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Roam is a cloud-based note-taking software solution that helps users keeping their documents and research organized. The software offers users an online workspace with features that can organize and evaluate their knowledge. The platform is built on a directed graph which lets users connect and remix notes and ideas in different overlapping hierarchies. It offers features such as bullet notes, note linking, auto save and allows them to work with it open in a tab side by side whilst conducting research.
Provider
Roam Research
Located In
United States
Open API
Unverified
Deployment
Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based
Training
Videos, Documentation
Support
Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum
Intended for research and note-taking
Content Source: Roam
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Roam Reviews
Pros
The easy to use interface and the ability to link notes is a gamechanger. It really helps to organize my thoughts.
The graph structure in which the information is stored is so amazing. It is very intuitive, linking notes from one page to other.
Roam has amazing foundations - the ease with which individual notes and blocks can be linked and/or embedded is amazing.
What I most loved about roam research is the linking between notes it has, it is a feature I have not seen in other softwares and really helps creating a mental map about your thoughts.
Cons
The integration with our everyday used software was a little difficult.
Very simplistic interface, sometimes the nectar becomes the poison.
That's just one example, but it's very annoying and makes the platform frustrating at times.
There are bugs and some annoying issues that could easily be fixed.
"Review for Roam"
Pros: The aspect of Roam that has delighted me the most is how having it open in a tab changes my perspective on research as a whole.
Cons: The integration with our everyday used software was a little difficult.
"Interconnected, always accessible notes"
Pros: Interconnected notes, accessible across all your devices, and directly in the browser.
Cons: ROAM does box you in. Migrating to any other tool can be daunting. Then again, that is the case for most tools in this category.
"The "first-mover" in associative knowledge management, but lacks innovation and is expensive"
Overall: Overall, it was not so bad of an experience at first. It taught me a new way to think about writing notes. But it has fallen behind many other alternatives and I don't see their developers making the effort to catch up and innovate. Time to move on.
Pros: Roam was the first to open the eyes of the general user base to the idea of taking notes and associating them, creating an expansive networked knowledge base over time. Roam really changed my way of thinking on how to organize my scattered thoughts into a graph database. It's UI is relatively clean and writing individual notes is pretty simple.
Cons: It lacks innovation and major feature updates. I need inline LaTeX equations and made numerous requests for this and other features, but was met with rude responses from support. It's handling of multiple graphs is rather clunky. And if your graphs are sufficiently large, you'll encounter performance issues (at least I did). And it is extremely expensive given its lack of features and feature development.
"Excellent note taking tool"
Overall: Great experience with Roam
Pros: Organization of thoughts, note taking abilities, being able to search through easily
Cons: Very simplistic interface, sometimes the nectar becomes the poison
"Roam, the good and bad about it"
Overall: In the beginning, it was super fun and quite a good experience. But down the road, it lost me due to the need for maintenance.
Pros: The networked linking made so much sense.
Cons: It's too much maintenance to have a PKM in Roam, or as I put it 'Too much heavy lifting' meaning coding. Take time from my creative process
