Heptabase

Heptabase is a visual note-taking and research tool built around a whiteboard metaphor, where each note is a card that can be placed, grouped and linked on infinite canvases. It targets people doing serious knowledge work such as PhD research, technical writing, legal analysis or product strategy, where the structure of an idea is as important as its content. AI features layer on top of the cards to summarize highlights, generate questions, find related notes and chat with a set of selected sources. Heptabase supports PDF annotation, Markdown export, a journal view, mind maps and tags, plus end-to-end encryption and offline-first sync across macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and the web. The product is paid-only and is favored by researchers and learners who want to think visually rather than in linear documents.