You will also almost certainly want to either use the Apache 2 version of Minio[1] or label that dependency as AGPLv3 to ensure folks are aware. I would also recommend always pinning image versions, because you don't control what that project does or doesn't do in releases
Thank you! We're still working on the hosted offering, hence the "coming soon" pricing page.
Regarding Valkey, I included it as an example of a Redis compatible alternative, but you're right, it's probably better to use it in our Docker Compose file as well. Thanks also for pointing out the licensing considerations around Minio, will definitely look into that.
Hi, thanks for bringing this up! We don’t have export or migration features in place yet, but we are planning to add them. Which export formats would be most useful to you? And when you mention migration, are you thinking about moving data from similar tools into Colanode or vice-versa? If so, which specific tools would you like to be able to migrate to/from?
Is there a name for this new-age method of notes/webpage/data productivity genre? They all seem to have "write with /" to insert "block" content.
I am trying wrap my head around what they are. The seem to be "docs" on the web. Then they also have this "inline page" feature which is a fancy include. Then have a table insert with a relation feature. Then they have a dynamic view layout engine on a table.
Do you have plans for mobile app? It looks really useful but the two places I would use it would both require I mobile app before I could switch to it.
Hi, thanks for the question! Yes, we do plan to implement mobile apps, but we don't have a concrete timeline yet. It depends on the limitations and challenges we might face when we implement the same local-first approach as we did in desktop (full offline support, background syncing etc).
Anything that starts as Open source but is clearly meant to be a for profit
product makes me sceptical.
The page has a link "Pricing" that takes to a page that says
its coming up.
Well I will wait and see what and how the pricing structure will be revealed.
It is a product that easily lends itself to being a "little vit free and open source" and then all the for profit add ons are $$$$$ and not open sourced .
This looks great, it's a crowded field but there's still a lot of room for improvement.
The most important question before I'd try this is, do real time cross platform notifications work? If yes, how did you solve this for people self hosting?
That's a great question! We didn't come to it yet, because we are focused only in desktop app for now. This is definitely one of the challenges we need to solve once we start working on the mobile apps. The self-hosting use case makes it tricky (and probably fun challenge to solve).
Hi! For now, Colanode is available only as a desktop app (Electron). The primary reason is that we wanted to implement some local-first features, which are currently more complex to achieve in the browser.
Mainly using SQLite and having access to native file system for reading and writing files. We wanted to provide a full offline functionality. While it's possible to achieve that in browser as well it seemed quite complicated for now (we might consider it in the future).
It’s actually fairly straightforward using the OPFS API; I used it to build an upload queue a while ago, so the user can drag arbitrary files on the browser, they get copied into the OPFS as regular files, and then I can upload them at my own leisure, even after browser restarts.
The SQLite WASM build even has support for it AFAIR.
Hi, thanks for the question! I haven’t used Huly extensively to provide a detailed comparison, but from a quick look (and a test I did some time ago) it seems to take a more opinionated approach: features such as issues, projects, and overall layout are pre-defined. Colanode, by contrast, works like Notion, giving you flexible building blocks so you can model your own workflows and knowledge structures. Huly may be quicker to get started with, while Colanode offers greater adaptability over time (this comes down to personal preference). Another key distinction is tech architecture: Colanode is built around a local-first design, providing full offline support with background syncing. I haven’t found equivalent offline capabilities documented for Huly, even though they may have them.
This looks very interesting purely because I can just about see from the very fast gif on the README that it has tasks in there, how much of a first class citizen they are of the app could be really important. It blows my mind that both Slack and Notion have such half-arsed task implementations - every time I need to introduce better, asynchronous task assignments at work I get pushback over "people won't use yet another app" - and sure enough, getting people to assign me something rather than @ notifying me while I'm nose deep in code of something that needs doing in a few days time has been impossible. A single app that lets a team manage work without constant interruptions would be the dream.
> A single app that lets a team manage work without constant interruptions would be the dream.
I can see how it can work, using a native application client to interface to something like develops or jira and then bolt on instant messaging (or the reverse).
The question is, can I get a company to open their wallets for this? From experience, I think not, but i am open to being convinced.
Congratulations on your launch, the animation makes it seem like a neat product!
I don't think I've ever seen a "coming soon" pricing page before <https://colanode.com/pricing/>
For my curiosity, your readme mentions Valkey but the docker compose uses Redis - is that on purpose? https://github.com/colanode/colanode/blob/v0.1.3/docker-comp...
You will also almost certainly want to either use the Apache 2 version of Minio[1] or label that dependency as AGPLv3 to ensure folks are aware. I would also recommend always pinning image versions, because you don't control what that project does or doesn't do in releases
1: https://github.com/minio/minio/blob/RELEASE.2021-04-22T15-44...
Thank you! We're still working on the hosted offering, hence the "coming soon" pricing page.
Regarding Valkey, I included it as an example of a Redis compatible alternative, but you're right, it's probably better to use it in our Docker Compose file as well. Thanks also for pointing out the licensing considerations around Minio, will definitely look into that.
