What the review says
Uche has tried OneNote, Google Keep and many others. She says Anytype is the one that made her want to write. Her main praise is the look: a dark interface with warm accents, subtle motion and carefully drawn icons. She also says the design alone isn't what keeps her writing. The structure matters more.
Her judgments about beauty and motivation are subjective. They describe one person's experience, not a measured result. The structural claims are easier to check, and they are the part worth understanding.
The object model
Anytype doesn't use folders as the main organizing idea. Uche describes a model built from a few concepts:
- Objects: everything you create, whether a note, page, task, project or file.
- Blocks: the content inside an object, such as text, headings, checkboxes, callouts and dividers.
- Types: what kind of thing an object is.
- Properties: extra context such as tags, due dates or status.
According to her, each new Space comes with default types: Pages for long-form writing, Notes for quick thoughts, Tasks and Projects, and media types such as Files, Audio, Video, Images and Bookmarks. She also mentions Queries and Collections but says she hasn't explored them.
The slash command inserts content inside a page. In her description, items inserted this way link automatically to their type, so a task appears under Tasks and an image under Images. You can also create objects from the home screen with the plus icon next to a type.
The project's GitHub repository describes the same idea. It calls Anytype a personal knowledge base for pages, tasks, wikis and journals. It lists composable blocks covering text, databases, kanban, calendar and custom Types. That fits Uche's description. Menu labels may differ between platforms and versions, so treat her walkthrough as one user's experience rather than a manual.
Is Anytype open source?
The headline says "open-source." The project's own materials say otherwise for the apps.
- The official desktop repository describes the app as a local-first, peer-to-peer, end-to-end-encrypted knowledge OS for macOS, Windows and Linux.
- The same repository says the desktop client is built with Electron and TypeScript.
- It lists the code as "Open code" under the Any Source Available License 1.0.
- Anytype's blog says the infrastructure protocol any-sync and the data protocol any-block are MIT-licensed. The middleware and the applications are under the Any Source Available License.
- That license lets individuals review, modify and use the code for personal, academic, scientific, research and development purposes. Commercial use needs consent from the Any Association.
Third-party directories draw the same line. One says the source code can be read, modified and built, but is not OSI-certified open source.
"Source-available" is the more accurate label. You can read and audit the code, and that is a real benefit for a privacy-focused app. It is not the same as the freedoms an OSI-approved license gives you. Businesses should read the license before deploying it. One directory notes that commercial use under the license requires verified network authorization. That is a third party's reading, so check the license text yourself.
Spaces, sharing and publishing
Uche reports that Spaces are the main workspace, and that Chats are like Spaces with multiple participants. She says the free plan allows up to ten Spaces. She says everything is private by default, with three invite-link types: Editor, Viewer and Request approval. She also says each Space or Chat supports one active invite link at a time.
I couldn't independently confirm these specifics, including the Space limit and the link behavior, against current official documentation. Plan limits and terminology change, so check them in the app before building a workflow around them.
She also says individual objects can be published as standalone web pages, and that custom subdomains need a paid membership. The practical point holds either way. There are three separate situations:
- Local, encrypted content that only you can read.
- Invited collaboration, shared with specific people.
- Published pages, which are meant to be public.
"Private by default" describes the first two. Anyone who publishes an object has chosen to make it visible, so check what a page exposes before you publish it.
The key-based login
Anytype has no conventional username and password. Uche says a unique key secures your login. She says losing it means losing access to your data, and that you can retrieve the key in profile settings.
Anytype's self-hosting documentation supports the underlying design. It says data inside spaces needs space encryption keys to be read, and that nodes don't store those keys or decrypt the data. That is the vendor's own claim, not an independent audit.
I did not verify the exact recovery steps. Practical advice follows from the design:
- Find out where your key lives before you put anything important in the app.
- Store a copy somewhere safe and separate from the device.
- Don't assume a support desk can reset a lost key. That is the usual trade-off with zero-knowledge designs.
Who it suits
Uche says there is a learning curve, especially coming from Apple Notes or Google Keep. She says the tutorial helped, and that after a few days she was thinking in objects and types.
It may suit you if:
- you want notes, tasks and projects linked in one place;
- you care about local-first storage and encryption;
- you use more than one platform. Uche's listing shows Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and a Chrome extension.
It may not suit you if:
- you just need a quick scratchpad;
- you need heavy real-time collaboration. One third-party directory says its peer-to-peer sync isn't built for concurrent multi-user editing the way Notion is. That is an outside assessment, not something Anytype states.
- you need strict open-source licensing for your organization.
OneNote users should note one difference. Anytype's objects and relations are closer to a database than to OneNote's notebook, section and page layout.
Bottom line
Uche's review is an enthusiastic first-hand account, and it's useful for explaining how Anytype is organized. Her praise for the design is opinion. Her calling it "open-source" is imprecise: the apps are source-available under a custom license, while the underlying protocols are MIT-licensed. If you try it on Windows, back up your key first and check the sharing settings before you publish anything.