Moving Apple Notes into Logseq, Reflect, Tana Outliner, or Capacities
One Markdown export, four very different note apps. Pricing, what happens to your folders, real import limits, and the one of the four that cannot take a Markdown folder at all.
Quick Answer
Export your Apple Notes library to Markdown with Apple Notes Exporter Pro, then import that folder into whichever app fits how you want to organize notes afterward. Logseq and Capacities both take a folder of Markdown files directly, though Capacities caps a single bulk import at 100 files. Reflect's current app, rebuilt in July 2026 as the free and open source Reflect Open, stores notes as that same kind of Markdown folder, so copying your exported files straight into its notes folder works, even without a published import wizard for outside Markdown. Tana Outliner, the renamed personal-knowledge app formerly just called Tana, is the one to skip for this specific move: it only accepts Roam, OPML, or Logseq files natively, not plain Markdown, so a full-library import means converting every file first.
Obsidian, Notion, and Anytype get most of the attention when people talk about leaving Apple Notes, and each has earned a dedicated comparison on its own. Logseq, Capacities, Reflect, and Tana Outliner get less individual search volume on their own, but real people land on all four when they search things like "best Obsidian alternative" or "apple notes markdown import," and nothing currently walks through what an Apple Notes export actually does once it lands in each one.
One of the four is not what it used to be, and worth clearing up before anything else. As of this check in October 2026, Tana Inc. runs two separate products under names that collide: Tana, relaunched in March 2026 as an AI meeting platform at tana.inc, and Tana Outliner, the original notes app this guide actually covers, now living at outliner.tana.inc. If a pricing page you find does not look like a notes app, that is why.
This guide covers the same case each time: a personal Apple Notes library exported to Markdown with Apple Notes Exporter Pro on a current Mac, then imported into a fresh or existing graph, space, or workspace in each of the four apps. Prices, import mechanics, and file limits below were checked directly against each product's own site and documentation in October 2026, not pulled from directory or review sites, several of which were themselves out of date on Reflect's pricing and Tana's rebrand.
What actually happens to your export in each app
Apple Notes to Logseq, Capacities, Reflect, or Tana Outliner: step-by-step
1. Export your Apple Notes library to Markdown
Open Apple Notes Exporter Pro, choose Markdown, and turn on attachments and folder grouping. It writes one .md file per note, grouped into subfolders that mirror your Apple Notes folders, with an attachments folder next to each note that had images. This is the same export you would use for Obsidian, so if you already have one sitting around from an earlier move, you can reuse it here.
2. Import into Logseq
Point Logseq at a graph folder (new or existing), then copy your exported subfolders into it, in pages, or anywhere else inside that graph. Logseq can find files sitting in subfolders on disk, so you do not have to flatten everything into pages first. Re-open the graph and Logseq re-indexes the new files as pages, linked through [[wikilinks]] and #tags rather than a visible folder tree.
3. Import into Capacities with Bulk Import
Open Bulk Import and select your exported folder, in batches of up to 100 files, since that is the hard cap per import. Choose Tag as the folder-handling option so each old Apple Notes folder becomes a tag you can filter by afterward, or Block if you would rather keep the folder path as plain text inside the note. Turn on "Extract types from folder names" if you want folders that match an existing Object Type, like Recipes or Projects, to land as that type automatically instead of a generic note.
4. Bring notes into Reflect Open
Reflect's current Mac app, Reflect Open, stores every note as a Markdown file inside daily, notes, and assets folders you can open directly in Finder. Reflect has only published a one-way migration path from the previous, closed version of Reflect, not a general importer for outside Markdown. Back up the notes folder, then copy your exported .md files and their attachments straight into it, and reopen Reflect to confirm it picked up the new notes before you rely on this for a full library.
5. Decide whether Tana Outliner is worth it for this specific move
Tana Outliner's own import page lists Roam, OPML/Workflowy, and Logseq as native formats. Plain Markdown is not on that list, so a folder of exported Apple Notes files cannot be bulk imported the way it can into the other three. The documented workaround is Tana Paste, a structured plain-text format you type or paste by hand, or convert to with a third-party tool. That is realistic for a handful of notes you want to rebuild as supertags, not for a few thousand notes at once.
6. Rebuild links, tags, and check attachments
None of the four keep your old Apple Notes folder hierarchy as a folder tree. Logseq and Reflect Open keep your exported subfolders as literal folders on disk but organize by page and link in the app itself, and Capacities turns a folder into a tag or a type instead of a folder. Spend the first session after any import relinking notes you actually use together, and open a handful of image-heavy notes in each app to confirm attachments resolved rather than assuming the import handled every path correctly.
Common Questions
Which of these four should I actually pick?
