Reflect is live · free plan; paid price not published · last verified 13 Nov 2026 · viability healthy
Reflect
Open-source Markdown note-taking on Mac, iPhone and iPad, with backlinks, daily notes, an optional bring-your-own-key AI layer and an MCP server for Claude and
Reflect is the pick when your notes are personal and you want a coding agent to be a first-class editor of them. Claude and Codex can search, read and edit your notes through its MCP server, paired with private notes excluded from AI access, Markdown files in a folder you own, and an open-source codebase as of the July 2026 Reflect Open release. The trade-offs are structural: no shared workspaces or live co-editing and no database views, and AI only works if you bring your own API key and pay your provider separately. Need a team wiki? Look at Notion. Need Android capture? Keep looking.
Verdict generatedVerified 13h ago · liveness 84/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/reflect
- Solo knowledge workers building a private second brain
- Developers who want Claude or Codex to search, read and edit their notes through MCP
- Writers and researchers who capture ideas by voice and link notes with backlinks
- Privacy-conscious professionals who want private notes and Markdown files they own
- Teams needing shared workspaces or live collaborative editing
- People who live in tables, databases or project-management views
- Android users — no Android app appears in the sources reviewed
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Skip Reflect if you need a shared team wiki with live co-editing and database views, or you want one bundled AI subscription instead of connecting your own API key and paying your provider separately.
AI usage is billed by your own provider, not by Reflect — a heavy month of asking questions across your notes shows up on your OpenAI or Anthropic bill, not on a Reflect invoice.
Reflect splits the bill in two: the Mac app costs nothing, while the iPhone & iPad app is a paid subscription priced per country on the App Store. AI is another line item entirely, since you bring your own API key and your provider charges you for usage. Solo users who stay on Mac pay nothing for the app itself; teams that need shared workspaces and per-seat billing will find Notion or a team wiki the more natural purchase.
In short
Reflect — Open-source Markdown note-taking on Mac, iPhone and iPad, with backlinks, daily notes, an optional bring-your-own-key AI layer and an MCP server for Claude and. Best for Solo knowledge workers building a private second brain, Developers who want Claude or Codex to search, read and edit their notes through MCP, Writers and researchers who capture ideas by voice and link notes with backlinks. Free to start; it also has paid plans whose price we could not confirm — see the pricing table.
No head-to-head comparison for Reflect yet — the alternatives below are the closest matches we list.
What is Reflect?
Reflect — Open-source Markdown note-taking on Mac, iPhone and iPad, with backlinks, daily notes, an optional bring-your-own-key AI layer and an MCP server for Claude and. Best for Solo knowledge workers building a private second brain, Developers who want Claude or Codex to search, read and edit their notes through MCP, Writers and researchers who capture ideas by voice and link notes with backlinks. Free to start; it also has paid plans whose price we could not confirm — see the pricing table.
Reflect is a networked note-taking app for Mac, iPhone and iPad built around links instead of folders. You write Markdown, connect notes with backlinks, and get a graph of how ideas relate, plus daily notes that open on today's note so capture is one keystroke. In the July 2026 'Reflect Open' release the app became open-source, Markdown-first and AI native, so both the code and your file format are inspectable. Notes live in a folder you choose and sync through iCloud Drive or Git. Capture is deliberately light: the Chrome extension on Mac saves web clips with the source link attached, and you can record audio memos and voice notes for later transcription. The AI layer is optional and bring-your-own-key: you connect your own API key, requests go straight to your provider, and that provider bills you separately. It answers questions with links back to the source notes, lists key takeaways and action items from meeting notes, fixes grammar and spelling, transcribes voice notes with your transcription provider, and supports custom reusable prompt templates. Notes marked private are excluded from AI note access. The differentiator is MCP: Reflect runs an MCP server so Claude and Codex can search, read and edit your notes. Reflect is for solo knowledge workers, writers, researchers and developers who want portable files, private notes and agent access.
