Software Alternatives & Reviews

FocusWriter VS Dendron

Compare FocusWriter VS Dendron and see what are their differences

FocusWriter logo FocusWriter

FocusWriter is a fullscreen, distraction-free word processor designed to immerse you as much as...

Dendron logo Dendron

Dendron is an open-source, local-first, markdown-based, note-taking tool built on top of VSCode. It supports all the usual features you would expect like tagging, backlinks, a graph view, split panes, and so forth.
  • FocusWriter Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18
  • Dendron Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-27

Dendron is an open-source, local-first, markdown-based, note-taking tool built on top of VSCode. Like most such tools, Dendron supports all the usual features you would expect like tagging, backlinks, a graph view, split panes, and so forth. But it doesn't stop there - whereas most tools (try to make it) easy to get notes in, they tend to make it hard to get them back out later, and it only gets worse as you add more notes. Dendron helps you get notes back out and works better the more notes you have.

FocusWriter

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Dendron

Website
dendron.so
$ Details
freemium $5.0 / Monthly (Custom domain name for publishing.)
Platforms
Windows Mac OSX Linux
Release Date
2020 July

FocusWriter videos

Focuswriter Review

More videos:

  • Review - FocusWriter - App Reviews
  • Review - Writing Software - FocusWriter

Dendron videos

Dendron Getting Started - An alternative note taking app for PKM / To Do / Journal

More videos:

  • Review - Dendron
  • Review - Dendron farm attack protest: Hundreds make their way to Morebeng (Soekmekaar)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to FocusWriter and Dendron)
Markdown Editor
100 100%
0% 0
Note Taking
0 0%
100% 100
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Knowledge Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using FocusWriter and Dendron. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare FocusWriter and Dendron

FocusWriter Reviews

11 Best Scrivener Alternatives
Scrivener may be more complicated than FocusWriter, but if you want simplicity or minimalism, FocusWriter is worth considering. There are no elaborate formatting options or research notes to tinker around with so all you do is write.

Dendron Reviews

  1. Team is very supportive
  2. Disk defragmenter, for your brain

    Dendron is the first note-taking tool I've found that scales well with growth. Note references, easy refactoring tools and searchable hierarchies (now with fuzzy matching!) make it easier to maintain notes, and a built-in publishing tool and the ability to quickly copy links to notes makes it much easier to share notes with friends and colleagues.

    👍 Pros:    Vscode integration|Open-source|Local support|Publishing workflow
  3. Lightweight note taking that scales up to organizational knowledge base

    Dendron's use of flexible hierarchies works the same way that I think. It helps me organize and manage 20k+ markdown notes and its constantly getting better with weekly updates!

    🏁 Competitors: Obsidian.md, Roam Research, Notion
    👍 Pros:    Flexible hierarchies|Fast|Local first|Open-source|Vscode integration|Keyboard driven
    👎 Cons:    No standalone client|Technical interface

Social recommendations and mentions

FocusWriter might be a bit more popular than Dendron. We know about 25 links to it since March 2021 and only 21 links to Dendron. 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.

FocusWriter mentions (25)

  • Ensō: write now, edit later
    Reminds me of the (dead) RoughDraft mac app by 43 Folders(?). There is also FocusWriter - opensource and multi-platform. https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • A collection of useful Mac Apps
    FocusWriter - Price: Free Distraction-free writing app for Mac that allows you to focus on your writing. Source: 10 months ago
  • What do you people write on?
    You can get it here: https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/. Source: 10 months ago
  • Is there an app to keep track of all the details when writing a story?
    Also, if you're kinda of an indie author, try Bibisco or Focuswriter. Source: 11 months ago
  • is there a computer that can only run word a processor
    If you have a spare laptop, I recommend just disabling the Internet altogether. But before then, install a program called FocusWriter - it goes full screen. Or instead of the spare computer idea, maybe create a new user account on your computer maybe called Writing, install FocusWriter and have it launch on startup, and disable that account's Internet. Source: 12 months ago
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Dendron mentions (21)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing FocusWriter and Dendron, you can also consider the following products

Scrivener - Scrivener is a content-generation tool for composing and structuring documents.

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

iA Writer - Minimal Design, Maximum Focus

Joplin - Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor.

Typora - A minimal Markdown reading & writing app.

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.