks, headings and paragraphs laid out as a page that reads like a page, rather than a tree you navigate. | An outliner. Every line is a block in a bullet tree, and links, queries and references operate at block level, with a journal at the centre of the workflow. |
| Structured content | Advantage: Ampersand.Notion-style blocks over plain Markdown: tables whose cells take spreadsheet formulas, Mermaid diagrams, Vega charts, KaTeX maths, live calculation blocks with units and currency, callouts and highlighted code — all round-tripping as ordinary .md. There is no equivalent of a block reference. | Native maths inline in TeX style with $$, native callouts in the Org-mode spelling — #+BEGIN_NOTE, #+BEGIN_WARNING, #+BEGIN_TIP, each rendered with an icon — and code blocks with syntax highlighting through CodeMirror. Tables are basic Markdown with no formulas, Mermaid is a community plugin rather than a built-in, and there are no charts and no live calculation. What it has that Ampersand does not is the block itself: any block is addressable, embeddable and queryable from anywhere by ((block-id)). |
| Search | Full text across the whole vault, with case-sensitive, whole-word and regex toggles, and #tags, wiki-links and backlinks indexed alongside it. It covers encrypted notes too while the vault is unlocked. It does not read text inside images or PDFs. There is no query language: the toggles are the whole surface. | A basic fuzzy full-text bar across the graph, and then something quite different: Advanced Queries, a Datalog engine over Datascript that lets you write a structured query and save it as a block, with pattern matching through re-pattern and re-find and boolean and/or inside {{query}}. That is real power, but it is a language you write rather than a toggle you flip, and full-text {{query}} is case-sensitive by default. No OCR, and no searching the contents of a PDF — it can link PDF annotations back to notes, which is a different thing. |
| Open source | No. The encryption is the standard age format, so the files outlive the app either way. | Advantage: Logseq.Yes — AGPL-3.0, actively committed, and VC-backed. |
| Encryption | Advantage: Ampersand.Per-note, in the app, using age (X25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305) under one vault passphrase, with Touch ID on a Mac and a recovery kit. Unlocking your own notes is never gated behind a licence. | None at rest, by design. The team says so on its own GitHub, and points people at external tools like VeraCrypt or Cryptomator; a filed issue notes that cache files outside your graph folder also hold note content in plaintext. |
| Export | Advantage: Ampersand.Vector PDF from a real layout engine, editable Word with native equations and highlighted code, self-contained HTML, and Markdown. | In the file-based version the storage format is already plain text, so there is nothing to export. There is an official self-hosted static-site export, Logseq Publish. PDF, Word and HTML are community plugins, not native features. |
| Version history | Advantage: Ampersand.Every save, snapshotted into a git repository kept outside the vault, with a timeline and a line-by-line diff. Browsing and diffing are free; one-click restore is Pro. You set how long it keeps. It is a feature of the app rather than a git workflow you assemble. | No dedicated version-history UI in either version. Two partial mechanisms instead: an optional Git integration that auto-commits the graph on save, giving you the whole history through git log and git diff but no timeline, no diff and no restore inside the app; and a local logseq/bak/ directory holding prior file states with nothing to browse them with. Both are entirely local, free and ungated, and recovery is a file or Git operation you perform by hand. |
| AI | Advantage: Ampersand.Built in and bring-your-own-key: Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Apple Intelligence, local models through Ollama, and CLI agents, routed per feature. Rewrite, grammar, translate and summarise are free; agents and ask-your-vault are Pro. | Nothing first-party in either version. Every AI feature is a community plugin. |
| Plugins | None. What ships is what you get, and it is the same app for everybody. | Advantage: Logseq.A JavaScript plugin API with an in-app marketplace, running since around 2021, and a community that has used it heavily. |
| Sync | None of our own. Point it at iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Syncthing or a git repo — a vault is just a folder. | Logseq Sync is a beta behind an Open Collective donation tier; 2.0’s real-time sync is an alpha, free while it is being tested. For a file-based graph you can bring any file sync you already use, exactly as you would here. |
| Phone apps | None at all. This is the largest gap in the product. | Advantage: Logseq.On both stores for the file-based version, though they are widely reported as the weakest part of Logseq — a laggy editor, slow sync and unreliable share-sheet capture. The new 2.0 iOS app is too recent to have a track record. |
| Whiteboard | None. There is no spatial canvas. | Advantage: Logseq.Built in — a canvas you can arrange pages and blocks on spatially. |
| Meeting recording | Advantage: Ampersand.Records a meeting in a room or on a call and transcribes it on your own Mac with a local Whisper model, then writes a note with the summary, the decisions and the action items. macOS only, and part of Pro. | Nothing built in. |
Across these 17 rows, Ampersand leads 7, Logseq leads 6, and 4 are a draw. The dot marks the leader. Where Logseq leads, the dot is on its side of the table.
Ampersand is desktop-only today. An app for iPhone and iPad is in development and not yet released. The roadmap is where that gets announced.
Logseq details checked against its own pricing and documentation pages on . If something here has gone out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Where Ampersand pulls ahead
Plain files that are not a branch you have to stay on
Ampersand’s storage format is plain .md in a folder, and that is the only format it has — there is no second, better-developed version storing something else. Keeping portable files in Logseq today means staying on the codebase that has stopped getting features.
