unnotable vs Tana
Tana Outliner is an outline you build a system in: tag a node, give the tag fields, and pull everything with that tag into a table, a board or a calendar. It was built, in its makers' words, for people who love thinking tools. unnotable has its structure already: four kinds and your topics, and nothing to design before you start.
Since March 2026 the original Tana app has been called Tana Outliner, and the name Tana belongs to a new meeting product for teams. This page is about the outliner.
Where Tana is stronger
- Structure you define. Supertags turn any node into a typed object with fields, and live searches gather them into views. If you know the shape of your information, Tana will hold exactly that shape. unnotable has one: notes, with a kind and some topics.
- AI that fills things in. AI fields complete themselves, commands run a prompt over your notes and write back the result, and voice memos become structured notes.
- Meetings. A notetaker in the desktop app transcribes calls and summarises them when they end. unnotable doesn't record anything.
- More places, and more people. Desktop apps that work offline, mobile apps, the web, shared workspaces and publishing. unnotable is on the web, for one person.
If you want to design your own system, and you enjoy the designing, use Tana.
Where unnotable is different
- Nothing to design first. Tana's power is in a schema
you build: which supertags, which fields, which searches. unnotable's
is already decided. Capture is one box, a kind if you want one
(! for a thing to do), a topic if you type one
(
@house). - Kinds, not supertags. Every note is a thought, a thing to do, a thing to find out, or scratch. Filters, review and the board all read that one field. There's nothing to configure and nothing to keep tidy.
- Notes turn into notes. In an outline, a child is whatever you indent. In unnotable, a child is lifted out of the writing, attached to the sentence it came from.
- It comes back to you. An outline holds whatever you put in it and waits. unnotable's Review surfaces what's been sitting, with a question, when you have a moment.
- AI that proposes. In Tana, AI commands and fields write straight into your notes. In unnotable, whatever a model suggests waits under Proposals until you commit it.
Side by side
| Feature | Tana Outliner | unnotable |
|---|---|---|
| Quick capture | ✓ | ✓ |
| What a note is | A node in one big outline | One line, which earns a page by being written on |
| Structure | Supertags and fields you design | Four kinds and your topics |
| Nested notes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tasks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Links and backlinks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Journalling | A page for each day | Entries on the note they’re about |
| Review queue | — | ✓ |
| Timeline board | — | ✓ |
| Kanban | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calendar | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom fields and live searches | ✓ | — |
| Templates | ✓ | — |
| Shared workspaces, publishing | ✓ | — |
| Web app | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile apps | ✓ | Coming soon |
| Desktop apps | ✓ | Coming soon |
| AI | ||
| Connect Claude or any MCP app | ✓ | ✓ |
| Connected apps propose, you commit | — | ✓ |
| Chat with a note | ✓ | ✓ |
| Turn a brain-dump into items | ✓ | ✓ |
| Meeting notes and transcription | ✓ | — |
If you're switching
Tana Outliner is still supported, so there's no rush. If you do move, paste a page of nodes into the capture box and press Sort this out: it splits the text into notes and gives each a kind, and nothing is saved until you've checked them. Supertags and fields don't come across; kinds and topics take their place.