Scopic vs Heptabase
You can see what connects. You cannot ask why.
Heptabase puts your notes on a beautiful canvas and lets you draw lines between them. