Oyma vs Capacities

Capacities and Oyma represent two modern visions for personal knowledge management, but they diverge sharply on how information should be structured and where it should live.

Capacities is an object-based “studio for your mind.” Instead of treating knowledge as loose pages in folders, Capacities models your world through typed entities—Books, People, Meetings, Ideas, and Projects—each with structured properties, relationships, and specialized views. It operates as a cloud-first platform designed to help you construct a highly organized, interconnected web of ideas across desktop, mobile, and web.

Oyma, by contrast, is a file-first, privacy-focused workspace built for Apple Silicon Macs. It rejects proprietary database wrappers in favor of ordinary Markdown files stored directly on your filesystem. At the same time, Oyma integrates private, on-device audio intelligence: it detects video calls, captures computer audio without an external bot, transcribes speech locally using OpenAI Whisper, and generates structured meeting notes that land directly inside your local Markdown vault.

Understanding the difference between an object database in the cloud and a sovereign Markdown directory on your disk is essential to choosing the right tool.

Information architecture: Typed objects vs plain Markdown files

The primary philosophical divide between Capacities and Oyma is how information is modeled and stored:

In Capacities:

• Knowledge is organized around Objects. A document is not just a text file; it is an instance of a specific Object Type (such as a Meeting, Person, Article, or Zettel).
• Each Object Type can have custom properties: dates, tags, dropdown select lists, URLs, and relations to other objects.
• Information can be visualized in multiple layouts: Kanban boards, card grids, tables, and timeline lists.
• However, your data lives inside Capacities’ proprietary cloud database. While an offline cache exists on desktop and you can export notes to Markdown or PDF, you cannot access your notes as individual .md files in Finder.

In Oyma:

• Knowledge is organized around Files. Every note is an ordinary .md document saved directly on your local disk in a standard directory tree.
• Metadata is managed through standard YAML frontmatter blocks, ensuring complete interoperability with Obsidian, Git, VS Code, and terminal utilities.
• Links use universal [[WikiLinks]] that remain permanently human-readable and durable across decades.
• You have complete data sovereignty: if Oyma is deleted tomorrow, every note, heading, table, and embedded image remains intact on your disk without requiring a migration or database export.

If your brain craves the rigor of Notion-like relational databases combined with Roam-style networked thought, Capacities provides a beautiful framework. If you prioritize digital permanence, file ownership, and zero lock-in, Oyma‘s plain-text contract is unmatched.

Meeting capture and audio workflows

Both applications have expanded beyond manual typing into voice workflows, but their underlying mechanisms are entirely distinct:

In Capacities:

• Capacities introduced audio recording with macOS system audio capture to allow users to record spoken meetings alongside their notes.
• However, this capability is currently limited to early access on the Believer subscription tier (which starts at $12.49 per month billed annually or $14.99 monthly).
• Audio is processed using remote cloud AI infrastructure. Transcription and automated summaries consume your monthly AI token budget, meaning heavy meeting recording can deplete your allocation.

In Oyma:

• Meeting recording is built directly into the core macOS application for all users. It uses native CoreAudio tap APIs to capture system sound and microphone audio simultaneously without dispatching an intrusive bot to your Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams calls.
• Transcription executes 100% on-device using quantized OpenAI Whisper models running on the Apple Silicon Neural Engine. Spoken audio is never uploaded to the cloud.
• Oyma supports 13 languages out of the box with zero internet connectivity required.
• There are no monthly recording allowances or AI token paywalls. You can record dozens of hours of client briefings, lectures, and design reviews without incurring additional costs.

For professionals handling confidential conversations—such as healthcare consultations, client legal strategies, or proprietary product architectures—Oyma ensures that meeting audio remains strictly confined to the local machine.

AI integration: Cloud budget vs sovereign on-device models

How artificial intelligence interacts with your personal workspace reflects each platform’s architectural priorities:

In Capacities:

• AI is hosted in the cloud and deeply integrated into object workflows. The assistant can summarize notes, extract key takeaways, generate content, and analyze uploaded media.
• Users receive a monthly AI budget based on their subscription tier (Pro or Believer). Once this budget is exhausted, AI queries are throttled until the next billing cycle.
• All prompts and context are transmitted to third-party language model providers via Capacities’ cloud servers.

