Skip to content
Mimir Docs
Esc
↑↓navigate↵open⌘Jpreview
On this page

Mimir vs. Roam Research

Mimir vs. Roam Research: notes on your device or on Roam's servers, a one-time purchase or $15 a month, and which to choose.

Roam Research made daily notes, [[links]], and backlinks popular in 2020, and most apps on these pages borrow from it. Like Mimir, it’s a bullet outliner that opens on today’s page. Unlike Mimir, it keeps your notes on its own servers and costs a monthly or yearly fee.

Checked on 2026-10-11.

Which to choose

Choose Mimir if you want your notes on your own device, an app that works fully offline, and no subscription. Writing, linking, and search work the same on your phone as on your computer. Cloud Sync is a one-time purchase that encrypts your notes on your device before it sends them.

Choose Roam if you need multiplayer graphs, queries, extensions, or an app in the browser and on Windows, Linux, and Android. Expect $15 a month after the trial, notes kept on Roam’s servers, and an iPhone app with 2.6 out of 5 stars.

For one person who wants to own their notes, Mimir fits. For a team that wants to extend and share a graph, Roam does.

At a glance

Mimir Roam Research
Platforms Mac, iPhone, iPad Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android
Where notes live One database file on your device Roam’s servers
Price Free. Cloud Sync is a one-time purchase. $15 a month or $165 a year, after a 31-day trial
Status Active Active

Where Roam is heading

Roam still ships updates, at a slower pace than most apps here. Work in 2026 included callouts, a rebuilt Markdown importer, encrypted blocks, and tools that let AI assistants read and write a graph. The iPhone app was last updated on 2026-04-17, and the Android app on 2026-04-16.

Price

Roam has no free plan. After a 31-day trial, Pro costs $15 a month or $165 a year. The Believer plan is $500 for five years, paid at once. Either plan covers unlimited graphs and collaborators.

Mimir is free on every device. Syncing between devices is the one paid feature, a one-time purchase rather than a subscription.

What they share

  • A page for each day, where you start writing.
  • Bullets you indent and outdent with Tab and Shift-Tab.
  • [[Links]] that create a page the first time you use them.
  • A list of everything that links to a page, and of unlinked mentions.
  • A bullet shown in more than one place, edited in one.

Where they differ

  • Roam keeps your notes on its servers. You can write offline, and your changes wait in the browser until you reconnect. A local graph stays in one browser’s storage and doesn’t sync. Mimir keeps your notes in a file on your device and works fully offline.
  • Roam has queries, a library of extensions, custom code, public graphs, and multiplayer graphs for teams. Mimir has none of these.
  • Roam runs in any browser and on Windows, Linux, and Android. Mimir runs on Mac, iPhone, and iPad today.
  • Both let you take your notes with you. Roam exports to Markdown, JSON, and EDN, even after you cancel. Mimir exports to Markdown on a Mac.

What people say

People who stay with Roam value its block references and its queries. Reviews in 2026 call the interface dated and the price hard to justify next to free outliners such as Logseq. Several note that development has slowed.

On iPhone and iPad, Roam Mobile has 2.6 out of 5 stars from 170 ratings on the US App Store. Most written reviews date from 2022, when reviewers said it didn’t feel like a native app, launched slowly, and was awkward to type in. The app was last updated on 2026-04-17. A 2026 review still finds the mobile apps behind the desktop.

Sources

Last updated on