From Amplenote to Zettlr - a no-nonsense, in-depth analysis. This post is part of a series of articles digging deep into the current landscape of Tools for Thought.
In the last article of this series, we explored Heptabase. I explained why Heptabase is an excellent choice for people needing a PKM with a visual approach and excellent PDF annotations. This time, we explore Reflect, which combines a minimalistic yet powerful approach.
I heard about Reflect at the beginning of 2021 and joined their waitlist. I started using it during the summer of 2021.
Introduction
Reflect is an Electron-based knowledge management tool prioritizing security and performance with a less-is-more approach. Its beautiful, clean design supports light and dark modes.
It is available for Web, macOS, iOS, iPadOS (Beta), and Android.
Reflect offers a classical three-column layout. The left sidebar contains the search, links to the main areas (daily notes, all notes, tasks, and map), and your pinned favorites. The middle area is reserved for the content of your note, while the right sidebar contains a calendar (when a daily note is selected) and actions and links. There is no permanent open right sidebar where you can put additional notes (like we have seen in Amplenote and Heptabase before).
You can temporarily open another note in an overlay, but only with links within the current note or in the “related” or “similar” section on the right sidebar. I would love to see a more versatile approach here, allowing you to open any note in the sidebar from the command palette and add more than one. I often have meetings or work sessions that require information from more than one note, and Reflect feels limited here.
The mobile clients
Reflect’s mobile clients adapt their functionality to the screen size. The iOS version is the weakest one, offering only daily notes and all notes. You can’t get the task overview or map there.
The iPadOS version shows different views when in landscape or portrait mode. Portrait mode is almost functional, equivalent to the desktop version, with a left and a right sidebar but no overlay.
When rotating the iPad into portrait mode, you get a nice focused view of the note.
The Tasks overview (which I will explain later) is also supported:
Design
Reflect has a very polished, modern design. Its clean, excellent-readable font and few distractions make it easy to use. It doesn’t yet support different themes or UI customizations but has light and dark modes.