Capacities vs RemNote
Capacities is an object-based notes studio where every note is a typed thing — a person, a book, a meeting; RemNote is a note-taking app with spaced-repetition flashcards built into the writing itself. Here’s how they compare on pricing, platforms, linking, search, capture and collaboration — and how to decide between them.
What is Capacities?
Capacities organizes your knowledge by what things are. Instead of files in folders, you create objects — people, books, meetings, projects, quotes — each with its own properties and views, connected through backlinks and daily notes. Browsing by object type (every book you’ve noted, every person you’ve met) falls out of the design for free, and a calendar-centric daily view ties it to your day.
It’s a polished, cloud-based app on web, desktop and mobile, with a generous free core plan; Pro (about $10/month billed annually) adds the AI assistant, calendar sync and advanced queries. In July 2026 it shipped a developer API with OAuth, opening it up to integrations. One deliberate omission to know about: there is no collaboration, and the team has said it isn’t planned — Capacities is intentionally a personal tool.
What is RemNote?
RemNote fuses notes and studying: write an outline, mark a line as a question-answer pair, and it becomes a flashcard scheduled by spaced repetition — remembering is a property of your notes, not a separate app. PDF annotation, image occlusion, and an exam scheduler round out a system clearly aimed at students, med students especially, though knowledge workers use it for durable learning too.
The free plan is generous — unlimited notes, flashcards and synced devices — with Pro at $8/month ($96/year) adding unlimited PDFs and tables, and a “Pro with AI” tier at $18/month generating cards, quizzes and summaries from PDFs and recorded lectures. It runs everywhere: web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, with offline support.
Capacities vs RemNote at a glance
| Capacities | RemNote | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Pro ~$9.99/mo annual ($11.99 monthly); Believer ~$12.49/mo | Pro $8/mo ($96/yr); Pro with AI $18/mo ($216/yr) |
| Free plan | Yes — generous core plan | Yes — unlimited notes, flashcards and devices |
| Platforms | Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android |
| Storage model | Cloud (offline support, not local-first) | Cloud with offline support |
| Editing model | Object-based pages with properties, blocks and daily notes | Outliner with inline flashcards |
| Backlinks & wiki links | Yes — backlinks between objects | Yes — references and backlinks |
| Graph view | Yes — per-object connection views | Yes — basic graph |
| Search | Full-text; AI search on Pro | Full-text |
| Web capture | Weblink reader and mobile share | Web clipper extension |
| Email-in capture | No | No |
| RSS / feeds | No | No |
| Team collaboration | No — explicitly not planned | Limited — shared docs, published decks |
| Publishing & sharing | Read-only share links for pages | Published flashcard decks and articles |
| AI assistant access | Built-in AI assistant (Pro); developer API (OAuth) since 2026 | AI flashcards/quizzes/summaries (paid tier) |
| Offline access | Partial | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
| End-to-end encryption | No | No |
| Data export | Markdown export | Markdown, PDF |
Pricing and features as of mid-2026 — check each product’s site for current details.
Where Capacities shines
- Object types with properties give structure without the rigidity of databases or the chaos of free-form notes.
- One of the most polished, beautiful interfaces in the category, consistent across web, desktop and mobile.
- A genuinely useful free plan, with Pro at a mid-pack price.
- Daily notes plus calendar integration make it a natural journal-of-record.
Worth knowing: No collaboration — explicitly not supported and not planned; sharing is read-only page links. Cloud-first and proprietary, with no local-first storage or end-to-end encryption. Power features like queries sit behind Pro, and the object model can feel like ceremony for quick, messy capture.
Where RemNote shines
- The tightest notes-to-flashcards loop anywhere — cards are created inline as you write, not maintained separately.
- Serious study tooling: PDF annotation, image occlusion, exam scheduling.
- A genuinely usable free plan with unlimited notes and cards.
- AI tier turns PDFs and lectures into flashcards and quizzes automatically.
Worth knowing: The study focus shapes everything; as a pure PKM tool it’s busier and less elegant than dedicated rivals. Collaboration is limited to shared documents and published decks. Cloud-first and proprietary, with no end-to-end encryption.
Which should you choose?
Choose Capacities if:
- You think in entities — people, books, meetings — and want your tool to as well.
- Interface polish and aesthetics genuinely affect whether you’ll keep using a tool.
- You’re strictly solo and don’t need sharing or teamwork.
Choose RemNote if:
- Retention is the goal — you’re studying for exams or deliberately memorizing a field.
- You annotate PDFs and lecture material heavily.
- You want notes and flashcards to be the same document.
A third option: Dexi
If what you actually want is one searchable place for notes, bookmarks, newsletters and RSS — with tags, @mentions and [[wiki links]] that organize themselves as you write, semantic search that finds ideas even when the words don’t match, and an MCP server so Claude and other AI assistants can work with your notes directly — take a look at Dexi. It’s free for up to 1,000 notes, with no app to install.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between Capacities and RemNote?
Capacities is an object-based notes studio where every note is a typed thing — a person, a book, a meeting, while RemNote is a note-taking app with spaced-repetition flashcards built into the writing itself. In practice, Capacities is best for visually minded personal note-takers who think in terms of typed things rather than documents or outlines; RemNote is best for students and lifelong learners who want what they write to become what they remember.
Which is cheaper, Capacities or RemNote?
Capacities: Pro ~$9.99/mo annual ($11.99 monthly); Believer ~$12.49/mo (free plan: yes — generous core plan). RemNote: Pro $8/mo ($96/yr); Pro with AI $18/mo ($216/yr) (free plan: yes — unlimited notes, flashcards and devices). Prices as of mid-2026 — check each product's site for current rates.
Is Capacities or RemNote better for teams?
Capacities — team collaboration: no — explicitly not planned. RemNote — team collaboration: limited — shared docs, published decks. If neither fits, Dexi's Team plan ($10/member/month) offers per-note sharing with team-wide search.
Can I switch between Capacities and RemNote?
Both tools let you get your data out — Capacities exports via markdown export, and RemNote via markdown, pdf. Markdown is the common ground for most migrations, though block references, properties and other tool-specific structure typically need manual cleanup after import.
Collect, connect and search everything you read — free, no credit card required.
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