Capacities vs Heptabase
Both have whiteboards. They disagree about what a card is.
Heptabase starts from the canvas. You read a PDF or watch a lecture, pull cards out of it, and arrange them until a hard topic makes sense. Capacities starts from your notes. The people, books, meetings, and pages you already keep are typed objects, and a whiteboard is one more way to look at them. Put Mum, a job offer, and a flat listing on a board, draw the lines, and every card is still the same note with its properties and backlinks. Heptabase is a study tool with a canvas at its heart. Capacities is an everyday notes app where the canvas is part of Pro.
Written by Michael
Quick comparison
At a Glance
Side by side
Feature Comparison
Whiteboards
Notes and structure
Reading and AI
Collaboration
Plans compared
Pricing
CapacitiesFree tier
Unlimited objects, all platforms, offline access
Pro
- Whiteboards
- AI assistant and AI Chat Connectors
- Queries
- Task management
- Calendar integration
- Image, PDF, and weblink analysis
HeptabaseFree tier
No free plan, 7-day free trial
Pro
- Unlimited whiteboards and notes
- 100 AI credits/month
- PDF highlights
- Collaborator invites
Premium
- Unlimited AI chats and PDF OCR
- AI Tutor
- 1,800 AI credits/month
- Everything in Pro
What each excels at
Strengths
Every tool has areas where it shines. Here's an honest look at what each product does best.
Capacities
The cards are your notes
Mum on a board is a person in your space, with her birthday, her phone number, and every daily note that mentions her. Close the board and she is still there. What you work out on a board stays with the note.
Whiteboards are part of Pro
Whiteboards are a Pro feature. The free Basic plan still covers your notes, on every platform. Heptabase has a 7-day trial and no free plan.
A board is a view, not a box
Put the same object on as many boards as you like. A job offer can sit on a decision board and a moving board. Change it once and both boards show it.
Made for the rest of your notes too
Daily notes, typed collections, tasks, calendar, and queries cover the days when you do not need a canvas. The whiteboard is there when a question gets too big for a page.
Boards you can take with you
Export any whiteboard as a JSON Canvas file. JSON Canvas is an open format, so other canvas apps can open your boards.
Heptabase
A canvas built for learning
Heptabase is designed around studying a hard topic: open the source, pull out cards, and arrange them until the structure is clear. Every part of the app serves that loop.
PDF and video next to your cards
Read a PDF or watch a video beside the board, highlight it, and turn highlights into cards in a few clicks.
AI on the board
Chat with cards on a board, run Deep Research, and use the AI Tutor on Premium to learn a topic step by step.
Edit boards on iPad and phone
The mobile apps can change boards, which suits people who sketch out ideas on a tablet.
Real-time collaboration
Invite others to a whiteboard and edit it together, which helps study groups and research teams.
Honest trade-offs
Known Limitations
No product is perfect. Here are the common frustrations users report for each tool.
Capacities
Board editing is desktop-only
ModerateYou can open and look through boards on phone and tablet, as a canvas or an outline. Changing a board happens on the computer.
No collaboration
ModerateCapacities is a personal app. You can share notes view-only, but nobody else can edit your boards with you.
Heptabase
Paid from day eight
ModerateThere is no free plan. After the 7-day trial, every board needs Pro at $8.99/month, and the full AI features need Premium at $17.99/month.
"Premium PKM shouldn't cost $100+ a year."
— Reddit r/PKMS
Every card is the same kind of thing
ModerateA person, a book, and a meeting are all cards. Tags with properties help, but there are no object types, so collections of people or books take more manual upkeep.
The board is the home
MinorBecause cards are made and arranged on boards, a growing library asks for regular tidying. Some people find it hard to keep many boards in order over the years.
Layouts are hard to take elsewhere
ModerateCard content exports as Markdown, but the spatial layout of a board does not travel well to other apps.
Best fit
Who Is It For?
Different tools serve different needs. Here's who benefits most from each.
Capacities is ideal for
People thinking through everyday decisions
A job offer, a move, a family plan. Put the people, places, and links you already have on a board and see the answer, then keep using those notes after the board is done.
People who want a free notes app first
The free plan covers your notes with no time limit. Whiteboards are on Pro when you want a board.
People who keep a lot of different things
Books, people, recipes, meetings, and projects each get their own type. A board pulls a few of them together without changing what they are.
Writers and journalers
A polished editor and daily notes for most days, and a whiteboard for the days when an idea needs room.
Heptabase is ideal for
Students and researchers learning hard topics
Reading a source beside the board and turning highlights into cards is the core of Heptabase.
People who live on the canvas
If the board is where you want all your notes to start and stay, Heptabase is built around that.
Study groups and research teams
Real-time co-editing on shared whiteboards.
Tablet sketchers
Board editing on iPad and phone.
Bottom line
The Verdict
Both apps now have whiteboards, so the question is no longer which one has a canvas. It is what you want on it. Heptabase makes the canvas the place where cards are born, which is excellent for studying a source in depth. Capacities makes the canvas a view of the notes you already keep, so a board about a job offer is made of the real person, the real offer, and the real flat, and they are still there after the board is done. Pick Heptabase for deep reading and study. Pick Capacities for everyday thinking that should stay connected to the rest of your notes.
Choose Capacities if…
- You want the cards on a board to be real notes with types and properties
- You want the same note on several boards
- Your notes go beyond research: people, meetings, tasks, recipes, journals
- You want an open board format (JSON Canvas)
Choose Heptabase if…
- Your main workflow is reading PDFs or videos and turning highlights into cards
- You need to edit boards on iPad or phone
- You study or research together with others on shared boards
- You want AI tutoring and Deep Research on the board
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated: 2026-10-19. Fact-checked: 2026-04-16.
Ready to organize your mind?
Join thousands of thinkers who use Capacities to capture and connect their ideas.