Tana

Tana is an AI-native outliner and knowledge graph app that tries to replace a whole stack of productivity tools with a single, flexible workspace. It combines structured data, fast outlining, and embedded AI to help people manage projects, notes, and long-term knowledge in one place. The platform targets power users, teams, and anyone building a serious “second brain” rather than casual note takers.

Detailed User Report

From what I have seen across real user reviews and long-term case studies, Tana feels less like a simple notes app and more like a programmable thinking environment. People use it as a daily hub for tasks, meetings, and research, but they also build complex systems on top of its supertags, fields, and AI automations. Many users say that once the initial setup and learning curve are behind them, it becomes the central cockpit for their work and personal life.

Comprehensive Description

Tana is a cloud-based workspace that merges an outline editor with a graph-backed data model, so every bullet point becomes a node that can be tagged, queried, and reused across contexts. The idea is to capture everything quickly in an outline, then structure it later with supertags and fields instead of thinking about the perfect folder or database first. That makes it especially attractive for professionals juggling many projects, roles, and information streams.

"AI review" team

The core of the app is the infinite outliner: you can zoom into any node, nest sub-nodes as deeply as you want, and transform bullets into structured records with properties. On top of that, Tana adds live searches and views, which let you pull related nodes into custom dashboards, kanban-like boards, or filtered task lists. In practice, this means a single meeting note can automatically surface in your project view, task list, and CRM-style contact hub at the same time.

Supertags are Tana’s signature feature, acting like a blend of database schemas and templates. When you apply a supertag such as “Task”, “Project”, or “Meeting”, the node gains predefined fields like status, date, people, or links, plus custom views and commands. Over time, power users build entire systems on supertags, from editorial calendars and research databases to hiring pipelines and product roadmaps.

Our analysis at AI-Review.com reveals that many teams treat supertags as the backbone of their operating system, because they unify note-taking, task management, and lightweight databases in one consistent model.

Tana is also deeply AI-native. It offers built-in transcription for meetings and voice memos, AI-powered summaries, and custom AI commands that can transform or analyze nodes on demand. Users define multi-step AI workflows that, for example, take a raw call transcript, extract decisions and tasks, draft follow-up emails, and populate project fields automatically. This significantly reduces manual admin work when used well.

Beyond solo use, Tana supports shared workspaces so teams can collaborate on the same graph, assign tasks, and co-edit dashboards. Compared with more traditional tools like Notion, it leans toward knowledge workers who value flexible structures over rigid tables and pages. At the same time, some reviewers point out that the cloud-only architecture, premium pricing, and opinionated outliner-first design will not suit everyone, especially users who prefer local markdown files or simpler todo apps.

People who expect a plug-and-play task app might feel overwhelmed by Tana’s open-ended design, so it is important to start with simple workflows instead of trying to rebuild an entire productivity system on day one.

From a market perspective, Tana sits between personal knowledge management tools like Obsidian and Roam Research, and all-in-one workspaces like Notion and Capacities. It differentiates itself with AI baked into core workflows, powerful live queries, and a more opinionated outliner interface. According to several professional reviewers and power users, the app shines for those willing to invest time up front in modeling their work, then reap the benefits of automation and rich structure later.

Technical Specifications

Key Features

• Infinite zoomable outliner where each bullet is a node that can be nested, tagged, and reused across contexts.
• Supertags and fields that turn notes into structured records with properties, templates, and custom views.
• Live searches and multiple views (lists, boards, dashboards) that query the graph and surface relevant information in real time.
• AI-native workspace with meeting transcription, automatic summaries, and custom AI commands embedded directly into nodes.
• Daily notes system for journaling, planning, and capturing tasks, tightly linked to projects and other entities.
• Voice capture on mobile and desktop, including meeting notetaker that joins calls and syncs transcripts into your graph.
• Shared workspaces with collaborative editing, task assignment, and shared structures for teams.
• Template publishing and community-driven systems that let advanced users share workflows and supertag setups.
• Input API and external integrations like Google Calendar and Readwise for pulling external data into the knowledge graph.
• Cross-platform availability through web, desktop, and mobile apps to keep your system accessible everywhere.

