Nodum vs Capacities
A Capacities alternative with markdown files and an open licence
Nodum is an open-source alternative to Capacities. Capacities is a proprietary, cloud-hosted studio for the mind that organises everything into typed objects — books, people, ideas — with a daily note at the centre. Nodum stores plain markdown files, links them with wikilinks and tags, and is MIT licensed and self-hostable.
What Capacities is
Capacities is a proprietary note app built on object types: rather than files in folders, every note is an object of some type with its own properties and views. Combined with a daily note and a clean interface, it appeals strongly to people who found folders limiting.
Side by side
| Property | Capacities | Nodum |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Proprietary, closed source | MIT — the whole stack, frontend and backend |
| Hosting | Capacities' cloud; no self-hosting | Hosted at nodum.md, or self-hosted with one Docker Compose command |
| Your notes are | A hosted object store; markdown export | Plain markdown files, exported as a folder-true zip whenever you ask |
| Linking | Object links and backlinks | [[wikilinks]], [[path/Note]], [[Note|alias]], ![[embeds]] — Obsidian syntax |
| Graph | Object graph view | Global and local force-directed graph, GPU-rendered on WebGL2 |
| Pricing model | Free tier with a paid Believer plan | Free and open source; self-host at your own infrastructure cost |
| Platforms | Browser, desktop, mobile | Any modern browser, desktop and mobile; installable as a PWA |
| Getting out | Markdown export | Vault zip of .md files, plus a REST API and an MCP server |
Where each one actually wins
The left-hand column is the honest part. If none of it applies to you, the switch is probably worth making; if several do, it probably is not.
What Capacities does better
- Typed objects give structure that tags and frontmatter only approximate.
- A very polished, calm interface and a strong daily-note workflow.
What Nodum does better
- Markdown files you own, with a folder-true export.
- Free, MIT licensed and self-hostable.
- A GPU force graph over the whole vault, plus unlinked mentions.
- Obsidian-compatible import, so a vault moves in cleanly.
So — switch, or stay?
Switch to Nodum if…
- You want your notes as files rather than objects in someone's cloud.
- Self-hosting or open source matters to you.
Stay on Capacities if…
- Typed objects are the reason you use it.
Capacities and Nodum: common questions
Is there an open-source Capacities alternative?
Nodum is the closest open-source fit for the linked-notes half of Capacities: MIT licensed, markdown files, wikilinks, automatic backlinks, tags with nesting, YAML properties, daily notes and a knowledge graph. It does not reproduce Capacities' typed-object model.
Before you move anything
Whatever you decide, run this once. It takes ten minutes and it is the difference between a migration and an incident.
- Export from Capacities first, and keep that export somewhere safe.
- Import a copy into a throwaway Nodum vault, not your main one.
- Open the graph and look for ghost nodes — those are links that did not resolve.
- Export the Nodum vault and diff it against what you put in.
- Only then delete anything.
Other comparisons
Every comparison is on the alternatives index, and the glossary defines the vocabulary these pages use.
Bring your Capacities notes with you.
Import a zip, look at the graph, export it again. Nothing about it is one-way.