Anytype

Anytype has no "forgot password" button. Your account is a key created on your own device, derived from a twelve-word recovery phrase. Lose it and nobody can help you, not even Anytype. That sounds harsh, but it is exactly what this app is about.

Anytype is made by Any, a Swiss association with a team in Berlin. The app combines notes, databases, chat and collaboration, much like Notion. The difference: everything lives on your own device first. Sync is encrypted. According to Anytype, your data is encrypted before it leaves your device. So the company cannot read it.

The company raised $ 13.4 million in 2023, in a round led by Balderton Capital. According to its own site, more than 1,000,000 accounts have been created and more than 100,000 people use the app each month. Collaboration in shared spaces arrived in April 2024.

The structure differs from a classic notes app. Everything is an object: a note, a book, a task or a person. Each object has a type with its own properties. From those objects you build sets and views, such as a table, a kanban board, a gallery or a graph. If you know Notion or Capacities, the idea will feel familiar.

Because everything is stored locally, Anytype works fully without internet. Between your own devices it can sync over your local network, without the data touching a server. You can also choose local only, with no sync at all.

If you do use the Anytype network, an encrypted backup sits on servers in the EU. If you don't want that either, you can host the sync network yourself. The protocol behind it, any-sync, is open source under the MIT license. The apps themselves are source-available: you can read the code, but it falls under Anytype's own license.

To get your data out of Anytype there are exports to Markdown, PDF, HTML and a proprietary JSON format. There are guides for switching from Obsidian, Notion and Evernote. For connecting other software there is a local API, an MCP server and a CLI.

Anytype is honest about the downside, and there is one. There is no web version: you always work in the app on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS or Android. If you often work on a computer that isn't yours, that is a limitation.

Some parts are still missing on mobile. Kanban, calendar and graph views aren't there, and neither are formulas. Import and export only work on desktop. Chats and discussions can't be exported at all.

For teams, permissions have a limit. Anyone who is a member of a space sees everything in that space. Per-object permissions don't exist. For sensitive material you create a separate space.

A detail for people who like to keep everything in Dropbox or Google Drive: the Anytype working folder contains unencrypted local indexes. Anytype advises against putting that folder in such a cloud service.

There is no built-in AI. You can, however, let external AI agents such as Claude or Cursor work with your data through the local API and MCP.

Anytype doesn't charge per user but by storage on the network. Only files count, such as images and videos. Text and objects never count. If you go over your limit, the app keeps working. Only new files stop syncing between your devices.

Free gives you 100 MB and 10 shared channels. Plus costs $ 5 per month, or $ 4 per month billed yearly, for 1 GB. Pro costs $ 10 per month, or $ 8 billed yearly, for 10 GB. Ultra costs $ 20 per month, or $ 16 billed yearly, for 100 GB. Paying yearly saves 20% and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.

For teams there is Anytype for Business, at € 20 per editor per month. Viewers are free. You get SSO, central management and a 7-day trial. Note: according to Anytype itself, that cloud version is not zero-knowledge. A self-hosted version at € 300 per month has been announced but is not yet available.

Obsidian is the best-known local notes app. It stores everything as separate Markdown files in a folder, which you can open with any editor. Anytype uses its own encrypted storage and includes databases and collaboration out of the box. Choose Obsidian if you want to keep your notes as plain files and extend them with plugins.

AnytypeFrom $ 4/moFree planObsidianFrom $ 4/moFree plan

Capacities shares the thinking in objects and types, but runs in the cloud. Notion is stronger at collaborating in the browser, without end-to-end encryption. Anytype is the choice if you want that Notion-style structure without handing over your data.

Yes. Working locally is unlimited and free. The free plan gives you 100 MB of storage for files on the network and 10 shared channels. Text doesn't count.

No, there is no web version. You use the app on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS or Android.

Yes, you can host the sync network yourself without a paid membership. You do have to point your devices to that network manually.

Then your account can't be recovered, not even by Anytype. So keep the recovery phrase somewhere safe, away from your computer.