Capacities

Capacities is an object-based note-taking app from a small German team that wants to replace your folders with a graph of connected things — people, books, projects, ideas, daily notes — and let you find them by association rather than by hierarchy. We rate it 82/100 — the most thoughtful Notion alternative on the market for solo knowledge workers, with a generous free tier, but it still has no team mode and no end-to-end encryption.

What is Capacities?

Capacities was founded in 2020 by Steffen Bleher and Michael von Hohnhorst as Capacities Labs GmbH, based in Sankt Wendel, Germany, and shipped its public web app in January 2022. The mobile apps for iOS and Android followed in July 2024, completing a Mac, Windows, Linux, web, iOS and Android footprint. The company has stayed independent and bootstrapped — no VC round and no acquisition rumors — which is part of why long-time users trust it with multi-year second-brain libraries.

The core idea is structural: every entry in Capacities is a typed object — a Person, a Book, a Project, a Meeting, an Idea — with its own template, properties and back-references. You then write daily notes (your inbox), reference those objects with @, and Capacities builds the graph for you in the background. It is closer to Tana or Roam than to Notion or Obsidian, but with a much gentler learning curve than either.

Key Features of Capacities

• Object types instead of pages: Out of the box you get 13+ object types (Person, Book, Project, Idea, Meeting, Movie, Highlight, etc.) with sensible default fields. Create your own object types with custom properties — they immediately get backlinks, queries and views.
• Daily note as inbox: Every day opens to a fresh note. You write freely, mention objects with @, and Capacities timelines everything. The blog post you wrote, the meeting you attended and the book you started all surface on the relevant object pages without any folder choreography.
• Backlinks and unlinked mentions: Like Roam and Obsidian, every reference creates a backlink. Capacities goes further and surfaces unlinked mentions — places you wrote about a person or project but never linked — so the graph closes itself over time.
• AI assistant (Pro): A built-in chat sidebar that can summarize selected objects, draft from your daily notes, generate flashcards, and run queries like “everything I read about graph databases this quarter.” It uses context from your space rather than the open web.
• Queries, tables and formulas: Build views like Notion databases with filters, groupings and computed columns. Pro adds spreadsheet-style formulas inside tables.
• Calendar & tasks (Pro): Two-way Google and Apple Calendar sync with a unified day planner that pulls in tasks from any object.
• Offline-first sync: Local-first storage with background sync — meaningful airplane work without spinners. Native apps on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.
• Web Highlights, Hookmark, Raycast (Pro): First-party browser highlighter, deep linking via Hookmark on macOS, and a Raycast extension that drops thoughts into Capacities from anywhere on the system.
• Public API and import: Pro tier exposes a public API for read/write automation, plus first-class importers from Notion, Evernote, Roam, Obsidian and Markdown folders.

What Users Say About Capacities

Sentiment in r/PKMS and on Product Hunt is unusually warm for a category as crowded as PKM. The most upvoted r/PKMS thread describes Capacities as “awesome and super easy to use,” and a recurring sentiment is that it replaced both Notion and Obsidian for users who wanted Obsidian’s linking but Notion’s polish. Founders Steffen and Michael are visibly active in the community, which goes a long way.

The honest criticism — collected across r/PKMS, Reddit’s r/Notion threads and the Medium piece “I Finally Tried Capacities” — is consistent: no end-to-end encryption (a real blocker for anyone storing client or medical notes), no real-time collaboration (Capacities is single-player only — there is a comparison page literally titled “Capacities is for individuals”), mobile is good but still catches up to desktop, and there is no native canvas/whiteboard view yet. The learning curve from Notion or Apple Notes is real for the first week.

Capacities Pricing

Capacities is freemium with one of the most generous free tiers in PKM and refreshingly clear paid pricing — no “contact us” fog, no per-seat anchor pricing.

Plan	Price	Key Limits
Free (Basic)	$0 forever	Unlimited notes, blocks and objects. 5 GB media storage. Sync across all devices. Daily notes, backlinks, queries.
Pro	$11.99/month or $119.88/year	Unlimited media, AI assistant, calendar & tasks, formulas in tables, unlinked mentions, Web Highlights, Hookmark, Raycast, public API.
Believer	$14.99/month or $149.88/year	Everything in Pro plus early access to beta features. A way to support the indie team.

Who Should Use Capacities?

Best for: Researchers, writers, students, consultants, designers and any solo knowledge worker who has hit the wall with Notion’s page-and-database mental model or with Obsidian’s blank-canvas overhead. If you live in daily notes and want a tool that connects ideas to people, books and projects automatically, Capacities is currently the best-designed app in this niche.

Not ideal for: Teams that need shared workspaces, lawyers and clinicians who require end-to-end encrypted notes, anyone who lives on a phone before a laptop, or workflows that depend on infinite-canvas whiteboarding.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Object-typed graph that actually pays off — backlinks and unlinked mentions surface connections you forgot you wrote.
• Most generous free tier in PKM (unlimited notes, 5 GB media, full sync across six platforms).
• Beautifully designed, fast, and works offline on every desktop and mobile OS.
• AI assistant grounded in your own space rather than the open web.
• Indie, bootstrapped team that ships consistently and is responsive in the community.

Cons:

• No end-to-end encryption — a hard pass for anyone with regulated data.
• No real-time collaboration or shared spaces — strictly single-player today.
• No native canvas/whiteboard view, which is now table stakes after tldraw and Heptabase.
• Mobile app is markedly better than 2024 but still trails desktop on power-user features.
• The object-typed model takes about a week to internalize coming from Notion or Apple Notes.

Alternatives to Capacities

The closest alternatives are Obsidian (local-first markdown, more plugins, no objects), Notion (better for teams and project tracking, weaker for atomic ideas), Tana (more powerful supertags but steeper learning curve and pricier), and AFFiNE (open source with whiteboard but rougher edges). For pure note-takers Obsidian remains the safer choice; for object-thinkers Capacities currently wins on design and speed.

Verdict: Is Capacities Worth It?

Capacities earns an 82/100. The free tier alone is enough reason to install it tonight if you have ever wanted Roam-style backlinks without the Roam-style bill. The $11.99 Pro tier is worth the upgrade once the AI assistant, calendar sync and Web Highlights start saving you 30 minutes a day. We are docking points specifically for the missing E2E encryption and the absence of any team or canvas mode — those will be the deciding factors for some readers in 2026. For everyone else, this is the most carefully designed PKM app you can adopt right now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Capacities free?

Yes. The free Basic plan includes unlimited notes, unlimited objects, 5 GB of media storage, daily notes, backlinks and full sync across Mac, Windows, Linux, web, iOS and Android. Paid Pro starts at $11.99/month or $119.88/year and adds the AI assistant, calendar integration, formulas, the public API and Web Highlights.

What platforms does Capacities support?

Capacities ships native apps on macOS, Windows and Linux, a full-featured web app, and iOS and Android apps. Everything syncs in the background and works offline.

How does Capacities compare to Notion?

Notion is built around pages, sub-pages and databases — great for teams running shared projects. Capacities is built around objects with backlinks — better for solo thinkers connecting people, books, ideas and meetings over time. Capacities is also faster and works fully offline, but does not yet support team collaboration.

Is Capacities open source?

No. Capacities is closed-source proprietary software made by Capacities Labs GmbH. The team has published a long-term commitment to keep the free tier available and to provide a Markdown export so your data is never locked in.

Does Capacities have end-to-end encryption?

Not at this time. Notes are encrypted in transit and at rest, but Capacities Labs holds the keys. If you need zero-knowledge encryption today, look at Obsidian (local files plus a paid Sync add-on) or Standard Notes.