The main difference is that in Brainio, every note is a mind map. In Obsidian or Logseq you write note and then view connections in a separate graph view. In Brainio the mind map is generated directly from your data structure. You indent text with Tab and it becomes a branch in the mind map. You can switch between text, split, and mind map view with one click. The core value is that each individual document has its own visual mind map.

Brainio has real-time collaboration - it's is built in, there's a built-in MCP server so AI assistants can work with your notes, and it runs as a web app or desktop app without needing to manage a local vault.

The tradeoff is that Obsidian has a much bigger plugin ecosystem and local-first storage.