Would it be possible to allow us to set our own custom fonts and color scheme (without having to fork it)?
These products are neat, but what about the data?
Notion is a tragedy when it comes to export or migration.
I didn’t see any bragging about the exportability of content from this one, but that’s the main thing I look for now.
Hi, thanks for bringing this up! We don’t have export or migration features in place yet, but we are planning to add them. Which export formats would be most useful to you? And when you mention migration, are you thinking about moving data from similar tools into Colanode or vice-versa? If so, which specific tools would you like to be able to migrate to/from?
Is there a name for this new-age method of notes/webpage/data productivity genre? They all seem to have "write with /" to insert "block" content.
I am trying wrap my head around what they are. The seem to be "docs" on the web. Then they also have this "inline page" feature which is a fancy include. Then have a table insert with a relation feature. Then they have a dynamic view layout engine on a table.
The term I'm familiar with is "outliners", as is used by Logseq: https://docs.logseq.com/#/page/start%20here
Unfortunately, this is quite difficult to search for, but it might give you some leads.
Block-based editors maybe?
Could be. That seems to bring up many search results.
Do you have plans for mobile app? It looks really useful but the two places I would use it would both require I mobile app before I could switch to it.
Hi, thanks for the question! Yes, we do plan to implement mobile apps, but we don't have a concrete timeline yet. It depends on the limitations and challenges we might face when we implement the same local-first approach as we did in desktop (full offline support, background syncing etc).
Anything that starts as Open source but is clearly meant to be a for profit product makes me sceptical.
The page has a link "Pricing" that takes to a page that says its coming up.
Well I will wait and see what and how the pricing structure will be revealed.
It is a product that easily lends itself to being a "little vit free and open source" and then all the for profit add ons are $$$$$ and not open sourced .
Wouldn't surprise me if it's just cloud hosting and maintenance for a fee. Might not be an indicator of dark patterns.
This looks great, it's a crowded field but there's still a lot of room for improvement.
The most important question before I'd try this is, do real time cross platform notifications work? If yes, how did you solve this for people self hosting?
That's a great question! We didn't come to it yet, because we are focused only in desktop app for now. This is definitely one of the challenges we need to solve once we start working on the mobile apps. The self-hosting use case makes it tricky (and probably fun challenge to solve).
I'm excited to try this out! (seems to have some bandwidth issues, currently downloading at 24KB/s)
Is SSO implemented or planned in the near future? I feel that colanode would be a great fit for our start-up
Thank you! Will look into the download speed issue. As for SSO, we don't have immediate plans, but we'll certainly consider it for the future.
sadly, app doesn't run on Intel Macs
> Colanode consists of a Node.js server API and an Electron desktop client
Is the Electron app a necessity or is using a browser possible as well?
Hi! For now, Colanode is available only as a desktop app (Electron). The primary reason is that we wanted to implement some local-first features, which are currently more complex to achieve in the browser.
Curious which features? I'm starting a local-first project and would love to make a PWA, but I just don't think the platform is ready yet.
Mainly using SQLite and having access to native file system for reading and writing files. We wanted to provide a full offline functionality. While it's possible to achieve that in browser as well it seemed quite complicated for now (we might consider it in the future).
It’s actually fairly straightforward using the OPFS API; I used it to build an upload queue a while ago, so the user can drag arbitrary files on the browser, they get copied into the OPFS as regular files, and then I can upload them at my own leisure, even after browser restarts. The SQLite WASM build even has support for it AFAIR.
Can recommend, it’s a fun challenge :)
Hello! How does this compare to Huly?
Hi, thanks for the question! I haven’t used Huly extensively to provide a detailed comparison, but from a quick look (and a test I did some time ago) it seems to take a more opinionated approach: features such as issues, projects, and overall layout are pre-defined. Colanode, by contrast, works like Notion, giving you flexible building blocks so you can model your own workflows and knowledge structures. Huly may be quicker to get started with, while Colanode offers greater adaptability over time (this comes down to personal preference). Another key distinction is tech architecture: Colanode is built around a local-first design, providing full offline support with background syncing. I haven’t found equivalent offline capabilities documented for Huly, even though they may have them.
This looks very interesting purely because I can just about see from the very fast gif on the README that it has tasks in there, how much of a first class citizen they are of the app could be really important. It blows my mind that both Slack and Notion have such half-arsed task implementations - every time I need to introduce better, asynchronous task assignments at work I get pushback over "people won't use yet another app" - and sure enough, getting people to assign me something rather than @ notifying me while I'm nose deep in code of something that needs doing in a few days time has been impossible. A single app that lets a team manage work without constant interruptions would be the dream.
> A single app that lets a team manage work without constant interruptions would be the dream.
I can see how it can work, using a native application client to interface to something like develops or jira and then bolt on instant messaging (or the reverse).
The question is, can I get a company to open their wallets for this? From experience, I think not, but i am open to being convinced.