Capacities vs Logseq: objects or open-source outliner in 2026?
Logseq vs Capacities is a comparison between two answers to “how should notes organize themselves” — nested bullets with block references in a free, open-source app that keeps your graph on your disk, or typed objects (people, books, meetings) in a polished cloud app that syncs everywhere for free. It is also, for a lot of searchers, a question about money: what Logseq actually costs in 2026 (almost nothing, with a catch) and whether Capacities is worth paying for. Both are answered below with dates.
The short answer: Capacities is the easier tool to live in — objects, daily notes, free sync and mature mobile apps, with a real free plan. Logseq is the more principled one — AGPL-licensed, local, free without limits, superb for outline-shaped thinking — but in 2026 it is mid-transition to a database version that is still beta. Pick Capacities to adopt a system; pick Logseq to own one and accept this year’s turbulence.
- Choose Logseq if you think in daily notes, nested bullets and block references, want your graph as open-source local files (or a local database), and either ride the 2.0 beta or stay on the classic app while it matures.
- Choose Capacities if you think in typed things, want a beautiful app that files them for you and syncs free across web, desktop and phone, and cloud storage without end-to-end encryption is acceptable.
| Logseq | Capacities | |
|---|---|---|
| Editing model | Outliner — bullets, daily journal, block refs | Typed objects with properties, daily notes; whiteboards on Pro (Oct 2026) |
| License | Open source, AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
| Notes stored as | Markdown/Org files (classic) or local DB (2.0) | Cloud, cached per device |
| Price | Free | Free; Pro $9.99/mo (annual, $119.88/yr; $11.99 monthly) |
| Sync and encryption | DIY files (free) or the DB version’s RTC sync; Logseq Sync is end-to-end encrypted | Built in, free, all devices; in transit and at rest, not end-to-end |
| Mobile | Classic iOS/Android; 2.0 iOS app in TestFlight (Oct 2026) | iOS, Android — redesigned Aug 2026 |
| AI assistants / MCP | No official server; community MCP servers over the local graph or Markdown folder | Official hosted MCP server (OAuth 2.1, one space per connection, Pro) + REST API |
| Project status | 2.0 DB version beta (2.0.2); classic maintenance-only | Steady releases from a small funded team |
As of November 2026 — Logseq 2.0.2 DB beta (Oct 7, 2026; nightly Oct 25; classic 0.10.15, Dec 2025) per GitHub releases; Capacities v1.72.6 (Oct 28, 2026; Release 72, Oct 26) per capacities.io, prices re-read Nov 7, 2026.
What is Logseq?
Logseq is the open-source counterpart to Roam: an outliner built on bidirectional links and daily notes, but storing everything as local Markdown (or Org-mode) files on your device. It’s free, AGPL-licensed, and adds flashcards with spaced repetition, PDF annotation, queries, whiteboards and a plugin ecosystem. Sync is available end-to-end encrypted, or you can roll your own with Git or Syncthing.
The project is mid-transition: alongside the classic Markdown version, a rebuilt “DB version” backed by a local database entered public beta in July 2026, bringing real properties and Tana-style structured tags plus more reliable sync. That rewrite consumed several years of development attention, so the classic version evolved slowly — but the foundation of free, local, open-source outlining has kept a devoted community.
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.
Logseq vs Capacities at a glance
| Logseq | Capacities | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (open source); optional paid sync | Pro ~$9.99/mo annual ($11.99 monthly); Believer ~$12.49/mo |
| Free plan | Yes — everything | Yes — generous core plan |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android |
| Storage model | Local-first — Markdown/Org files (DB version: local database) | Cloud (offline support, not local-first) |
| Editing model | Outliner — blocks, references, daily notes | Object-based pages with properties, blocks and daily notes |
| Backlinks & wiki links | Yes — bidirectional, block-level | Yes — backlinks between objects |
| Graph view | Yes — graph view | Yes — full-space graph view (Oct 2026) and per-object connections |
| Search | Full-text and queries | Full-text; AI search on Pro |
| Web capture | Community clippers; mobile quick capture | Weblink reader and mobile share |
| Email-in capture | No | No |
| RSS / feeds | No | No |
| Team collaboration | No | No — explicitly not planned |
| Publishing & sharing | Static-site export via community tools | Read-only share links for pages |
| AI assistant access | Community plugins and MCP servers | Built-in AI assistant (Pro); official hosted MCP server (OAuth, one space per connection) and REST API |
| Offline access | Yes — fully offline | Partial |
| Open source | Yes — AGPL-3.0 | No |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes — Logseq Sync is end-to-end encrypted | No |
| Data export | Markdown/Org files; OPML, JSON | Markdown export |
Pricing and features as of mid-2026 — check each product’s site for current details.
New to personal knowledge management? Start here: choosing a second brain app — every tool on this page, with a pick for each kind of thinker.
