Our take
Pick iA Writer if writers who will run the free trial while they finish a first Focus Mode page — then Mac at US$49.99 (and iPhone/iPad US$29.99 if they want that SKU), not Obsidian Sync $4 first unless they want a graph vault, and not if they need a PKM backlink graph (iA Writer is a focused page, not a wiki). Pick Logseq if students and knowledge workers who will stay on the open-source app at $0 (local Markdown;
Best for
iA Writer A sentence you start at a public $
Logseq A graph notebook you start at a public $0
Free plan
iA Writer No free plan
Logseq $0 · “Free forever for personal use.” Open source. Local Markdown. iOS & Android apps
Lowest paid
iA Writer iPhone / iPad $29.99
Logseq Not published by the vendor
Next step up
iA Writer Mac $49.99
Logseq
Watch out
iA Writer Major updates may cost
Logseq There is no public Sync $ on the pages we fetched
Last checked
iA Writer 2026-10-23 · ia.net/writer/buy
Logseq 2026-10-23 · logseq.com/pricing
writers who will run the free trial while they finish a first Focus Mode page — then Mac at US$49.99 (and iPhone/iPad US$29.99 if they want that SKU), not Obsidian Sync $4 first unless they want a graph vault, and not if they need a PKM backlink graph (iA Writer is a focused page, not a wiki).
Read the iA Writer pagestudents and knowledge workers who will stay on the open-source app at $0 (local Markdown; Free forever for personal use) while they open a first Queries page — not teams that need a printed Sync seat (we did not find a public Sync $).
Read the Logseq page
