# Jan vs Znote

Jan records 291,894 monthly visits with -9.6% month-over-month growth and Free pricing. Znote records 3,761 monthly visits with +3.4% growth and Freemium, Paid pricing.

| Metric | [Jan](https://openaitools.app/tool/jan) | [Znote](https://openaitools.app/tool/znote-ai) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://jan.ai | https://znote.io |
| Categories | AI Chatbot, AI Assistant, Open Source AI Models, Large Language Models (LLMs) | AI Note Taker, AI Assistant, AI Transcriber, AI Summarizer |
| Pricing Model | Free | Freemium, Paid |
| Monthly Visits | 291,894 | 3,761 |
| MoM Growth Rate | -9.6% | +3.4% |
| Primary Market | United States | United States |
| Direct Visits | 105,615 | 1,468 |
| Review Score | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| Saved Count | 6 | 1 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## Jan

Jan is a desktop application that positions itself as an open replacement for ChatGPT, with the key difference that inference happens on hardware you control. After installing the app you pick a model, and Jan downloads and runs it locally, so prompts, chat history, and files stay on your machine rather than on someone else's server. For heavier workloads you can connect an OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or Mistral key and route requests to the cloud while keeping the same chat interface and local history.

The project is developed in the open by Menlo Research and has accumulated tens of thousands of GitHub stars along with millions of downloads. It exposes OpenAI-compatible local endpoints, which means existing tooling and SDKs can point at Jan instead of a hosted service, and it supports custom assistants with their own instructions and model choices. Recent releases have added an agent surface alongside the classic desktop chat, and a memory feature is announced as coming to carry context and preferences between sessions.

Because it is open source, Jan can be audited, self-built, and extended, and there is no paid tier gating the desktop client. The practical tradeoff is that local model quality and speed depend entirely on your own GPU or CPU, so lighter machines will favor smaller quantized models while cloud keys remain the escape hatch for harder tasks.

**Pricing & Plans:** Jan is free and open source, with no paid tier for the desktop app. Costs only appear if you optionally connect your own paid cloud API keys for providers such as OpenAI or Anthropic.

- **Local-first inference:** Download and run open models such as Llama, Mistral, Qwen, Gemma, and DeepSeek directly on your own machine, with chat data kept on device.
- **Bring your own cloud models:** Optionally connect API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, and other providers to route requests to frontier models from the same interface.
- **OpenAI-compatible local API:** Jan exposes a local server endpoint that follows the OpenAI API shape, so existing SDKs and tools can talk to your local models without code changes.
- **Custom assistants:** Create assistants with their own system instructions, model selection, and parameters, then reuse them across conversations.
- **Open source and extensible:** The full desktop client and agent code are public on GitHub, so you can audit behavior, build your own version, and contribute improvements.

**Strengths:** Completely free and open source, with no account required to run local models; Conversation data stays on your device by default; Works across macOS, Windows, and Linux with an OpenAI-compatible local endpoint; Optional cloud key support lets you mix local and frontier models in one app

**Limitations:** Local model quality and speed are capped by your own hardware; Very large models may need substantial RAM or VRAM to be practical; Some cloud-connected and memory features are newer or still rolling out

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/jan.md)

## Znote

Znote is a local-first Markdown editor that treats your .md files as the source of truth. It opens the folders you choose, works offline, requires no account, and was built by a single indie developer who ships monthly updates. For anyone already storing notes in plain Markdown, that means an existing Obsidian vault opens as-is, with no migration and no lock-in.

What sets Znote apart is that AI and code live inside the note rather than in a separate panel. Typing @ lets you select which notes the assistant should read and / brings up prompts, and the answer appears inline in what you are writing. Code blocks are executable too: write a JavaScript block, press play, and it can query a database, call an API, or parse a CSV, rendering a chart or table right beside your text. Through MCP, Znote connects your notes to real tools like GitHub, Postgres, Slack, and Linear using the same configuration format as Claude Desktop, and the servers run locally on your machine.

Versioning is handled with git, but with a privacy twist: because notes are plain files you can commit and push them, yet any password written as secret:key=value is stored in an encrypted sidecar (using sops and age) so the note itself is safe to commit. The model choice is yours — bring an OpenAI or OpenRouter key, or run everything fully offline with Ollama. The app and all its features are free, with no subscription and no telemetry by default.

