Capacities vs Obsidian
Capacities is a European alternative to Obsidian: same office & collaboration use case, headquartered in Germany and operating under GDPR by default, while Obsidian (Dynalist) is based in CA.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
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- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- GDPR by default
- Yes
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
A curated collection of the best European alternatives to Obsidian.
- Jurisdiction
- CA
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Possible
Capacities vs Obsidian at a glance
| Capacities | Obsidian | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Germany | CA |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | CA law applies |
| GDPR by default | Yes | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Possible |
| Open source | No | — |
| Free tier | No | — |
| Best for | Teams that need office & collaboration with EU data residency | Teams already invested in the Dynalist ecosystem |
Choose Capacities if…
- You want your data to stay under EU law without extra legal paperwork
- GDPR compliance or public-sector requirements apply to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Obsidian if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Dynalist ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
Why choose Capacities over Obsidian?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Obsidian is headquartered in CA, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Capacities removes that overhead. As a Germany-based provider, it operates natively under GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single non-EU jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.