Anytype — A local-first, end-to-end encrypted personal knowledge base with a free desktop and mobile client, built on a source-available license.
By Noahlast updated
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Best for: privacy-conscious individuals and small teams wanting a Notion-style workspace that works offline without a mandatory cloud
Pricing: Free local-first client; paid Any-Sync Network membership adds cloud storage and multi-device sync at pricing not independently verified.
- Anytype's desktop and mobile apps are free to use with local-first, offline-capable storage.
- Anytype uses end-to-end, zero-knowledge encryption for data that syncs across devices.
- The client is licensed under the Any Source Available License 1.0, not a standard OSI-approved open-source license.
- Anytype's GitHub desktop client repository has 8.7k stars.
- Anytype holds a 4.9/5 rating from 104 reviews on Product Hunt, including a 2023 Golden Kitty Award.
Limitations: Source-available license, not a standard OSI-approved open-source license.; Smaller plugin and integration ecosystem than Notion or Obsidian.; Paid membership pricing is not clearly published on the marketing site.
Top alternatives: Notion, Obsidian, Logseq, Capacities, Tana — full list
What is Anytype?
Anytype is a personal knowledge-base and note-taking application built around "local-first" software principles: data lives primarily on the user's own device, encrypted end-to-end, with optional peer-to-peer or network sync rather than a mandatory cloud backend. Content is organized into composable blocks (rich text, databases, Kanban boards, calendars, galleries) that can be linked and remixed across pages, similar in concept to Notion but architected so the app remains fully usable offline. The project describes its license as the "Any Source Available License 1.0," which makes the source code visible and modifiable under Any's terms but is not an OSI-approved open-source license, so it differs from a fully open-source project like Obsidian's plugin ecosystem or Logseq's AGPL core. Anytype layers a paid "Any-Sync Network" membership on top of the free client for users who want expanded cloud storage and multi-device sync beyond what local-only or peer-to-peer usage provides. Anytype targets individuals and small teams who want a Notion-like flexible workspace without handing their data to a third-party cloud by default, and is available as native desktop apps (Electron-based, macOS/Windows/Linux) plus iOS and Android mobile clients.
Anytype is a local-first note-taking and knowledge-management app, built by the Swiss association Any, that stores data offline-first on a user's own device and syncs it peer-to-peer with zero-knowledge encryption. It combines composable content blocks (text, databases, kanban boards, calendars) into a flexible personal wiki similar in spirit to Notion, but with privacy and data ownership as the core pitch rather than cloud-first collaboration. The desktop client (macOS, Windows, Linux) and mobile apps are free to use with core offline features, and the project publishes its client code under an Any Source Available License 1.0 rather than a standard OSI-approved open-source license, with a commercial Any-Sync Network membership for extra cloud storage and multi-device sync. The GitHub repository for the desktop client has 8.7k stars, and on Product Hunt Anytype holds a 4.9/5 rating from 104 reviews, including a 2023 Golden Kitty Award.
Standout feature: Local-first, end-to-end encrypted storage with optional peer-to-peer sync, so the app is fully functional offline and data isn't dependent on a company's cloud servers by default.
Biggest weakness: The client is released under a source-available license, not a standard OSI-approved open-source license, so it doesn't carry the same community-audit and fork guarantees as fully open-source competitors like Logseq; the product is also younger and less mature than Notion or Obsidian, with a smaller plugin and integration ecosystem.
Pros
- Local-first architecture means the app works fully offline with data stored on-device.
- End-to-end, zero-knowledge encryption for any data that does sync.
- Free desktop and mobile apps with no feature paywall on core offline functionality.
- Composable block system (databases, kanban, calendar) offers Notion-like flexibility.
Cons
- Uses a source-available license rather than a standard OSI-approved open-source license.
- Smaller plugin and third-party integration ecosystem than Notion or Obsidian.
- Paid Any-Sync Network membership pricing is not clearly published, making cost planning harder.
- Younger, less battle-tested product than long-established note-taking competitors.
Anytype pricing
Free
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free (local-first) | Free | Full offline-first usage on unlimited devices with local encrypted storage; core app functionality is not paywalled. |
| Any-Sync Network membership | Custom | Paid tiers add expanded cloud storage and multi-device network sync; exact current USD pricing could not be verified because anytype.io's pricing page did not return content to the fetch tool. |
What reviewers say
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