If you are weighing Anytype vs. Obsidian for a note system an AI can actually work with, here is the short version. I picked Obsidian, and the deciding factor was not the features. It was the file format.
Both tools are good. But I am building a second brain that I want Claude and other AI agents to read, write to, and reason over. That goal quietly rules out most of the comparisons you will read elsewhere.
This is the honest version of how I chose, what each tool is genuinely better at, and who should pick which.
I am a solo developer building in public under softDev23, and my notes are not a hobby. They are where my app plans, decisions, and the systems I run actually live.
So I did not pick based on which app looked nicer. I picked based on what survives a decade and what an AI can open without permission, an API, or a plugin.
The short answer is plain files
Obsidian stores your notes as plain Markdown files in a normal folder on your computer. Anytype stores your notes in its own local, encrypted, object-based database.
That single difference decided it for me. An AI agent can read a folder of Markdown files directly, and it cannot easily reach inside Anytype’s database.
If you do not care about AI access, this difference matters far less, and Anytype has real advantages I will get to.
But if your plan is to point an AI at your notes and have it help you think, write, and build, plain files are not a nice-to-have. They are the whole game.
So the rest of this comparison is mostly about that fork. Do you want a beautiful, private, structured app, or a pile of open files that anything can read? Both are valid. They are just different bets.
What Anytype is genuinely good at
Anytype is the more impressive piece of software in a lot of ways, and it deserves credit. It is local-first and end-to-end encrypted, so your data lives on your device and syncs privately rather than sitting on someone else’s server.
For people who left Notion specifically over privacy and ownership, that is a real draw.
It is also structured. Anytype treats notes as objects with types and relations, closer to a database than a text file.
If you like the Notion style of building a system out of linked databases, properties, and views, Anytype gives you that without the cloud dependency. It looks polished, it feels modern, and the object model is powerful for people who think in structured data.
The honest summary is that Anytype is what you reach for if you want a private, structured, Notion-like workspace that you own. It is a strong tool, and for a lot of people it is the right answer.
What Obsidian is genuinely good at
Obsidian’s strength is almost boring, and that is the point. It is plain Markdown files in a folder.
There is no proprietary format, no lock-in, and no company you depend on to stay alive in order to keep reading your own notes. If Obsidian disappeared tomorrow, my notes would still be sitting there as text files I can open in anything.
That durability is what I value most as a solo developer trying to build something that lasts. The notes outlive the app.
I can put the folder in Git, back it up anywhere, edit it in another editor, and run scripts over it. The format does not trap me.
It is also quietly extensible. Obsidian has a large community plugin ecosystem, but the base is just files, so I am never betting my data on a plugin. I get flexibility on top of a foundation that does not move.
Where Notion fits, and why I did not pick it
Most people comparing Anytype vs. Obsidian are really asking a bigger question, which is what to use instead of Notion. Notion is the incumbent, and it is excellent at what it does. Collaborative, database-driven workspaces that look great and work well for teams.
I did not pick Notion for my second brain for two reasons. First, my notes live in Notion’s cloud and its format, which is the opposite of the ownership I want.
Second, and more importantly for me, an AI cannot freely read a Notion workspace the way it can read a folder of files. There are integrations, but it is access through a keyhole, not a wide-open door.
If you work on a team and need shared, structured docs, Notion is still a sensible choice, and Anytype is the closer like-for-like alternative to it. Notion alternatives are worth exploring if ownership matters to you, and Anytype is one of the best. But for a solo, AI-first system, neither was the fit.
Anytype vs Obsidian for an AI second brain
Here is where the comparison stops being even, for my specific goal. For an AI second brain, Anytype vs. Obsidian is not close, and Obsidian wins because of the file format.
When my notes are plain Markdown files, an AI agent can read them, search them, write new ones, and reorganize them directly, the same way it works with any other files.
My whole AIOS setup depends on that. Claude can open my vault, see my plans and decisions, and act on them, because there is nothing in the way. I wrote about connecting Claude to an Obsidian vault if you want to see that setup in practice.
Anytype’s encrypted object database is great for privacy, but that same wall is what keeps an AI out. To get an agent working against Anytype, you are waiting on official AI features or fighting the format.
With Obsidian, the format was never the obstacle, because there is barely a format at all. It is just text.
So the rule I landed on is simple. The best second brain app is the one your AI can read. By that test, plain files beat a beautiful database, and Obsidian beats Anytype for what I am doing.
Who should pick which
I am not going to pretend my choice is the right one for everyone, because it is not. The right pick depends on what you are optimizing for.
Pick Anytype if your priority is privacy and a structured, Notion-like workspace you fully own, and you are not planning to hand your notes to an AI.
It is polished, encrypted, local-first, and the object model is powerful. For a private personal knowledge base, it is a strong, modern choice.
Pick Obsidian if you want durability, portability, and an AI that can actually work with your notes. If you care about owning your data as plain text, putting it in version control, and never being locked into one app, Obsidian is the safer long-term bet.
And if you are building any kind of AI workflow on top of your notes, it is close to the only sensible choice today.
Pick Notion if you are collaborating with a team and want the most refined database-driven workspace, and the cloud and the format do not bother you.
Sync, mobile, and getting to your notes
Both apps sync across devices, but they do it differently, and the difference matters if you live on your phone as much as your laptop.
Anytype syncs through its own encrypted network, so your devices stay in step without your notes ever sitting on a readable server. It is private by design, and the mobile app is genuinely polished.
Obsidian gives you more choices and more responsibility. You can pay for Obsidian Sync, or roll your own with iCloud, a Git repo, or any folder-sync tool, because the vault is just files.
That flexibility is the point, but it does mean you set sync up rather than having it handed to you. For an AI workflow, this still favors plain files. A Git-backed folder is something my scripts and agents can reach from anywhere, not only from inside one app.
Plugins, extensibility, and the ceiling
Obsidian has a large community plugin ecosystem, and because the base is plain files, plugins extend the app without trapping your data. If a plugin dies, your notes are untouched. The official plugin directory alone is worth a browse.
Anytype is more of a closed, designed experience. It is coherent and polished, but you are working inside its model rather than building on an open base.
For some people, that is a relief. For a tinkerer who wants to script, automate, and extend, it is a ceiling. This is the same theme again. Obsidian trades a little polish for openness, and openness is what an AI second brain runs on.
The lock-in test
The simplest way to compare any two note apps is the lock-in test. If the company vanished tomorrow, how much of your work could you walk away with, today, in a format something else can read?
With Obsidian, the answer is everything, instantly, because it was never in a proprietary format to begin with. Plain Markdown opens in any editor on any system.
With Anytype, your notes are yours and encrypted, but they live inside its database, so making them fully portable is more involved. There is an export, but it is a step you take rather than the default state of your data.
Neither answer is wrong. It just tells you which bet each app is making, and which one matches how long you expect to keep these notes.
What I actually use today
I run Obsidian as the home for everything that is not code under softDev23. App plans, decisions, the systems I use, and the rules my AI follows all live there as Markdown, in a Git-backed vault, readable by Claude.
It is not the prettiest option, and Anytype genuinely looks better in a demo. But pretty was never the requirement.
The requirement was that my notes outlive any single app and that an AI can read and write them without asking permission. Obsidian meets both. Anytype, for all its strengths, does not meet the second one yet. That is the whole decision in one line.
If you are choosing between them, do not start with the feature lists. Start with one question. Do you want your notes to be a private, structured app, or an open pile of files that anything, including your AI, can read? Answer that, and anytype vs obsidian mostly answers itself.