In Oyma:

• AI is private, transparent, and sovereign.
• You can run open-weight language models (such as Llama 3.2, Mistral, or Qwen 2.5) locally on your Mac using Ollama. Inference happens entirely on your GPU and Neural Engine with zero data leaving your computer.
• Alternatively, if you need frontier model capabilities (such as Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4o), you can supply your own API keys (Bring Your Own Key). Keys are stored securely in the macOS Keychain, and requests travel directly from your Mac to the provider over TLS 1.3 connections.
• An egress log provides an auditable real-time record of all network activity, allowing you to verify that no unauthorized background data transmission occurs.

Ecosystem, platforms, and daily workflow

The daily experience of using Capacities versus Oyma highlights different strengths:

Where Capacities wins:

• True cross-platform availability: Capacities provides dedicated applications for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and modern web browsers. You can seamlessly create an object on your Windows PC at work and review it on your iPhone during your commute.
• Visual variety: The ability to switch between gallery, list, and table views for different object types makes Capacities exceptional for collecting visual bookmarks, book libraries, and structured project trackers.
• Community types and sharing: Capacities offers a community gallery where users share pre-configured Object Types, making it easy to adopt specialized frameworks for academic research or task management.

Where Oyma wins:

• Direct Obsidian vault compatibility: You can point Oyma directly at an existing Obsidian vault. Both applications read and write the exact same Markdown files simultaneously, allowing you to use Obsidian’s vast plugin ecosystem alongside Oyma‘s native meeting recorder.
• Fast native performance: Built specifically for Apple Silicon, Oyma launches instantaneously and consumes minimal system memory compared to heavy cloud-synced web apps.
• Spreadsheet-style tables: Oyma features rich inline tables with column sorting, formula-aware navigation, and Markdown-compatible formatting on disk.
• Zero subscription overhead: Free during private beta for Apple Silicon Macs, with no paid tiers gating core functionality.

Pricing and ownership comparison

Capacities operates on a tiered SaaS subscription:

• Basic: Free, includes all core object features and 5 GB of media storage.
• Pro: $9.99 per month billed annually ($119.88/year) or $11.99 monthly, adding unlimited cloud AI, advanced queries, and priority support.
• Believer: From $12.49 per month billed annually ($149.88/year) or $14.99 monthly, adding early access features like meeting audio recording.

Oyma operates on a sovereign ownership model:

• Free during beta: Full access to all features, including meeting recording, Whisper transcription, and local AI.
• Zero server costs: Audio transcription and local AI run on your Mac’s hardware.
• Wholesale cloud AI: If you use cloud models, you pay token costs directly to the model provider with zero markup.
• Permanent files: If you discontinue using Oyma, your notes remain as standard .md files in your Finder folders.

The verdict

Choose Capacities if:

• You want an object-based knowledge management system where ideas, people, and projects have structured properties and multiple visual views.
• You need seamless synchronization across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and web.
• You are comfortable with your notes residing in a proprietary cloud database in exchange for cross-platform convenience and polished design.
• You are willing to pay $9.99 to $14.99 per month for cloud AI features and experimental audio capture.

Choose Oyma if:

• You demand that your notes remain plain Markdown files stored on your local disk with zero vendor lock-in.
• You conduct confidential meetings and require private, on-device Whisper transcription that never uploads audio to the cloud.
• You want to integrate seamlessly with Obsidian or other file-based Markdown tools.
• You want the flexibility to use free local models via Ollama or bring your own API keys without monthly subscriptions.

Where Capacities is better

• Object-based knowledge model with typed objects, properties and views.
• Apps on every platform including Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and web.
• Polished design and an active release cadence.

Thinking of moving? Your notes in Oyma are plain Markdown, so you can always take them with you. Start withgetting started, or read what leaves your Mac.

Looking at other options too? Read our guide to the best Capacities alternatives.