Ever feel overwhelmed by scattered notes and endless digital documents?
Many of us struggle to keep our thoughts, ideas, and tasks organized in today’s fast-paced world.
This problem often leads to wasted time searching for information and missing important details.
But what if an AI note-taking app could simplify all that?
Two major players stand out: Capacities vs Microsoft OneNote.
Overview
To give you the best advice, we took a deep dive into both Capacities and Microsoft OneNote.
We really investigated their main features, ease of use, and AI tools.
This hands-on testing helps us show you which one truly fits your note-taking style in 2025.
Capacities is a rising star, with over 100,000 users discovering its unique approach.
Pricing: It has a free plan. The premium plan starts at $23/month.
Key Features:
- Object-Based Organization
- Graph View
- Content Linking
Over 100 million are already using Microsoft OneNote to streamline notes
Pricing: It has a free plan. Custom Pricing Plans are Available.
Key Features:
- Freeform Canvas
- Handwriting Recognition
- Microsoft 365 Integration
What is Capacities?
Capacities is a fresh take on note-taking.
It helps you link your ideas like a web. Think of it as a studio for your mind.
It’s built for creating connections between everything you learn.
Also, explore our favorite Capacities alternatives…
Key Benefits
- Networked Note-Taking: Creates a web of interconnected thoughts and notes.
- AI Assistant: Dynamically interacts with your notes to answer questions and spark ideas.
- Contextual Backlinks: Provides rich contextual information for linked notes.
- Custom Object Types: Create your categories for organizing information.
- Cross-Platform Availability: Access your notes on all major devices, including offline mode.
Pricing
- Basic: Get started, basic features.
- Pro: $9.99/month
- Beliver: $12.49/month
Pros
Cons
What is Microsoft OneNote?
Microsoft OneNote is like a digital binder.
You can throw anything into it. It’s perfect for capturing thoughts on the go.
It works great across all your devices.
Also, explore our favorite Microsoft OneNote alternatives…
Our Take
Ready to get organized? Over 100 million people are already using Microsoft OneNote to streamline their notes. See why they’ve made the switch – join the millions who are boosting their productivity!
Key Benefits
OneNote has its special strengths:
- Freeform Canvas: Write or draw anywhere. It’s like endless paper.
- Handwriting Recognition: Converts notes to text. Great for pen users.
- Deep Microsoft Integration: Works seamlessly with Office. Perfect for existing users.
- Audio Recording: Embed voice notes directly. Capture meetings easily.
- Web Clipper: Save web pages quickly. Keep research organized.
Pricing
Custom Pricing
Pros
Cons
Feature Comparison
OneNote is a powerful, free, and widely-used note-taking app that is a good Capacities alternative. It’s especially useful for those already using Microsoft Office.
1. Core Philosophy
- Capacities: A note taking application for a second brain. Its core purpose is to help you build a personal knowledge base and find hidden connections, allowing you to create amazing things by building a studio for your mind.
- Microsoft OneNote: A digital notebook designed to replicate a physical binder. It is a part of the Microsoft Office ecosystem and is perfect for organizing information in notebooks, sections, and pages.
2. Platform Availability
- Capacities: Offers a robust desktop app for Windows, Mac, and Linux, a web app, and mobile apps for iOS and Android. It provides a consistent user interface across devices.
- Microsoft OneNote: A powerful note-taking application that is free and available on all major platforms, including a desktop version for Windows and Mac, as well as a mobile app for iOS and Android.
3. Pricing and Cost
- Capacities: The free version includes all key features, with a paid plan for a single month to access a powerful assistant, calendar integration, and unlimited media uploads. The developer has a transparent account promise for new users.
- Microsoft OneNote: The basic version is free, but with some limitations. A paid subscription to Microsoft Office applications, like Microsoft 365, provides more storage and access to premium features in other Microsoft apps.
4. Search Functionality
- Capacities: Has a powerful search find function that lets you quickly search and retrieve data across all your notes, links, and content.
- Microsoft OneNote: Its search features are a key feature. Using OCR technology, it enables users to search for text within images, handwritten notes, and even attached files, saving you time from manual data entry.
5. Content Creation
- Capacities: You can create notes, use markdown notes for structured content, and link everything together. It helps you research and make sense of new ideas in a creative way, like an artist’s studio.
- Microsoft OneNote: Provides a free-form canvas. You can record audio, handwrite notes with a stylus, and use drawing tools, making it feel like a true word processing document.
6. AI Features
- Capacities: The ai assistant helps with research, writing, and log creation. It’s a powerful assistant right there to help you respond to new ideas and tasks from your new content.
- Microsoft OneNote: Has introduced a math assistant, and a more robust AI assistant is available through Microsoft 365. This AI helps organize information and offers content-based suggestions.
7. Integrations and Ecosystem
- Capacities: Connects to other apps and calendars to help you organize your daily notes. It is a powerful tool for a developer, and you can also embed files from other apps.
- Microsoft OneNote: Deeply integrated with Microsoft Office. It works seamlessly with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft apps, which is a big advantage for existing Microsoft users. It also has Microsoft Teams integrations and a web clipper.
8. Web Clipper
- Capacities: Its share sheet save content feature allows you to capture web pages and articles, but it primarily saves the link and a snippet rather than the entire page.
- Microsoft OneNote: The web clipper is a popular browser extension that enables users to save entire web pages, articles, and even print-outs to their notebooks with just a click.
9. Customization
- Capacities: Offers customization options for your account, from custom tags to custom templates and a dark mode. This allows you to create a personalized system.
