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Advisor Prep Hero vs Tana.

Tana is a cloud outliner built around supertags, fields, and structured nodes. It's powerful, polished, and beloved by people who think in graphs. Advisor Prep Hero is a local-first Word-native workspace with profession-specific practice packs for attorneys, CPAs, and consultants. A professional might love either one; they're different shapes for different brains. The honest split: Tana for "I want to build a knowledge graph and query it." Advisor Prep Hero for "I want my confidential client work in real .docx files I own, with matter-scoped AI recall."

The TL;DR table

FeatureTanaAdvisor Prep Hero
Where data livesTana's cloudYour hard drive (Markdown)
Pricing$10/mo Plus, $14/mo Pro (annual)$948/yr (Professional) + your AI provider's API
Where your prompts goThrough Tana's servers to the AI modelDirect from your machine to the AI provider (Anthropic/OpenAI/Google). Advisor Prep Hero is not in the path.
What's stored on a vendor's serverYour notes and graph structure (Tana's cloud is the source of truth)Nothing. No documents, no prompts, no API key on Advisor Prep Hero servers.
Data modelOutliner with supertags, fields, queriesWord-native .docx + plain-text utility files
AIBuilt-in AI commandsBYOK Claude / OpenAI / Gemini / Ollama
Profession-specific practice packsNo (templates exist but generic)50+ built-in templates across legal, tax, consulting, and advisory practices
Image attachments in AIYesPaste, drag, paperclip per provider
PDF chat with native visionLimitedDrop in, Claude reads it natively
PDFs in workspace searchNoToggle in Memory settings
Long-context [Compress]NoYes
Read aloud (TTS), localNoLocal Piper sidecar
Plugin / extension modelNoNo plugin ecosystem
UI languagesEnglishEnglish, Espanol, Deutsch
Wiki-links / backlinksYes (deep)No
Query languagePowerful structured queriesFull-text search only
MobileiOS, AndroidRead via cloud-sync workaround
Multi-device syncBuilt-in cloudBYO via Dropbox / iCloud / Syncthing
Offline editingLimitedFull editing offline
Real-time collabYes (Pro tier)No
Data exportJSON / MarkdownAlready in Markdown

Where Advisor Prep Hero wins

1. Local-first ownership and confidentiality

Tana's data lives in their cloud. Export is available but the working format is theirs. Advisor Prep Hero's data lives on your machine in Markdown. For attorneys, CPAs, and consultants building a long strategic record of client work, the compounding-archive value over multiple years tilts toward Advisor Prep Hero, and the confidentiality requirements may make local-first non-negotiable.

2. Profession-specific practice packs with structured AI interview

Tana has templates (it's actually one of its strengths) but they're general-purpose, user-built. Advisor Prep Hero ships 15 practice packs designed for professional work, each running as a guided AI interview that produces a finished doc. Client intake, engagement letter, matter strategy, financial projections, weekly review.

3. Your key, your provider, nothing in the middle

Tana's AI is bundled into the subscription. Advisor Prep Hero is BYOK: you bring your own Claude / OpenAI / Gemini key and switch per conversation. Your API key lives in your OS keychain and prompts go straight from your machine to the provider. You see exactly what the AI costs, you choose the model per conversation, and sensitive client content never passes through Advisor Prep Hero's servers.

4. Simplicity for documents that aren't graphs

Tana's outliner-plus-supertags model rewards a specific working style. If you're writing engagement letters and matter memos more than building knowledge graphs, the data model is overhead. Advisor Prep Hero's Word-native model fits document-shaped professional work more naturally.

Where Tana wins

1. Structured queries over your knowledge graph

Tana's signature feature is the ability to define a "supertag" (e.g., #person, #project, #meeting) and then query across all instances ("show me all #project where #status = 'active' and #owner = me"). This is a real superpower for users who think in structured data. Advisor Prep Hero has no graph view or structured query; it focuses on document-shaped work with matter-scoped cited recall over your full archive.

2. Networked-thinking polish

Tana's UX for outlining, breadcrumbs, indents, transclusion is the most polished in the category. If you're already a Roam/Logseq/Workflowy user, Tana feels like the natural next step.

3. Mobile

Tana has native iOS and Android apps. Advisor Prep Hero is desktop-only.

4. Real-time collaboration

Tana Pro supports multi-user editing. Advisor Prep Hero is single-user.

What each tool does with your data

TanaAdvisor Prep Hero
Where your documents liveTana's cloud (the source of truth for your graph)Your hard drive. Markdown files in a folder you own.
Where your prompts goThrough Tana's infrastructure to the AI modelDirect from your machine to the AI provider. Advisor Prep Hero is not in the path.
API key custodyTana's key, bundled into the subscriptionYour OS keychain. Advisor Prep Hero never sees it.
Vendor retention policy applies to your contentYes, per Tana's privacy policyNo. Nothing stored on Advisor Prep Hero servers.
Can you use it for privileged or NDA-bound client work?Depends on your obligations and Tana's termsFiles stay on your machine, Advisor Prep Hero never sees them. AI prompts go to the provider you chose; use Ollama for fully local inference.
Pricing$120/yr Plus, $168/yr ProSolo $468/yr, Professional $948/yr, Firm $1,548/seat/yr (min 3 seats). Plus your own AI provider's API costs (typically $5-15/mo).

Migrating from Tana to Advisor Prep Hero

  1. In Tana, export your workspace as Markdown
  2. The export contains your nodes converted to nested bullet lists in Markdown
  3. Drop into a new Advisor Prep Hero workspace folder
  4. Tana's supertag fields will appear as inline tags or YAML frontmatter (depending on export options); Advisor Prep Hero treats both as searchable text
  5. Tana's Markdown text content imports cleanly; Tana-specific supertag fields will appear as plain text

The biggest adjustment: you lose the structured-query feature. If your Tana workflow depends heavily on supertag queries, Advisor Prep Hero will feel less expressive. If your Tana workflow is mostly outlining + AI assistance, the migration is straightforward and you'll barely notice.

Download free for 30 days, no credit card. Solo $468/yr, Professional $948/yr, Firm $1,548/seat/yr (min 3 seats). Documents and API key stay on your machine.

Download free for 30 days

Founding rate: 30% off, locked for life. Reserve the founding price while it lasts.

Built for your field: attorneys and consultants. See all: advisorprephero.com for attorneys, tax pros, and consultants.