Why Choose Octarine Over Craft

Trade the loading spinners for instant response times.

The shape of it

Craft looks great, no doubt. Those cards, animations, and the polished interface make a strong first impression. But after the honeymoon phase wears off, you might start noticing some issues.

First, it's slow. Not unusably slow, but there's always this slight delay. Opening the app takes a few seconds. Typing sometimes lags behind your fingers. Searching through notes has that spinning wheel. Octarine is 30MB compared to Craft's 200MB+, and you feel that difference every time you use it. Click and it's open. Type and text appears. Search and get instant results.

Craft is trying to be a lot of things — a note app, a document editor, a wiki, even a website builder. That's cool if you need all that, but most people just want to write and organize their thoughts. All those features add complexity. Every time you create a note, you're thinking about whether it should be a document or a page, what style to use, how to format it. With Octarine, you just write. It's markdown, it looks good automatically.

Feature Comparison

A practical view of what changes when you switch.

Import docs

Feature	Octarine	Craft
App Size	30MB	200MB+
Launch Speed	Instant	Few seconds wait
File Format	Plain markdown files	Proprietary format
Data Storage	Your computer	Craft's system
Complexity	Just write	Lots of decisions
Editor	WYSIWYG markdown	Block editor with toolbar
Graph View	See all connections	Not available
Workspaces	Unlimited local	Limited by subscription
Sync & Backup	Built-in Git sync + iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Syncthing	Craft's sync only
AI Integration	Built-in chat and assistant	Basic AI features
Performance	Super fast, minimal RAM	Resource heavy
Offline Work	Always works	Limited features
Themes	30+ included	Not much customization
Price	Free, $79 one-time for Pro	$5-10/month subscription
Platform	macOS, Linux, Windows	macOS, iOS, web

The Bottom Line

Craft makes sense if you're creating polished documents for sharing, need built-in collaboration, or want to publish to the web. It's good at those things. But for personal knowledge management, daily notes, and focused writing? It's overkill.

Most Craft users end up using maybe 20% of its features. You're paying (both in money and complexity) for stuff you don't need. Octarine focuses on the core experience of writing and connecting ideas. No bloat, no confusion, just a fast, reliable tool.

The pricing difference is significant too. Craft costs $60-120 per year, every year. Octarine is $79 once, done. After one year, you're already saving money. After five years? You've saved hundreds of dollars for a tool that's actually faster and simpler to use.