Key features
- Networked note-taking with backlinks and a note graph
- Open-source codebase as of the July 2026 Reflect Open release
- Markdown-first notes stored as local files in a folder you choose
- Sync notes via iCloud Drive or Git
- Mac app with no subscription required
- iOS app for iPhone and iPad with online and offline capture
- Advanced Search filtering on mobile
- Daily notes that start you on today's note
- Web clipping via the Chrome extension on Mac
- Record audio memos and voice notes
- Transcribe voice notes with your transcription provider
- MCP server so Claude and Codex can search, read and edit your notes
- Ask your notes questions with answers linked to source notes
- Key takeaways and action items listed from meeting notes
- Grammar, spelling and writing improvement via AI
Behind the verdict
Reflect's strongest idea is that your notes should outlive the app. The July 2026 Reflect Open release made the app open-source and Markdown-first, and notes sit as plain files in a folder you choose, synced through iCloud Drive or Git. If Reflect disappeared tomorrow you would still have every note, which is not something most networked note apps can promise. The second idea is that a coding agent should be able to work in your notes. Reflect runs an MCP server, so Claude and Codex can search, read and edit them directly — useful if you keep research, specs and meeting notes next to your code. Note that this is agent integration; the sources reviewed do not describe a general-purpose public API, so do not plan around one. The capture model is deliberately light: daily notes open on today's note, backlinks build a graph without manual filing, the Chrome extension on Mac saves web clips with the source link attached, and you can record audio memos and voice notes for later transcription. Notes marked private are excluded from AI note access, which is the right default for a journal. The AI layer is optional and bring-your-own-key. You connect your API key, requests go straight to your provider, and that provider bills you for usage separately — Reflect is not a bundled AI subscription. What the AI does is concrete: answers with links back to the source notes, key takeaways and action items from meeting notes, grammar and spelling fixes, transcription through your transcription provider, and custom reusable prompts. Where it does not fit: teams. There are no shared workspaces, no live co-editing and no database views, so it is not a Notion or a team wiki. Anyone who lives in tables and project boards will fight it. No Android app appears in the sources reviewed. And if you want one bundled AI bill rather than managing your own API key and provider charges, this is not that product.
Models under the hood
as of 2026-11-08
Limitations
- Reflect's AI features are bring-your-own-key: you connect an API key, requests go directly to your provider, and that provider bills AI usage separately, so Reflect is not a single bundled AI subscription.
- Notes live as local Markdown files in a folder you choose, with sync through iCloud Drive or Git — you own the folder and the sync target.
- There are no shared workspaces, no live co-editing and no database views, so it is not a team wiki.
- MCP support lets coding agents such as Claude and Codex access, search and edit your notes; the sources reviewed describe that as agent integration rather than a documented general-purpose public API.
- No Android app appears in the sources reviewed.
as of 2026-11-13
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Is Reflect still active?
Reflect is live · free plan; paid price not published · last verified 13 Nov 2026 · viability healthy.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is Reflect? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: November 2026
How we score →What's new in Reflect
Checked 11 days agoAcross the latest 1 update: 1 launch.
What do users say about Reflect?
What people actually say about Reflect — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
ResearchedDiscussed by users across 7 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt, App Store, Bluesky, Stack Overflow, Lemmy) · researched Nov 7, 2026.
Weighted by the 124 posts each of 7 sources contributed.
- +Repeatedly described as the lowest-friction PKM app with a clean, no-frills interface
- +Calendar integration (Outlook) in the daily view avoids hunting for third-party add-ons
- +Networked backlinks, daily notes and graph view central to the design
- +Markdown-first files in a folder you choose makes notes portable
- +Optional bring-your-own-key AI keeps requests going straight to your provider
- −No genuine community discussion of the 2026 open-source, MCP version exists in this dataset
- −Older users bristled at a $120/year upfront cost with no monthly plan
- −Mac/iOS/web-only means Windows and Android users are excluded
- −Trial-to-read-only mode reportedly broke collapsed bullet content for one user
- −Dismissed by some as strictly worse than Obsidian
- • Bring-your-own-key AI means you pay your model provider separately
- • Historical users report $120/year billed upfront with no monthly option
- • Transcription requires your own transcription provider, billed separately
How we verified this
Every listed fact about Reflect — pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 13 Nov 2026. Analysis is drafted with AI models and checked against our editorial standards before publishing; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified Reflect 23 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed features, use cases, setup time, our verdict, description, limitations, switching out, summary, switching in, who it suits, who should skip it, hidden costs, pricing fit, SSL certificate
- — changed switching in, description, setup time, who should skip it, switching out, summary, hidden costs, pricing fit
- — changed who should skip it, summary, pricing fit, description, setup time, switching out, switching in, hidden costs
- — changed use cases, summary, description, features, switching in, setup time, pricing fit, limitations, who should skip it, switching out, hidden costs
- — changed limitations
- — changed who should skip it, pricing fit, our verdict, summary, features, hidden costs, use cases, limitations, switching in, switching out, description, pricing tiers, setup time
Showing the 6 most recent of 23 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does Reflect cost in 2026?
Reflect: Free to start; it also has paid plans whose price we could not confirm — see the pricing table. Pricing last verified 13 Nov 2026.