Outliner vs objects — what Logseq is good for, and what Capacities is
Logseq is an outliner to the core: every line is a bullet, the day’s journal is the front door, and any bullet can be referenced or embedded anywhere else. That is what Logseq is good for — meeting fragments, interstitial notes, thinking-in-progress, tasks threaded through your days — plus flashcards and PDF annotation built in. It is also why long-form prose in Logseq always feels like writing inside a list.
Capacities starts from the object. A book, a person, a meeting each has a type with properties and views; browsing everything of a kind falls out of the design, and daily notes with a calendar tie it to your day. There is no block-reference model and no outliner — bullets inside an object are just bullets. Neither is more powerful; they match different heads. If your head is closer to documents than either, we’ve set both against Obsidian: Logseq vs Obsidian and Obsidian vs Capacities.
Logseq pricing in 2026: what’s free, what Sync costs, and the DB version
Logseq is free. The app — desktop for macOS, Windows and Linux, the mobile apps, every feature — costs nothing, has no note limits, and is open source under AGPL-3.0; you download it from logseq.com or the GitHub releases page, which is also where the project’s status is easiest to read. As of November 7, 2026 the current release is Logseq 2.0.2, the “DB version” that moves your graph into a local database (2.0.1 shipped July 13, 2026; 2.0.2 on October 7 with a nightly build on October 25 — all explicitly beta), while the classic Markdown app sits at 0.10.15 from December 2025 in maintenance mode.
Money enters only for sync, and even there the answer is unsettled. Classic graphs are plain files, so iCloud, Syncthing or git sync them for free. Official Logseq Sync — end-to-end encrypted — has been reached by backing the project on Open Collective ($5 or $15 a month, which the collective describes as early access to insider builds), and the DB version’s sync is its new real-time collaboration (RTC) system, with paid pricing still unpublished on November 7, 2026. So “Logseq pricing” in 2026 is: $0 for the app, $0 for DIY sync, roughly $5/month if you want the official sync today, and an unknown once the DB version leaves beta.
Capacities, for contrast: the free plan is genuinely usable — unlimited notes and objects, custom types, sync across devices, export — capped at 5 GB of media and then 100 MB of new uploads a month. Pro is $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88 a year; $11.99 monthly) and adds the AI assistant, tasks, calendar integration, queries, formulas, unlimited media, API access and — since Release 72 on October 26, 2026 — whiteboards; Believer starts at $12.49/month; optional Pro+ and Believer+ add-ons ($8.33/month, annual) buy a larger AI budget, and students get 40% off annual Pro (all re-read on capacities.io/pricing, November 7, 2026). Is Capacities worth it? For the free plan alone, yes if you like the object model; Pro is worth it when tasks, calendar, whiteboards and the API are part of your day.
Sync, mobile and momentum — dated
Capacities’ quiet advantage is that everything just works everywhere: web, desktop and mobile apps sync on the free plan, offline edits merge on reconnect, and the August 2026 release redesigned the mobile app. It ships steadily from a small, bootstrapped team: Release 72 (October 26, 2026) added whiteboards for Pro and a full-space graph view, and v1.72.6 followed on October 28.
Logseq’s 2026 is a rebuild year. The DB version modernizes real weaknesses — performance on large graphs, typed properties and Tana-style tags (if Tana itself is the alternative you are weighing, see Logseq vs Tana), reliable sync — but it is beta (the repository recommends automated backups for DB graphs), its new sync is the real-time collaboration system, and its rebuilt iOS app was in TestFlight with 2.0.2 under App Store review as of October 7, 2026. If your phone is a primary writing device, Capacities wins this section in 2026; if the classic app already fits, nothing forces you to move.
Logseq vs Capacities with an AI assistant (MCP)
A newer axis: which of the two can Claude, ChatGPT or a coding agent work with, and from where. Capacities answers it as a product. It runs an official hosted MCP server at api.capacities.io, authenticated with OAuth 2.1, alongside a REST API; you pick one space on the consent screen and that connection sees only that space — on the Pro plan, per the documentation read November 7, 2026 — and the assistant reaches it from anywhere, including claude.ai in a browser. Logseq has no official MCP server as of the same read of its repository and releases: the community provides them — servers that talk to the running app’s local API, or, for a classic graph, any filesystem MCP server over the Markdown folder — so the assistant runs on the machine the graph lives on, sees all of it, and most of those servers were written for the classic file graph rather than the DB version.
Read that as the same split as everything else on this page: Capacities gives you the agent connection as a feature of a hosted account; Logseq gives you files and an API and lets you wire the assistant yourself. (A hosted workspace with a scope you choose per connection — a folder, a tag — is the third design; our AI second brain guide covers it.)
Capacities vs Logseq vs Obsidian — the three-way version
Most people asking this question have Obsidian on the list too, and it slots neatly between the two: plain Markdown files like classic Logseq, a document editor rather than an outliner, no object model like Capacities but native Bases views over properties, the biggest plugin ecosystem in the category, and the steadiest release cadence of the three (1.15.1 on November 3, 2026). It is free with paid sync at $4/month. Logseq if the outline and the license are the point; Capacities if the objects and the polish are; Obsidian if you want the safe default and will assemble your own system.
