Altretta vs Logseq
Both keep your notes as Markdown files you own. The difference is what you can prove about them afterwards.
Which one should you choose?
Logseq is an outliner, and a good one: open source, privacy-first, with task management, PDF annotation and flashcards built into the app rather than bolted on. If you think in blocks and block references, it fits the way you work in a way Altretta does not try to. Altretta is a document-first notes app with a different centre of gravity — it is built so that an AI can work on your knowledge and you can check every answer it gives. Several of the things Logseq ships in the box are here too; what is added on top is proof.
Where the two overlap, and where they part.
| Capability | Altretta | Logseq |
|---|---|---|
| Notes are Markdown files you own | YesOrdinary files in a folder you chose. Open them in any editor. | YesMarkdown files you own locallylogseq.com |
| Platforms | macOS · Windows · Linux | iOS · Androidlogseq.com |
| Free to use | YesThe desktop app is free forever, with one synced folder. | YesFree for personal uselogseq.com |
| Open source | PartialThe engine is open source; the desktop app is not. | YesOpen sourcelogseq.com |
| Flashcards, tasks and PDF annotation in the box | YesSpaced repetition with review state kept inside the note, a Kanban board and calendar over dated tasks, and PDF highlights written to a sibling note and signed. | YesTask Management · PDF Annotations · Flashcardslogseq.com |
| Plugins and themes | PartialAn official hub. Plugins are signed and declare the capabilities they use. It is small. | Yes150+ pluginslogseq.com30+ themeslogseq.com |
| Encrypted sync | YesInto storage you already own — your Dropbox, your OneDrive, a network share, a USB stick. No server of ours in the path and no key escrow. | Encrypted file syncinglogseq.comIn betalogseq.com |
| What sync costs | Free for one folder; Pro at €4.99/mo for as many as you like. | No price published therelogseq.com/pricing |
| Answers that cite the note they came from | YesCited passages with the file and the line numbers, from the model you connect over MCP. | Not verified |
| Signed history and time travel | YesEd25519-signed and append-only. Removal is a signed tombstone, never a delete, so you can travel back to any point. | Not verified |
| Encrypted team vault with revocation | YesNote contents encrypted on your device. Access is per person, and removing someone rotates the key. | Not verified |
| Reads your code repository | YesSymbol extraction in twenty languages, in the same signed graph as the notes. | Not verified |
Verified Every figure here about another product was read from the pages linked below, on that date, and from nowhere else. Follow them and check us — that is the whole idea.
“Not verified” means it has not been checked on Logseq’s own pages, so nothing is being claimed either way. Several rows are a genuine draw and are marked as one.
What Altretta and Logseq share.
More than most pairs on this site. Both are local, both are files, both are yours.
Files on your disk
Markdown in a folder you chose, readable by anything. Neither product puts your notes somewhere you cannot get at them.
Flashcards and spaced repetition
Both turn notes into review cards without a second app. Altretta keeps the review state inside the note itself, so it travels with the file.
Tasks where you write
Dated and recurring tasks live in your notes rather than in a separate tracker, and both surface them as an agenda.
PDF annotation
Highlight a PDF and keep the highlights beside your notes. In Altretta they become a sibling note that is signed like any other change.
What Altretta adds on top.
The overlap is real. Here is the part that is not shared.
Answers with their receipts
Every answer cites the passage it came from, with a file and line numbers you can open. You connect your own model over MCP — no built-in LLM, no second subscription.
Your AI gets the passage, not the pile
Measured on the demo vault of 43 notes over 24 pre-registered questions: 26.5% fewer input tokens than an assistant that already knows which files hold the answer, and 94.3% fewer than pasting your whole vault into the prompt.
Signed history and time travel
An append-only log signed with Ed25519. Nothing is destructively deleted: go back, compare, restore, and check the provenance yourself.
Encrypted, revocable team vault
Note contents encrypted on your device, access handed out per person, and the key rotated the moment somebody is removed. The audit trail is hash-chained, so a gap in it is visible.
It reads your repository too
Twenty languages have symbol extractors, so the blast radius of a change and the drift between a document and the code it describes sit in the same signed graph as the notes.
Publishing that can be verified
Turn selected notes into a site — hosted by us or written to a folder you host — where each page carries its provenance and its own verifier, so a reader checks the signature in the browser.
When Logseq is the better fit today.
Four real reasons to stay, including one Altretta cannot answer at all.
You need it on your phone
Logseq runs on iOS and Android. Altretta has no mobile build of any kind, and no amount of desktop polish makes up for that if you capture on the move.
You want open source, end to end
Logseq is open source. Altretta’s engine is, and the desktop application is not — so if reading the code that touches your notes is non-negotiable, that is a real difference.
You think in outlines and block references
Logseq is built around blocks as first-class objects. Altretta is document-first with an outline view, which is a different tool and not a strictly better one.
You want a bigger add-on ecosystem
Logseq has a published plugin and theme count that Altretta’s hub does not approach yet. Signed and capability-gated is the right design; it is not yet the bigger library.
What happens to your notes if you move.
There is no Logseq-specific importer. Here is what that actually means, without dressing it up.
The Markdown folder comes across
Logseq keeps your notes as Markdown files, and Altretta imports a Markdown folder directly. That is the route, and it works because both sides are ordinary files.
Logseq-specific syntax is text
Block references, queries and properties written in Logseq’s dialect arrive as the characters they are. Some will render, some will sit there as plain text, and you should expect to tidy.
Journals and cards mostly survive
Daily notes are files and come across as files. Altretta reads Logseq-style card syntax, so a lot of an existing deck keeps working — but check it rather than trusting this sentence.
Before you switch.
Is Altretta a Logseq alternative?
For most of what people use Logseq for, yes — local Markdown, tasks, flashcards, PDF annotation. It is not an outliner, though. If block references are the reason you use Logseq, Altretta is a different shape of tool rather than a replacement.
Will my Logseq graph work in Altretta?
The files will. Logseq stores Markdown and Altretta imports a Markdown folder, so your notes and journals arrive as themselves. There is no dedicated Logseq importer, so anything written in Logseq-specific syntax arrives as text and may need tidying.
Does Altretta lock me in?
No. Your vault is a folder of Markdown files for as long as you use it, so leaving is closing the app. The signed history never destructively deletes anything, and export adds Word, LaTeX, PDF and HTML if you want a copy in another shape.
Is my data private? Does it stay local?
Your notes live on your disk and the app works offline. Three things you switch on deliberately send content elsewhere: the AI client you connect receives the cited passages, hosted publishing uploads the pages you selected, and encrypted sync writes ciphertext into storage you picked. Everything else stays on the machine.
Keep your files. Gain proof.
Download Altretta free for macOS, Windows and Linux. Your Markdown folder comes as it is — and now every answer arrives with its source.