Pricing and Plans

Pros and Cons

• Extremely flexible knowledge graph that can model complex workflows across projects, tasks, and research.
• Supertags and fields allow advanced users to build powerful database-like systems without coding.
• AI is built into the core experience, reducing friction for transcription, summarization, and content transformation.
• Outliner-first interface feels natural to people who think in hierarchical bullets and nested ideas.
• Live searches and views make it easy to surface the same information in multiple dashboards automatically.
• Strong fit for power users, consultants, and teams who want a customizable hub rather than many disconnected tools.
• Templates and shared systems help new users borrow proven setups from experts.
• Active development pace with frequent improvements and new AI capabilities.

• Noticeable learning curve, especially for people unfamiliar with graph-based tools or advanced outliners.
• Cloud-only storage model and lack of local markdown files deter users who prioritize file-level control.
• Interface and feature density can feel overwhelming or “too powerful” for simple note-taking needs.
• Pricing sits above many basic note apps, which may be hard to justify for casual users.
• Some reviewers mention performance and speed being dependent on internet quality and graph size.
• Still maturing ecosystem compared with long-established competitors that offer more integrations and community tooling.

Real-World Use Cases

In practice, Tana shows up most often in the workflows of knowledge workers who handle large volumes of interconnected information. Product managers, consultants, researchers, and founders use it as a central hub for project documentation, meeting notes, and decision logs. Many of them describe Tana as the single place where they “live” during the workday, constantly zooming between strategic overviews and detailed notes.

One common pattern is using Tana as a meeting command center. Teams schedule events via calendar integrations, then have Tana capture the call transcript, extract action items, and tag people and projects involved. From there, tasks automatically flow into personal todo dashboards and project views, creating a traceable record of commitments. According to AI-Review.com experts, this pipeline is where Tana’s AI and graph model combine to deliver substantial time savings.

Several case studies highlight that once teams standardize on supertags for meetings, tasks, and decisions, they experience fewer dropped follow-ups and better cross-project visibility.

Knowledge workers also rely on Tana for long-term research and writing. Authors, content strategists, and developers use it to collect sources, ideas, and outlines, then structure them into repeatable workflows. Live searches let them see all notes related to a topic, tag, or client in one dynamic view, which is especially useful for people who publish regularly or manage many concurrent initiatives.

Students and academics adopt Tana as a second-brain system for lectures, readings, and exam preparation. They record classes, let Tana transcribe them, and then use AI commands to extract key concepts, flashcard-style questions, and summaries. Over time, their work evolves into a personal knowledge graph that threads together topics across semesters, making revision and cross-referencing far more efficient.

For freelancers and small agencies, Tana often becomes a lightweight CRM and project tracker, linking clients, deliverables, invoices, and notes without needing a separate project management suite.

Some teams in tech and consulting have reported replacing multiple tools with Tana, including standalone note apps, task managers, and meeting-minutes documents. Instead of maintaining parallel systems, they keep everything in one graph and use different views for planning, execution, and review. The AI-Review.com research team found that this consolidation can reduce context switching and manual data copying when implemented with clear conventions.

There are also examples of domain-specific setups, such as investor deal pipelines, UX research repositories, and engineering incident logs. These workflows use supertags to standardize fields for each record type, then rely on views and queries for triage, prioritization, and retrospective analysis. This shows how Tana pivots from simple note-taking into a semi-structured operations platform tailored to each organization.

However, some reviewers mention abandoning Tana after a few months because the system they built became too complex to maintain, underscoring the need for intentional design and restraint when modeling workflows.

User Experience and Interface

From a first-person perspective informed by real user feedback, Tana feels fast, fluid, and surprisingly natural once you embrace its outliner mindset. The ability to zoom into any node and treat it as a temporary “page” gives a sense of focus that traditional multi-pane apps sometimes lack. Many users praise how quickly they can capture ideas and transform them into structured items as their understanding evolves.

