Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Foam VS nvALT

Compare Foam VS nvALT and see what are their differences

Foam logo Foam

Personal knowledge management and sharing on VSCode & GitHub

nvALT logo nvALT

A fork of the original Notational Velocity with some additional features and interface modifications
  • Foam Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-06-28
  • nvALT Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-03

Foam videos

These panels DESTROYED my STUDIO....REVERB? - ArrowZoom Foam Review

More videos:

  • Review - Arrowzoom Foam Review
  • Review - Ryobi Foam Blaster VS. Amazon Foam Cannon | Review

nvALT videos

nvALT - Up and Running in 5 Minutes

More videos:

  • Review - nvALT is my favorite Markdown writing app
  • Review - Capturing (GTD) on the Mac with nvALT app

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Foam and nvALT)
Note Taking
66 66%
34% 34
Knowledge Base
100 100%
0% 0
Todos
0 0%
100% 100
Knowledge Management
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Foam and nvALT. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Foam should be more popular than nvALT. It has been mentiond 45 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Foam mentions (45)

  • Vscode setup with Foam and Logseq for Digital Note Taking
    Source: (1) A personal knowledge management and sharing system for VSCode - Foam. https://foambubble.github.io/foam/. (2) A personal knowledge management and sharing system for VSCode. https://github.com/foambubble/foam. (3) Loam - Visual Studio Marketplace. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ciceroisback.loam. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Request: VSCode extension that allows users to edit .cavas files
    Foam[0], memo[1], Markdown Memo[2], md-graph[3] file/directory display plugin [4] ----- misc related links: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/obsidian-vscode-editor-elevate-your-code-editing-experience-in-obsidian/69057/2 https://forum.obsidian.md/t/vs-code-plugin-the-best-of-both-worlds/6358 https://jukkaniiranen.com/2022/01/canvas-app-source-code-editing-with-vs-code-in-your-browser/... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Why I Like Obsidian
    You can also use Foam, a FOSS VSCode extension that is compatible with the basic markdown files from Obsidian. You can just open your vault in it and it will probably work if you're not using the fancy features in Obsidian. https://foambubble.github.io/foam/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Obsidian 1.5 Desktop (Public)
    No mention of Foam? https://foambubble.github.io/foam/ Fine, I uhh, I'll speak for it. Foam is to VSCode, what Org (and Org-Roam) are to Emacs. As a former org-roam user, I ended up preferring it because my end goal was to convert my notes to HTML and blog posts, and org is poor at that as HTML is not valid org code whereas it is in Markdown. There's just a whole host of markdown-it plugins [1] out there to add... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Does Obsidian note taking work for you?
    You don't have to use Obsidian btw, I think Foam does most of the same stuff inside Visual Studio Code. Source: 11 months ago
View more

nvALT mentions (10)

  • NvAlt: MultiMarkdown Notational Velocity fork with Markdown editing and preview
    Note nvUltra, the successor to this program, has been in development/private beta for several years[1,2]. I've been meaning to make my own web-based version of Notational Velocity that adds a few novel features of my own. (Plus inspiration from apps like TaskPaper and Drafts) There are a lot of Notational Velocity clones; currently my favorite is: https://simplenote.com/ [1]:... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Apple Notes has jumped the shark, what should I replace it with?
    I'm still happy with Apple Notes for its integration with all of Apple Apps, easy sharing with family members, etc. I have tamed it more as an ephemeral and quick Notes App. The notes that starts there are usually transferred to a more permanent and organized Plain-Text setup[1] (currently guardian-ed by Obsidian). If I had to replace Apple Notes, I'd look at either one of these; - https://simplenote.com -... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: How do you save and browse external interesting URLs?
    I used to think like that, stored everything in Pinboard, tagged properly. I also used to use nvalt (https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/) for that as it had good search and I didn't have to switch to other tabs to search Pinboard. It felt good to "catalog" all this knowledge but in reality I never went back to it, just like bookmarks and I realized that if something is important enough I'll always be able to... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • I want to understand YOUR way of taking quick notes into Obsidian
    One mobile and 2 laptop versions: - IOS Shortcuts that write specific style lines to bottom of scratch file that get processed - NVAlt : https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Which discontinued app or tool would you still like to use today?
    NvALT: https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ Ubuntu's Unity Slackware (not technically dead at all, but it was so great, back in the day). Google Reader. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Foam and nvALT, you can also consider the following products

Obsidian.md - A second brain, for you, forever. Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.

Evernote - Bring your life's work together in one digital workspace. Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas, write meaningful words, and move your important projects forward.

Logseq - Logseq is a local-first, non-linear, outliner notebook for organizing and sharing your personal knowledge base.

Notational Velocity - Notational Velocity: modeless, mouseless Mac OS X note-taking application

Roam Research - A note-taking tool for networked thought

Standard Notes - A safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work