Anytype is a remarkable local-first, end-to-end encrypted workspace with a graph-based data model. It takes data ownership seriously. But ownership without AI-powered organization means you're still doing all the structuring yourself. Synap gives you sovereignty and intelligence.
Anytype stores data on your device and syncs peer-to-peer using IPFS-based technology. This is genuine local-first architecture, and it means your data never touches a central server. The trade-off is complexity: syncing across devices requires running the Anytype middleware, backups depend on your own device reliability, and there's no server-side processing for AI or search.
Synap takes a different path. Your data lives on a dedicated PostgreSQL server — a pod — that you own. You can self-host it on your own infrastructure or let us provision one in the EU or US. Either way, it's a real database with standard SQL access, full backups, and server-side AI processing. Sovereignty through infrastructure control, not just local storage.
Anytype has a powerful object model — types, relations, sets, and collections. But you build all the structure yourself. You define object types, create relations between them, and manually categorize everything you capture. For power users who enjoy system-building, this is a feature. For everyone else, it's a wall.
Synap's philosophy is the opposite: capture everything, AI handles the structure. Paste a link, and AI detects it's an article, extracts the author and publication date, and links it to related entities. Forward an email, and AI creates a contact entity with the sender's details and links it to relevant projects. The entity model is there — 14 built-in types with full property schemas — but you never have to think about it.
Anytype is building toward a marketplace for types and templates, but the ecosystem is still young. Integration with external tools is limited — there's no public API for building on top of Anytype, and connecting it to other services requires workarounds.
Synap exposes a full tRPC API with 18 scopes, an official SDK, and a Hub Protocol for AI integration. Connectors pull data from Google Calendar, GitHub, and other services. Automations trigger on entity changes. Your pod is a standard PostgreSQL database — connect any SQL client, build any integration, export anything.
