Chessable is a great product. It has its merits: curated courses, wide community, established brand. But it's built around a different idea — consuming someone else's content instead of building your own. Here's the comparison, no marketing.
| Feature | ChessNotes | Chessable |
|---|---|---|
01Price | Free, forever | $20-80 per course |
02Spaced repetition algorithm | FSRS-5 (latest generation) | Proprietary MoveTrainer |
03Visual tree editor | Yes, with drag & drop | Limited to purchased courses |
04Analysis engine | Stockfish 17 in-browser | Not included |
05Lichess study import | One click, instant | Not supported |
06Blunder review from real games | Built-in chess.com sync | Not available |
07Unlimited personal repertoire | No limits | Capped on free tier |
08Data ownership | Export to PGN any time | Platform lock-in |
Chessable makes sense if you want a GM-built course, already packaged, ready to use. It's valid: you save build time, you get a line curated by an expert. But that repertoire isn't yours — it belongs to whoever taught it. When you leave the course's main lines, you're on your own. ChessNotes starts from the opposite idea: you know what opening you want to play, you know what style fits you. We give you the tools to build your own tree and memorize it better than you ever have.
Chessable uses MoveTrainer, a proprietary repetition system, well-built but based on principles similar to SM-2 — Anki's pre-2023 algorithm. ChessNotes uses FSRS-5, the state of the art in spaced repetition, adopted by Anki officially in 2023 after years of independent studies. FSRS models your forgetting curve individually, not uniformly, and for chess variations — which have wildly different difficulties — that makes a huge difference on long-term retention.
Chessable has a free tier but it's limited, and its economy depends on getting you to buy paid courses (typically $20-80 each, with bundles easily over $200). ChessNotes is free not as bait, but by choice: the project is independent, self-funded, with low operating costs. There's no need to monetize you. The entire core — editor, FSRS drill, Stockfish, Lichess import, blunder review — stays free forever.
Chessable lives in its ecosystem: the courses you buy, the MoveTrainer on the courses, internal statistics. If you want to know where you're making mistakes in your chess.com games, you have to leave and use another tool. ChessNotes integrates chess.com natively: downloads your games, finds the blunders, puts them in your repertoire with one click. Same for Lichess: one-click study import, in-browser Stockfish analysis, cloud eval when available. Your study and your play become the same thing.
We're not saying Chessable is a bad product. It's a great product, for those who want to consume quality courses. ChessNotes is for those who want to build their own path — we don't compete on the same problem, we compete on different problems.
Open a free account, import your first study in ten seconds, run five minutes of drill. You'll figure out in an evening whether the method is for you better than any written comparison.