When comparing Quiver vs Zim, the Slant community recommends Zim for most people. In the question“What is the best cross-platform note-taking app?” Zim is ranked 3rd while Quiver is ranked 65th. The most important reason people chose Zim is:
Notes can contain links to other notes, allowing you to reference important information when needed. This way the user can connect and reference many different pages in the app, keeping things clean and structured, unlike Evernote, which makes this a good Evernote alternative.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Has more features than just a simple Markdown editor
Quiver is a notebook and note-taking app akin to Evernote which happens to also be able to edit Markdown files. As such, it has a lot of useful features such as: image support, file attachments, web content support and more.
Pro Supports code highlighting
Has syntax highlighting for more than 120 programming languages.
Pro Live preview
Quiver has live preview for both Markdown and LaTeX. This helps users to better understand the way they are formatting their files.
Pro Notes can be linked to each-other
Quiver notes have unique links that can be copied and pasted into other notes to gain quick access between them.
Pro Cloud syncing
Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or any other file-based cloud services.
Pro Supports vi keybindings
For people used to vi keybindings, Quiver can be set up to work with them.
Pro Combination of different types of writing in one note
The most outstanding thing for me. Use HTML line breaks while writing MD text.
Also, unlike most hybrid editors like Bear, it supports instant image sizing and respective preview.
Pro Allows for organized, wiki-style navigation
Notes can contain links to other notes, allowing you to reference important information when needed. This way the user can connect and reference many different pages in the app, keeping things clean and structured, unlike Evernote, which makes this a good Evernote alternative.
Pro Plain text data format rather than proprietary
If/when the app is no longer developed (or if the user simply decides to no longer use the application or view/edit it on a non-supported platform), this can still be done with any plain-text editor.
Pro Automatically manages files and folders
Zim will automatically create a folder structure that fits your page hierarchy and adds/removes files such as images to/from appropriate folders.
Pro Good export options
Zim supports HTML, LaTeX, Pandoc Markdown, and RST. This allows ones documents to be easily used in a wide selection of other apps.
Pro Support for multiple platforms
Windows, Linux, and BSD are supported with their own clients. This is nice for those that use multiple operating systems but still want to use the same app on each.
Cons
Con You can't edit specific files, they must be in your notebook
Con No iOS apps for editing, only a viewer available
I'd LOVE to edit and create quiver notes on my iPad!
Con The line in focus shows a border around it which is distracting
The line in focus in the editor shows a rounded rectangular border around it, which is unappealing and distracting.
Con Much more than a simple Markdown editor
Since it's more like a note-taking app (and a note-taking app built for developers) than a Markdown editor, it may be a little excessive to use it only for its Markdown editing features.
Con No mobile app support
This is a desktop app and there are no mobile versions available. This can make it more difficult to use on-the-go if using cloud storage to store files from the app, as there is no mobile app version to access those files.
Con No native sync support
Zim notes don't automatically synchronize with other devices or offer built-in cloud sync support. Of course the user can add the files to Dropbox, or something similar, to then open them on another device with the app installed. But this is more of a work-around than a built-in solution.
Con Looks ancient
Zim has a very plain and outdated interface.