What can we learn from Kosmik shutting down?
Do you remember Kosmik? The visual note-taking app with a built-in browser. It was one of the applications I was really excited about for many different reasons, but the main one was that it was a visual note-taking app and it had a lot of cool features. It used AI in an interesting way and it was a super flexible app. It was one of the apps I really liked. I also said several times that it is one of the apps I will keep my eyes on. The other one I mentioned a lot was called Spaceduck, and both of them shut down. Spaceduck late last year and Kosmik recently. It says a few things about the current stage in the productivity and productivity app space, and that is what this post is about.
Let’s start with Kosmik shutting down. Kosmik actually came out of beta late last year and it felt like it came a little out of nowhere. Let me be clear, I don’t know what the thought process was and I do not have any information about the thought process inside of Kosmik, but to me it felt a little rushed. It felt like they still needed some additional features. Specifically, I wanted better ways of organising, and it was a feature they promised. To be honest, I did not think anything of them releasing early back then. It is after they decided to shut down that I started thinking that they released a little too early.
Running an application or a business in general is really hard. There is just so much that needs to click in order for an app to be really successful. Not only that, you need a little bit of luck too. Especially in the current stage of productivity applications. Because there are productivity apps coming out everywhere. The competition is hard, and everyone is trying to figure out what AI will mean in the productivity space. Basically, some people think AI will live inside of the apps we use, some people think it will live in our operating system, and a lot of people think that productivity apps are now over and we will do everything inside of our AI apps like Claude or ChatGPT. It is a lot of uncertainty, and that means that it is hard to commit to new applications. For example, if you had committed to Kosmik, you would now have had to move apps. I did that when Spaceduck shut down. In other words, gaining the trust of the users is harder now, especially when it comes to whether or not your app will stay around.
The second huge problem is that the competition is just really high right now. We have everything from huge projects like Tana to small leaner projects like Twos, and you have a lot of apps in the middle of that. There are so many applications out there that it is hard to keep track of, and with the productivity boom a lot of developers have gotten with AI coding tools, we are seeing more solo projects. I have recently gotten an increased number of requests to check out apps by solo developers. There is just a lot of competition. On top of that, a few people are moving away from productivity apps and just using AI by itself. Which means that together with the huge competition, there are also fewer users to get. Which is a terrible combination if your goal is to sell more subscriptions.
There is also one trend that specifically goes against apps like Spaceduck and Kosmik. We are seeing a trend towards applications that are privacy-focused and local. Especially note-taking apps. Apps like Obsidian, Octarine, and Thymer have risen up to become more popular choices among PKM enthusiasts, which makes a lot of sense. It has been a trend we have seen for a while. It is not the application’s fault that these are the trends, but nevertheless they are affected by it.
It also seems like the visual applications that try to target designers or people in creative fields is really hard to do. Before Spaceduck and Kosmik, we saw Clover Notes getting acquired and we saw Walling struggling for a while. While Walling has now gotten a second chance under new leadership, Clover, Spaceduck, and Kosmik are gone. It just seems to be a hard market to reach. For now, it seems like Milanote is the only one that has been able to do it. Maybe together with Mymind, which has also been around for a while, but Mymind really differs from the others by focusing highly on privacy. While the other apps focus on collaboration. All that to say that visual note-taking apps like those ones seem to be difficult to do right.
It is always sad to see apps shutting down. People have often poured their hearts and souls into products, and for one reason or another they have to shut down, which is really sad. Especially when the apps are really good, they just can’t find a user base for their idea, or the competition is too fierce, or one of the other reasons apps decide to shut down. But for users, it teaches us one thing. Don’t jump into every new app that comes around, because that app might disappear. Play around with different apps, test them out, but I would not recommend relying only on an application that is in beta. Because the app might shut down, but not only that, it might also change a lot. It feels weird to recommend that after saying how sad it is that apps are shutting down, but it is the current state of apps. For me personally, I have recommended apps that have shut down and I have recommended apps that now look totally different. It is a paradox, but it is what it is, and there are of course exceptions to that rule.