Ownership, export and switching
Classic Logseq is the cleanest exit in the category — the graph is a folder of Markdown or Org files; the DB version keeps a local database with Markdown export. Capacities is cloud-hosted, candidly not end-to-end encrypted (the team publishes its reasoning), and exports Markdown in which object types and properties flatten.
Logseq → Capacities: import the Markdown folder; files become objects you assign types to, [[links]] survive, while ((block refs)), key:: properties and TODO keywords arrive as text. Capacities → Logseq: export Markdown and open it as a classic graph; text and links come through, properties as plain lines. Trial-import a copy first either way.
Where Logseq shines
- Free and open source (AGPL) with local-first storage — the strongest ownership story among outliners.
- Built-in spaced-repetition flashcards and PDF annotation, no plugins needed.
- Block references, queries and whiteboards cover most of Roam’s power features.
- The new DB version adds structured properties and tags with trustworthy sync.
Worth knowing: No real-time collaboration — it’s a single-player tool. The MD-to-DB transition splits the product; some features (like whiteboards) are temporarily missing from the DB beta. Polish and mobile experience trail the paid competition, and web capture relies on community tooling.
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.
Which should you choose?
Choose Logseq if:
- You want Roam-style outlining without the subscription, as open-source software.
- Local files and end-to-end-encrypted sync are non-negotiable.
- You want flashcards built into the same tool as your notes.
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.
A third option: Dexi
Logseq and Capacities both assume your knowledge starts as something you type into them, and both ask you to choose a structure up front — bullets or object types. If much of what you keep arrives from the web, Dexi starts there instead: everything you capture from your browser, inbox or RSS becomes a searchable note beside the ones you write; #tags, @mentions and [[wiki links]] typed inline do the organizing; inline key:: value properties feed table and card views when you want them; and an MCP server lets Claude work with your notes directly. Web-based, nothing to sync, free for up to 1,000 notes and $5/month after.
Dexi in detail
- Web clipper and bookmark saver for any browser or phone
- Semantic search for notes: find ideas by meaning
- Knowledge graph for your notes
- Use Claude and ChatGPT with your notes (MCP server)
Frequently asked questions
Is Capacities worth it?
The free plan is worth it on its own if you like typed objects and daily notes — unlimited notes, sync across devices and export, with a 5 GB media cap. Pro ($9.99/month billed annually, $11.99 monthly, as of November 2026) is worth it when you will use tasks, calendar integration, queries, whiteboards, the AI assistant, the MCP server or the API. If you mainly want a free, local, open-source tool, it is not — that is Logseq.
What is Logseq good for?
Outline-shaped thinking: daily journals, nested bullets, block references and embeds, task keywords threaded through your days, plus built-in flashcards and PDF annotation — all free, open source (AGPL-3.0) and stored locally. It is less good for long-form prose, for collaboration (none), and in 2026 for mobile, where the rebuilt iOS app is still in beta (TestFlight, October 2026).
Is Logseq free, and how much is Logseq Sync?
Logseq is free with no note limits, on every platform, and open source. Sync is the only paid part: classic graphs sync free the DIY way (iCloud, Syncthing, git); official end-to-end-encrypted Logseq Sync has been available to Open Collective backers ($5 or $15/month); the database version’s new real-time sync has no published paid pricing as of November 7, 2026.
Which is cheaper, Capacities or Logseq?
Logseq: $0 for the app and $0 for DIY sync, or about $5/month to back the project for official sync. Capacities is free for unlimited notes with a 5 GB media cap, and $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88 a year) for Pro. Both are cheap; Logseq is free on principle, Capacities is free until you want its power features. As of November 2026.
Can Claude work with my Logseq or Capacities notes?
Both, differently. Capacities runs an official hosted MCP server (OAuth 2.1; you choose one space per connection; Pro plan) plus a REST API, so Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code can search, read and write that space from anywhere. Logseq has no official MCP server as of November 2026 — community servers connect to the running desktop app’s local API, or read a classic graph’s Markdown folder as files — so the assistant works on the machine the graph lives on and sees the whole graph.
Can I move from Logseq to Capacities?
Yes, via Markdown. A classic Logseq graph is already a folder of Markdown files; import it into Capacities and assign object types to what arrives. [[Links]] survive; ((block references)), key:: properties, queries and TODO keywords come through as literal text and need cleanup. Run a trial import on a copy first.
Which is better for personal knowledge management, Capacities or Logseq?
Capacities if you want the structure decided for you — typed objects, daily notes and free sync in a polished app. Logseq if you want to own the system — an open-source outliner with block references, stored as local files or a local database, free without limits — and can live with its 2026 database-version transition.
Collect, connect and search everything you read — free, no credit card required.
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