Are you tired of using productivity tools that don’t prioritize your data privacy and ownership?

Look no further than Anytype!

This local-first, end-to-end encrypted software is designed to be a secure place for all your digital assets.

But Anytype isn’t just about security – it’s also highly customizable and features a graph-based structure that allows you to seamlessly connect your tasks, notes, ideas, documents, and workflows.

While Anytype is great for individual use, it’s also designed to facilitate collaboration, making it a versatile tool for personal and team productivity.

With an ambitious vision to enable large-scale collaboration and create a global repository of interconnected knowledge, Anytype is poised to revolutionize the way we think about productivity tools.

It’s characterized by a number of unique features and principles:

• Open ecosystem: Anytype aims to be an open organization that is collectively owned by its creators.
• User ownership and control: Users can decide how their data is used, shared, and valued.
• Connectivity and customizability: Anytype allows users to connect ideas, notes, tasks, and people into a graph for insight. It’s private, works offline, and is infinitely customizable.
• Creativity and organization: Anytype offers a playful editor and also fluid organization with a graph view for users to unleash their creativity and organize ideas.
• Security and privacy: Anytype is designed to be secure with end-to-end encryption and privacy by design. All data is locally-synced and protected with a user’s own seed phrase. It reminds me of Crypto Wallets like Ledger Nano S!
• Digital sovereignty: Anytype provides a place where users’ rights to digital sovereignty and privacy are mathematically assured.

Understanding Anytype

Now, let’s delve into the numerous features of Anytype and explain how they compare to Notion’s equivalents.

Space

In Anytype, a “Space” is akin to a Workspace in Notion. It’s the container where you store and organize your content.

If you’re planning to use Anytype for personal use, most of the time, I recommend you not create more than 1 space.

In the future, Anytype plans to allow users to create multiple spaces with different access controls, similar to managing multiple workspaces in Notion.

Graph

A “Graph” in Anytype is a non-hierarchical structure containing all objects (database items in Notion) you’ve created in a space, and their connections to each other.

Notion doesn’t have a direct equivalent to this, but imagine if you could visualize all your interlinked database items and pages in a graph view.

Think of graph views in Roam Research, Obsidian, or LogSeq.

Types

“Types” in Anytype are like Databases in Notion. They are classification systems for objects.

Each object must have a Type, just as each database item in Notion must belong to a specific database.

There are various built-in Types in Anytype like Book, Bookmark, Contact, Goal, Project, Task, etc. Each of these Types also come with built-in Relations (aka. Properties).

You can also create custom “Types” with custom “Relations”

Objects

In Anytype, “Objects” are comparable to database items/pages in Notion.

They are the fundamental units that hold information in Anytype and are nodes in your graph.

Each object has a specific “Type” (like how each item belongs to a database in Notion).

Relations

Relations in Anytype are a way to share properties across objects, allowing you to establish connections between different objects, adding context and significance to each connection.

By naming them “Relations” instead of “Properties”, Anytype emphasizes that properties can be shared and connected between multiple Types, rather than being limited to a single “Type” (Database)

Every Type (database) comes with multiple Relations (properties).

Also, you can create custom relations of different types like Text, Number, Date, Status, Tag, email/phone/URL, Checkbox, Media, Object, etc.

One noteworthy Relation type is “Object” which allows you to relate one Object with other Objects belonging to different Type(s).

You can also view these relations as objects, which allows you to see all the other objects that share the same relation.

 To contrast, Notion ties properties to certain databases, which limits their shared use. For example, it’s not possible to view all items with a shared property in a single place. Notion’s filtering and sorting options allow you to display only the database items that meet certain criteria, but you cannot view all items with a shared property in a single place.

Sets

A “Set” in Anytype is a dynamic collection of all Objects (database items in Notion) which share a common characteristic (e.g., Type or Relation).

They display a portion of your graph based on your filtered criteria and several customizable secondary filters.

For instance, you can create a Set based on the Type “Note” to display every Note you’ve created in Anytype.

This is similar to a filtered linked view of a database, except you’re not limited to querying items (objects) from only one database. Because Anytype uses “Types” which are more fluid compared to “Databases”.

Collections

In Anytype, “Collections” are manually created compilations of multiple objects (database items in Notion) within a single one.

You can have multiple “Types” of “Objects” in one Collection.

Templates

In Anytype, “Templates” are saved content formats for specific Types (Databases in Notion). They can be applied when creating a new object (database item in Notion).

It’s similar to how you can create templates for new pages or database entries in Notion, allowing for consistency and efficiency.

 Things I appreciate

1. Anytype supports offline mode and full control over data, which is a major concern with platforms like Notion.
2. Anytype provides end-to-end encryption and offline-first backup nodes, which allow for secure data syncing and storage. Users can also self-host their backups or export their data as markdown.
3. Anytype’s syncing feature allows objects to sync separately, even when offline, with changes being merged together. Users can also transfer objects directly between devices and backup nodes using P2P technology. Overall, Anytype’s backup and syncing features offer users greater control and security over their data.
4. Anytype’s design concepts, like objects and relations, as they provide a flexible way to structure the data. You can create a more interconnected web of ideas and knowledge, much like mind mapping. This could be very useful for research, brainstorming sessions, or learning new topics.
5. The presence of relations and the Sets feature makes handling recursive items easier and allows for easier tracking of changes.
6. Graph view helps visualize interconnections between data. It’s similar to Obsidian and Roam Research!
7. Anytype is open-source (even Obsidian is not).
8. Anytype is built on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) and is aiming to operate in the Web3 environment. This could unlock use cases involving decentralized storage, identity, and even blockchain-based assets or contracts.

 Areas for improvement

1. Anytype supports offline mode and full control over data, which is a major concern with platforms like Notion.
2. Anytype provides end-to-end encryption and offline-first backup nodes, which allow for secure data syncing and storage. Users can also self-host their backups or export their data as markdown.
3. Anytype’s syncing feature allows objects to sync separately, even when offline, with changes being merged together. Users can also transfer objects directly between devices and backup nodes using P2P technology. Overall, Anytype’s backup and syncing features offer users greater control and security over their data.
4. Anytype’s design concepts, like objects and relations, as they provide a flexible way to structure the data.
5. The presence of relations and the Sets feature makes handling recursive items easier and allows for easier tracking of changes.
6. Graph view helps visualize interconnections between data. It’s similar to Obsidian and Roam Research!
7. Anytype is open-source (even Obsidian is not).

How do I plan to use Anytype?

I find Anytype to be a promising alternative to Notion, especially for those who prioritize data privacy and ownership.

Anytype’s offline-first approach and end-to-end encryption make it a great option for personal use. Its design concepts, like objects and relations, as well as its graph view, make it especially well-suited for personal knowledge management.

In fact, I may replace Obsidian with Anytype for my personal notes in the future.

On the other hand, I use Notion for team collaboration, goal and project management, as well as content creation. I have implemented a life operating system called Core System in Notion, which has put an end to endless tweaking and made my entire workspace more unified. API, integrations, and AI feature make Notion irreplaceable, especially for team setups.

Overall, I find Anytype to be a promising alternative to Notion.

While they acknowledge that it’s still a work in progress, they appreciate its design philosophy and features and look forward to future improvements and features.