When comparing reStructuredText vs Org-mode, the Slant community recommends Org-mode for most people. In the question“What are the best markup languages?” Org-mode is ranked 1st while reStructuredText is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Org-mode is:
Org-mode is characterized by a flexible and versatile system with adaptability to different workflows, making it comparable as an Evernote alternative. It is at once simple and complex., which helps it to compete as an Evernote alternative.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Human-readable
reStructuredText is an easy-to-read, what-you-see-is-what-you-get plaintext markup syntax and parser system.
Pro Technical documentation
Without any adjustments RST has many facilities for writing technical documentation (API docs, syntax highlighting code, embed code from source files).
Pro Parsing from Python
Python's docutils include a parser for RestructuredText.
Pro Extensible
Generators such as Sphinx allow you to define your own custom roles, directives and output generators.
Pro It's standardized
There's only one standard to adhere to - no "flavors".
Pro Large collections of themes available
Pro Very flexible
Org-mode is characterized by a flexible and versatile system with adaptability to different workflows, making it comparable as an Evernote alternative. It is at once simple and complex., which helps it to compete as an Evernote alternative.
Pro Built-in agenda
Org-mode has some built-in agenda functionality. You can schedule tasks and assign various degrees of importance to each of them. Org-mode agenda can also be synced with Google Calendar.
Pro Versioning can be tracked and synced using Git or other VCS
Org files are plain text, and lend themselves well to version control. Emacs also has good integrations for various VCS.
Pro Great sync support
Notes and to-dos can be synced with Trello, Toodledo, Simplenote, Orgmobile, or with tools like Git on Github, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Bitbucket, while WebDAV (with iOS and Android) can also be exported to PDF, mind map, LaTeX, HTML, Docbook, or txt.
Pro Basic spreadsheet functionality
Org-mode has some basic spreadsheet functionality. Other than auto-formatting ASCII tables (a notoriously annoying problem), it also has support for LISP-like syntax to define equations or any other functionality that can be achieved through spreadsheets.
Pro Out-of-the-box Latex support
Org-mode has out-of-the-box support for Latex: it can immediately parse equations (or other Latex markup) and can even compile notes to PDF or HTML.
Cons
Con Setup can be tedious
If you prefer Python to stay out of the way so that you can focus on the task you are doing, you will find that overall Python just asserts itself far to much.
Con Difficult to learn
Org-mode has a difficult learning curve since you have to learn all the keybindings and commands. It's especially difficult if you are not used to Emacs.