Plans compared
Every published Reflect tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac | Free | — | Solo Mac user who wants networked notes, backlinks, daily notes and local Markdown files without paying a subscription.Adds: Starting tier: no subscription required, with backlinks, note graph, daily notes, local Markdown files and sync via iCloud Drive or Git. |
| iPhone & iPad | Price varies by country | — | Existing Reflect user who wants to capture ideas on iPhone or iPad, online or offline, with Advanced Search filtering on mobile.Adds: Adds the iOS app for iPhone and iPad on top of the Mac app, priced per country on the App Store; Reflect Classic subscribers get one year free. |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Reflect's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Reflect splits the bill in two: the Mac app costs nothing, while the iPhone & iPad app is a paid subscription priced per country on the App Store. AI is another line item entirely, since you bring your own API key and your provider charges you for usage. Solo users who stay on Mac pay nothing for the app itself; teams that need shared workspaces and per-seat billing will find Notion or a team wiki the more natural purchase.
Has Reflect's pricing changed?
No plan price for Reflect has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick Reflect?
Pick Reflect if you are Solo knowledge workers building a private second brain, Developers who want Claude or Codex to search, read and edit their notes through MCP, Writers and researchers who capture ideas by voice and link notes with backlinks, Privacy-conscious professionals who want private notes and Markdown files they own.
Look elsewhere if you are Teams needing shared workspaces or live collaborative editing, People who live in tables, databases or project-management views, Android users — no Android app appears in the sources reviewed, Anyone who doesn't want to manage their own AI API key and provider billing.
Skip it if Skip Reflect if you need a shared team wiki with live co-editing and database views, or you want one bundled AI subscription instead of connecting your own API key and paying your provider separately.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Reflect actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Open Reflect in the morning on today's note, link yesterday's entry with a backlink, and mark anything sensitive private so it stays out of AI note access.
Outcome: A searchable graph of entries where connections surface on their own, with private notes excluded from AI note access and Markdown files sitting in a folder you choose.
Point Claude or Codex at Reflect's MCP server so the agent can search, read and edit the notes where you keep specs and research while you code.
Outcome: The agent works directly against your Markdown notes in the folder you sync via Git, with no copy-paste round trip.
Record a voice memo on iPhone, clip a source with the Chrome extension on Mac, then transcribe the memo through your transcription provider and ask your notes a question about the material.
Outcome: Answers come back with links to the source notes, and the clips keep their source URLs attached.
Use cases
- Keep a private journal, with notes marked private excluded from AI note access
- Capture a voice memo on your phone and transcribe it later through your transcription provider
- Ask your notes a question and get an answer with links to the notes it came from
- Pull takeaways and action items out of meeting notes
- Let Claude or Codex search and edit your notes while you code
- Save web links with the source URL attached using the Chrome extension on Mac
- Write Markdown files in a folder you sync yourself via iCloud Drive or Git
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Reflect — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Mac users get to first value fastest: download the Mac app, point Reflect at a folder for your Markdown files, and you are writing in today's daily note within a few minutes. Adding AI takes a little longer because you have to create an API key with your provider and paste it in. iPhone and iPad users have the extra step of an App Store subscription before capture works across devices.
Switching to or from Reflect
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Reflect Classic: Reflect Classic is still maintained, and you can import a copy of your notes without changing the originals in Classic.
- →From Reflect Classic (paid subscribers): claim one year of the iPhone & iPad app free; claiming the offer does not cancel your Classic subscription.
- →From a plain Markdown folder: point Reflect at a folder you choose and your existing .md files become notes you can backlink.
- ↗To any Markdown editor: notes are already Markdown files in a folder you choose, so you open the same folder in the new app.
- ↗To a Git-based workflow: sync the folder through Git and every note is versioned in the repository you already own.
Integrations
Resources & guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Reflect”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Reflect” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Reflect.
Official links
What are the best Reflect alternatives?
The closest alternatives to Reflect we list are Noteshelf, Notability and MyScript Notes. Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noteshelf | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Notability | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| MyScript Notes | Paid | Pricing not published | — |
Alternatives to Reflect
View all
Noteshelf
Noteshelf is a handwriting note-taking app with AI summarization, audio-synced notes, and PDF annotation for iOS, Android, and Windows.
Notability
Handwritten notes with live audio transcription and AI-generated study material on iPad, Mac, Android, and web.
MyScript Notes
Handwriting-to-text AI notepad that converts pen notes to typed text, searchable ink and AI-generated study quizzes.
Tools that pair well with Reflect
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Reflect, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Noteshelf
Noteshelf is a handwriting note-taking app with AI summarization, audio-synced notes, and PDF annotation for iOS, Android, and Windows.
Notability
Handwritten notes with live audio transcription and AI-generated study material on iPad, Mac, Android, and web.
MyScript Notes
Handwriting-to-text AI notepad that converts pen notes to typed text, searchable ink and AI-generated study quizzes.
Frequently asked questions
Best-of guides
For makers of Reflect
- Get a Verified Listing for Reflect ($39): a written decision within 1 working day.
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