It depends on what you want after the move, not which app has the longest feature list. Pick Capacities if you want the most folder-aware bulk import and don't mind working in 100-file batches. Pick Logseq if free, fully open source, and owning plain Markdown files on disk matters more than a dedicated import wizard. Pick Reflect Open if you want the simplest free Mac app and are comfortable copying files into its notes folder by hand. Skip Tana Outliner for a full-library migration. It is a genuinely different kind of tool, built around supertags and an outliner, not a Markdown importer, and this specific job is its weak point.
Is Tana the same product as the Tana Outliner I keep seeing in search results?
No, and the overlap in naming causes real confusion as of this check in October 2026. Tana Inc. relaunched the Tana name on tana.inc on March 31, 2026, for an unrelated agentic meeting platform: video calls with AI agents that file issues and draft documents live during the conversation. The original personal-knowledge outliner, the one with supertags and infinite outlining that people have compared to Roam and Logseq since 2023, was renamed Tana Outliner and moved to outliner.tana.inc. If you land on tana.inc and see pricing for hosted meetings and AI transcripts, you are not looking at the notes app this guide covers.
Does Apple Notes Exporter Pro import notes into any of these four apps?
No. Apple Notes Exporter Pro exports notes out of Apple Notes, to fifteen formats including Markdown, PDF, Word, HTML, Obsidian, and Evernote ENEX. It does not talk to Logseq, Capacities, Reflect, or Tana Outliner directly. Getting the exported Markdown into any of them is that app's own import feature, or in Reflect Open's case, copying files into the folder it watches.
Why do so many 'best note app' roundups get Reflect's pricing wrong?
Because Reflect changed its entire model on July 14, 2026, and most directory and comparison sites we checked while researching this piece still describe the version that existed before that date. The old Reflect was a paid, subscription-only app with no permanent free tier. Reflect Open, the July 2026 rebuild, is a free, open source Mac app under the MIT license that stores notes as plain Markdown files. The iPhone app is a separate case: free during its current TestFlight beta, with Reflect saying it expects to charge for it eventually, and existing subscribers from the old app keeping access when that happens.
What happens to my Apple Notes folders specifically?
Differently in each app. Logseq keeps your exported subfolders as real folders on disk and can read files out of them, but organizes by linked page and tag in its interface, not a folder sidebar. Capacities' Bulk Import lets you turn a folder path into a tag, keep it as plain text in the note, or ignore it outright, and can optionally read an existing Object Type straight from the folder name. Reflect Open keeps folders exactly as they are, since its whole graph is just a folder structure on your Mac. Tana Outliner does not apply here, since a folder of Markdown is not one of its import formats in the first place.
Is there a limit on how many notes I can bring into Capacities at once?
Yes. Capacities caps a single Bulk Import at 100 files, 10GB total, and 100MB per individual file, with a lifetime limit of 20,000 bulk-imported objects on the account. A library of 3,000 exported Apple Notes files means roughly 30 separate import batches, not one. That is tedious but not a blocker, and it is worth knowing before you start rather than discovering it on file 101.
Will images and attachments survive the move?
Mostly, but verify it yourself rather than assuming. Apple Notes Exporter Pro writes each note's images into an attachments folder next to its Markdown file, linked with a standard image reference. Capacities explicitly converts an embedded Markdown image into its own Image object on import. Logseq and Reflect Open both expect attachments as files inside an assets folder alongside the Markdown. None of the four publish a guarantee covering every path format, so open a few image-heavy notes in each app right after import and confirm the pictures show up as pictures, not broken links.
Is Logseq Sync required to use Logseq?
No. Logseq itself is free and fully open source, and you can sync a graph across devices for free through iCloud, Dropbox, Git, or Syncthing, since it is just a folder of Markdown files. Logseq Sync is an optional $5/month ($50/year) add-on that adds Logseq's own end-to-end encrypted cloud sync instead of managing one of those yourself, and a roughly $15/month Sponsor tier adds early access to experimental features on top of that.
What about Reflect's iPhone app, is that free too?
For now. As of this check in October 2026, the iPhone app is free while it runs in TestFlight. Reflect has said directly that it expects to charge for it eventually but has not set a price or date. Anyone with an existing subscription to the previous, closed version of Reflect keeps mobile access included once that changes, without paying twice.
Related Reading
Anytype takes the no-folders idea further than any app on this page, replacing folders with linked Objects entirely. A useful contrast if Capacities or Logseq still feel too folder-shaped for what you want.
The closest parallel to Logseq and Reflect Open here, since Obsidian is also a plain folder of Markdown files. Start here if keeping your exact Apple Notes folder structure matters more than linking between notes.
Whichever of the four you land on, this is the tested comparison of tools for getting your Apple Notes library out in the first place.
Export Your Apple Notes Before You Decide
Apple Notes Exporter Pro writes your whole library to Markdown, with folders and attachments intact in one batch, so whichever of these four you pick gets a clean file to import.