The interface itself is relatively minimal, with most power tucked into context menus, supertag panels, and view configuration dialogs. This keeps the surface clean but contributes to the perception of complexity, because key features are not always obvious at a glance. New users often rely heavily on templates and community guides to learn best practices rather than discovering everything on their own.

According to several in-depth reviews, the combination of keyboard-driven outlining and rich right-click options makes Tana feel more like a developer tool for knowledge than a simple note pad.

On desktop, performance is generally solid, though a few users note that very large graphs or slow connections can introduce lag. The mobile apps focus on quick capture and light editing, with voice memos and simple task handling being the main strengths on phones. Heavy configuration and system design tasks are still more comfortable on a laptop or desktop environment.

Overall, the user experience rewards people who enjoy tinkering and refining their workflow over time. For those who just want a straightforward checklist, Tana may feel like overkill, but for power users it resembles a customizable cockpit. Through AI-Review.com testing and evaluation, the general impression is that the UX is thoughtfully designed for depth rather than immediate simplicity.

Prospective users should ask themselves whether they prefer a tightly guided app or a flexible environment where some assembly is required, because Tana clearly aims at the latter group.

Comparison with Alternatives

Q&A Section

Q: Is Tana suitable for beginners who are new to knowledge management tools?

A: It can work for beginners, but most feedback suggests that people who enjoy configuring systems and thinking in structures will get the most value. Casual users may find simpler note apps less intimidating.

Q: Can Tana replace tools like task managers, wikis, and project boards?

A: Many users report consolidating these categories into Tana by modeling tasks, projects, and documentation with supertags and views, though it requires deliberate setup and may not replicate every specialized feature.

Q: How well does Tana handle meeting notes and recordings?

A: Tana offers meeting transcription, automatic summaries, and fields for tagging tasks and decisions, which reviewers say dramatically reduces the friction of turning raw calls into structured follow-ups.

Q: Does Tana work offline?

A: Tana is primarily a cloud-based platform, so offline capabilities are limited compared with local-first tools; this is a key reason some users prefer alternatives like Obsidian.

Q: Is my data portable if I decide to leave Tana?

A: The app provides export options, but you do not get the same straightforward folder of markdown files that local-first note tools provide, which some reviewers consider an important trade-off.

Q: How strong is the community and template ecosystem?

A: There is a growing community of power users sharing templates, videos, and systems, though it is still smaller than the ecosystems around longer-established tools.

Q: Is Tana good for team collaboration?

A: Teams use shared workspaces to coordinate projects and meetings successfully, but adoption is smoother when at least one person invests time in designing a system others can follow.

Q: How does Tana handle security for sensitive information?

A: It uses standard cloud security measures like encrypted connections, yet it is not marketed as a specialized solution for regulated data, so organizations with strict compliance needs should evaluate carefully.

Performance Metrics

Scoring

Overall Score and Final Thoughts

Overall Score: 3.94. In my view, grounded in user reports and professional reviews, Tana stands out as a highly capable tool for thought that rewards commitment with serious productivity gains. It combines a rich knowledge graph, powerful AI workflows, and a focused outliner interface in a way that few competitors match, though the trade-offs are a steeper learning curve and cloud-only data. People who just want quick notes may find it excessive, but those building a long-term second brain or team operating system will likely appreciate its depth.

Our team at AI-Review.com has evaluated it as a strong choice for power users who value structure, automation, and experimentation in their productivity stack. For anyone ready to design an intentional system and live inside it daily, Tana offers a compelling, innovative environment that can replace multiple separate tools over time.

Users who need strict local control, simple workflows, or minimal configuration effort should carefully weigh whether Tana’s strengths align with their priorities before migrating everything into its cloud-based graph.

For structured thinkers, teams managing complex knowledge, and professionals eager to harness integrated AI in their daily workflows, Tana delivers a distinctive blend of flexibility and power that can transform how information flows through their work.