- Microsoft OneNote: Has various customization options, from a variety of fonts and formatting options to custom templates. The user interface can also be customized with different colors for notebooks.
10. Collaboration and Sharing
- Capacities: While you can share a page with others, its primary focus is not on real-time collaboration like some other note taking apps, such as Notion.
- Microsoft OneNote: Makes sharing notes a breeze. You can invite other OneNote users to view or edit your notebooks in real time, making it easy to collaborate.
11. Offline Access
- Capacities: Supports offline access, allowing you to create and edit new content even without an internet connection. Changes will sync once you are back online.
- Microsoft OneNote: The desktop version of OneNote allows you to work offline. It syncs your data across multiple devices once you are connected again, and Microsoft support ensures a smooth experience.
What to look for when choosing an AI Note taking app?
- Consider if the app offers a simplified version for mobile devices and if it’s available on different platforms, including an ios app and an android version.
- Check if the cost varies depending on the number of features or monthly uploads. Does the free version offer enough to start taking notes, or do you need a paid plan for new features?
- Look for unique features like optical character recognition (OCR) and support for multiple notebooks and folders.
- See if the app allows for easy export options and integration with other services like Google Docs.
- The best apps for creative thinking will have the flexibility to handle multiple notes within a single document, without being limited to a single text box.
- Remember to check for developer support and if they provide information about their source code, which can be an important factor for many users.
Final Verdict
So, after looking closely at Capacities vs Microsoft OneNote, which one wins?
For most people, we lean towards OneNote. Why?
It’s super easy to use, especially if you already use Microsoft products. It’s free for basic use and lets you write or draw anywhere on the page.
Capacities is cool, especially for linking ideas, but it can be a bit complex.
OneNote’s simple design and wide use make it a powerful choice for everyday notes.
We’ve dug deep into both so that you can trust our pick for your note-taking needs.
More of Capacities
Here’s how Capacities stands against other popular note-taking and productivity tools, highlighting their standout features:
- Capacities vs Sembly: Sembly focuses on AI meeting transcription, summaries, and action items.
- Capacities vs Notion AI: Notion AI offers highly customizable workspaces with powerful AI for content generation.
- Capacities vs Fireflies AI: Fireflies AI excels at automated meeting transcription and AI-powered summaries of calls.
- Capacities vs ClickUp: ClickUp is an all-in-one platform for task, project, and team management with robust AI.
- Capacities vs Taskade: Taskade provides a collaborative workspace with tasks, notes, and mind maps, powered by AI.
- Capacities vs Notejoy: Notejoy offers fast, simple real-time collaboration with quick search capabilities across notes.
- Capacities vs Notta: Notta specializes in accurate real-time transcription and AI summaries for audio and video.
- Capacities vs Craft: Craft focuses on beautiful, block-based document creation with strong visual organization features.
- Capacities vs MeetGeek: MeetGeek automates meeting summaries, highlights, and action items using AI.
- Capacities vs Mem AI: Mem AI provides smart search and automatically connects notes, building a personal knowledge base.
- Capacities vs Evernote: Evernote is a classic note-taking app with strong web clipping and powerful search across diverse content.
More of Microsoft OneNote
Here’s how Microsoft OneNote stacks up against other popular alternatives, focusing on their standout features:
- Microsoft OneNote vs Notion AI: Notion AI offers unmatched flexibility for building custom workspaces and generating content using AI.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Sembly: Sembly excels in AI-driven meeting transcription and smart summaries of conversations.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Fireflies AI: Fireflies AI focuses on automated meeting transcription, summaries, and action item extraction.
- Microsoft OneNote vs ClickUp: ClickUp is an all-in-one project management platform with robust task management and AI features.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Taskade: Taskade combines tasks, notes, and mind maps in a collaborative workspace with AI power.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Notejoy: Notejoy provides fast, simple real-time collaboration, optimized for quick team note-sharing.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Notta: Notta specializes in highly accurate real-time transcription and AI summaries for audio/video.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Craft: Craft offers beautifully designed, block-based documents with strong visual linking and organization.
- Microsoft OneNote vs MeetGeek: MeetGeek automates meeting summaries, highlights, and action items using advanced AI.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Mem AI: Mem AI uses AI to automatically connect notes, suggest related information, and smart search.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Evernote: Evernote is a long-standing note-taker with strong web clipping, tagging, and powerful search.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Capacities better for personal knowledge management than OneNote?
Capacities vs OneNote for personal knowledge management depends on your style. Capacities excels with its object-based linking for deep connections. OneNote offers a more flexible, freeform canvas perfect for general note-taking and quick captures.
Does OneNote offer better collaboration features than Capacities?
Yes, generally. OneNote, especially within the Microsoft ecosystem, provides robust real-time collaboration. It’s designed for sharing notebooks and pages easily among multiple users. Capacities offers sharing, but OneNote’s collaboration is more seamless for teams.
Can I use AI features in both OneNote and Capacities?
Absolutely. Both OneNote vs Capacities integrate AI. Capacities has a built-in AI Assistant for summarization and connections. OneNote uses Microsoft Copilot for similar tasks, often requiring a Microsoft 365 subscription for full access.
Is there a free version for Capacities and OneNote?
Yes, both offer free versions. OneNote is largely free with core features and cloud storage. Capacities also has a generous free plan that includes unlimited notes and decent media storage, making both accessible without initial cost.
Which is better for drawing and inking, OneNote vs Capacities?
Microsoft OneNote is significantly better for drawing and inking. Its freeform canvas and advanced pen support make it ideal for handwritten notes, sketches, and diagrams. Capacities focuses more on structured text and linked information.