**Pricing & Plans:** Free. The Znote app and every feature are free with no license or subscription. AI functionality uses your own API key — OpenAI, OpenRouter, or a fully local Ollama setup — so you pay your model provider at cost, or nothing at all with Ollama.

- **Ask your own notes:** Type @ to choose which of your notes the AI reads and / to pick a prompt; the answer lands inline in the note you are writing, with no chat window or copy-paste.
- **Runnable code blocks:** Write a JavaScript block, press play, and query a database, call an API, or parse a file — the chart or table renders inline and the saved note becomes a reusable tool.
- **MCP tool connections:** Connect real tools through MCP servers such as GitHub, Postgres, Slack, and Linear, so AI blocks can query, search, and create on your behalf using the same config format as Claude Desktop.
- **Git versioning with secret protection:** Your vault is plain, git-compatible files. Pull, commit, and push from the sidebar, while note passwords stay encrypted in a sidecar file so secrets never reach a commit.
- **Local-first privacy:** Run entirely offline with Ollama, or bring an OpenAI or OpenRouter key — you pay your provider at cost and the free app has no subscription.

**Strengths:** Free with every feature unlocked and no subscription; Works on plain, portable .md files with no cloud or account required; AI answers inline from your own notes instead of a separate chat window; Runnable JavaScript blocks turn notes into reusable mini-tools and dashboards

**Limitations:** AI features need your own API key, so there is no bundled model subscription; It is a desktop-style editor rather than a collaborative cloud workspace; MCP tool connections require the same config skills as Claude Desktop; Less suited to teams wanting real-time multiplayer editing in the browser

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/znote-ai.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do Jan and Znote compare in monthly traffic?

Jan has 291,894 monthly visits, while Znote has 3,761. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

Jan has a month-over-month growth rate of -9.6%; Znote has +3.4%.

### How does pricing compare?

Jan: Free. Jan is free and open source, with no paid tier for the desktop app. Costs only appear if you optionally connect your own paid cloud API keys for providers such as OpenAI or Anthropic. Znote: Freemium, Paid. Free. The Znote app and every feature are free with no license or subscription. AI functionality uses your own API key — OpenAI, OpenRouter, or a fully local Ollama setup — so you pay your model provider at cost, or nothing at all with Ollama.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [Ollama](https://openaitools.app/tool/ollama) | 9,421,973 | +4.3% | Free, Freemium, Paid | Provides a lightweight command-line runtime for local LLMs, though it lacks Jan's built-in graphical user interface. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/ollama.md) |
| 2 | [VS Code](https://openaitools.app/tool/vs-code) | 7,397,370 | -3.8% | Freemium | Write code with precision, hand bigger jobs to agents, and keep working from anywhere | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/vs-code.md) |
| 3 | [Qoder](https://openaitools.app/tool/qoder) | 5,145,040 | +81.8% | Freemium, Free Trial, Free | An agentic coding platform that ships real software | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/qoder.md) |
| 4 | [Pi Coding Agent](https://openaitools.app/tool/pi-coding-agent) | 1,929,244 | +4% | Free | A minimal, extensible terminal coding agent you can reshape | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/pi-coding-agent.md) |
| 5 | [T3 Code](https://openaitools.app/tool/t3-code) | 1,071,866 | +52.5% | Free | Open-source control plane for orchestrating coding agents | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/t3-code.md) |
| 6 | [Open WebUI](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-webui) | 804,534 | -2.8% | Freemium | Offers a powerful self-hosted web interface for local models, but requires manual Docker setup rather than desktop installation. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-webui.md) |
| 7 | [AnythingLLM](https://openaitools.app/tool/anythingllm) | 512,269 | +12.9% | Freemium | Specializes in document chat and local RAG workflows, though less focused on general-purpose model tinkering than Jan. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/anythingllm.md) |
| 8 | [ERNIE Comate](https://openaitools.app/tool/ernie-comate) | 503,253 | -39.5% | Freemium | Baidu's ERNIE-powered AI coding partner for your IDE | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/ernie-comate.md) |
| 9 | [Verdent Deck](https://openaitools.app/tool/verdent-deck) | 374,943 | -17.5% | Paid | Agentic coding with parallel AI agents that build and ship real products | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/verdent-deck.md) |
| 10 | [LibreChat](https://openaitools.app/tool/librechat) | 346,879 | -3.5% | Free | Unites multiple AI providers in a customizable open-source platform, but is typically deployed as a web server. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/librechat.md) |

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Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/jan-vs-znote-ai

More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)