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Comparison

XESO vs Heptabase

Heptabase lays your ideas out on a canvas. XESO answers questions about them. Both respect your thinking; only one hands you cited answers the moment you ask.
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Free for 25 notes · 14-day Pro trial · monthly launch pricing
Product peek

Capture first. Get answers without arranging a board.

The capture surface routes saved links and files into the library, then scoped chat answers questions across them — no canvas to lay out by hand.

Product peek: Capture first. Get answers without arranging a board. — product screenshot

At-a-glance scorecard

Relative fit for long-horizon knowledge work
XESO8.9/10
Heptabase8.1/10
  • Scoped chat and citations are first-class — ask your library, get a cited answer
  • Capture and structured notes are the default, not a board you maintain by hand
  • Export stays open (Markdown, JSON, data export) so switching tools is never one-way

Where Heptabase wins

Heptabase is the right answer when thinking spatially is the point — a researcher mapping a literature review, a student connecting cards on an infinite whiteboard. Arranging ideas by hand is its craft, and it does it beautifully.

Where XESO wins

  • Capture → filing → chat is the default path — not a canvas you assemble before the work pays off.
  • Retrieval with citations is built in; ask a question and see the exact note the answer came from.
  • Structure without manual layout — segments scope chat to a project or topic with no board to maintain.
  • Works on mobile and web for one-tap capture from anywhere, not just at a desk with a big canvas.
  • Export Markdown and JSON any time — so trying XESO is never a one-way door.

Question: Which notes mention the Simplicity Contract?

XESO

Four notes in your library reference the Simplicity Contract: the product spec, the design token addendum, and two decision memos from March.

Product spec — Simplicity Contract

The Simplicity Contract is the governing constraint: every feature must reduce friction, not add it.

Heptabase

Heptabase shines when you arrange cards on a whiteboard and see relationships spatially. To answer this you would search your cards and scan the board visually — it surfaces matching cards rather than a synthesised answer with citations.

Heptabase returns cards to arrange, not a cited answer to your question.

Stop arranging. Start asking.

XESO works the minute you save your first link. See Pro features with a 14-day trial.
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