Encryption of the file on your disk
Lock a note and its body is age-encrypted where it sits, under one vault passphrase, with Touch ID on a Mac and a recovery kit. Logseq has no encryption at rest by design and points people at VeraCrypt or Cryptomator instead, which is a whole-disk answer to a per-note question.
Export that produces real documents
A vector PDF with running headers, controlled page breaks and real maths, and a Word file that is genuinely editable — native equations, real styles, highlighted code. In Logseq, PDF, Word and HTML export are community plugins rather than features of the app.
AI and meeting transcription in the box
Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Apple Intelligence, a local Ollama model or a CLI agent, configured once and routed per feature, plus meetings recorded and transcribed on your own Mac. Logseq ships no first-party AI in either version; every bit of it is a third-party plugin.
Where Logseq is the better tool
Every page here names at least two, because Logseq genuinely has them and a comparison that pretended otherwise would not be worth reading.
Free forever, and AGPL-3.0
Logseq costs nothing, gates nothing, and the source is published under AGPL-3.0, so the app can be forked and kept alive by anyone if the company stops. Ampersand is closed-source and charges $29 once for the Pro half. That is a genuine structural advantage and no amount of file portability cancels it.
It is a real outliner
Block-level links, block references, queries and a journal-first workflow are what an outliner is for, and Logseq does them properly. Ampersand is a document editor and always will be — if you think in nested bullets and want the structure itself to be addressable, that is a reason to use Logseq rather than a preference to talk you out of.
A plugin API with a marketplace
Logseq has had a JavaScript plugin API and an in-app marketplace since around 2021, and a community that has used it hard. Ampersand has no plugins and no plugin API, so anything not in the box is not available at any price.
It runs on a phone
The file-based version ships apps on both the App Store and Google Play, and 2.0 has an iOS app, so your graph is with you away from a desk. Ampersand has no phone app of any kind today, on any platform.
Which one should you use?
Choose Logseq if
you think in outlines and want block-level links, queries and a journal at the centre of your day; you want an app that is free forever and AGPL-3.0, so it survives its company; you want plugins; or you need your notes on a phone. Logseq is a serious piece of open-source software and it is the right answer to all four.
Choose Ampersand if
you write documents rather than outlines, you want plain Markdown files as the one and only storage format rather than a choice between a frozen branch and a database, and you want encryption, real PDF and Word export, AI and meeting transcription as parts of the app instead of plugins around it.
Moving from Logseq
Asked plainly
Does Logseq store plain markdown files?
It depends which Logseq. The original file-based version stores plain Markdown, or Org-mode if you chose Org for that graph, as ordinary files on disk that any editor can open — but it now receives only security and Electron maintenance, with no new features. The new flagship, Logseq 2.0, keeps its canonical data in a SQLite database with a proprietary schema; it can export Markdown, but that is a way out rather than the storage format. Ampersand only ever stores plain .md files in a folder you choose.
Is Logseq still being developed?
Yes, actively — but development has moved. The original file-based codebase is in maintenance, receiving security and Electron updates and no new features, while the new flagship Logseq 2.0 shipped as a beta on 13 July 2026 and is where the work is happening. The catch for anyone who chose Logseq for portable files is that 2.0 stores its data in SQLite rather than Markdown, and the two graph formats are not interoperable, with documented lossy limits on importing an old graph into the new one.
What is a good Logseq alternative that is not an outliner?
Ampersand is one, and the difference is deliberate: it is a document editor with blocks, headings, tables carrying spreadsheet-style formulas, diagrams and maths, rather than a tree of bullets. It keeps the parts of Logseq people usually want to keep — plain Markdown files in a folder you own, wiki-links, backlinks, tags, works entirely offline — and adds per-note encryption, PDF and Word export and bring-your-own-key AI. It has no plugins and no phone app, where Logseq has both.
Does Logseq encrypt notes on my computer?
No. Logseq has no encryption at rest, which the team states on its own GitHub as a deliberate choice, pointing users who need it at external tools such as VeraCrypt or Cryptomator; a filed issue also notes that cache files outside your graph folder hold note content in plaintext. Ampersand encrypts individual notes on disk with age (X25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305) under one vault passphrase, unlocked with Touch ID on a Mac, and decrypting your own notes is never gated behind a licence.
Is Ampersand free like Logseq?
Not to the same degree, and it is worth being clear about it. Logseq is free forever with no paywalled core features and is open source under AGPL-3.0. Ampersand is free to use with the whole editor, full-vault search, wiki-links, backlinks, version history, inline AI and Markdown export, but PDF and Word export, AI agents, per-note encryption and multiple vaults are behind a one-time $29 (regularly $49) and the app is closed-source. Neither charges a subscription.
Can I open my Logseq graph in Ampersand?
If it is a file-based graph in Markdown, yes — point Ampersand at the folder and it reads the files directly, since both apps use plain .md on disk. Two things to expect: pages will read as nested bullet lists, because an outliner writes every line as a list item, and Logseq-specific syntax comes across as literal text. An Org-mode graph needs converting first, since Ampersand does not read Org, and a Logseq 2.0 graph must be exported to Markdown from Logseq before Ampersand can see it at all.
Other alternatives
Stop reading tables.
Open the app.
Ampersand is free to start and there is no account to make. Point it at the folder your notes are already in — including the one Logseq keeps them in — and see for yourself.
Free to start · Mac, Windows & Linux · No account required