An architectural comparison of Obsidian Canvas and Heptabase

Obsidian Canvas and Heptabase are spatial note-taking tools with fundamentally different data architectures: Obsidian Canvas stores visual arrangements in individual .canvas files using open JSON format, making connections portable but unindexed in the vault graph, while Heptabase treats whiteboards as views over a central card library, making connections indexed across the workspace but locked within its proprietary ecosystem. The choice between them depends on your needs—Obsidian Canvas suits project visualization and brainstorming, while Heptabase is better for cumulative research and long-term knowledge building.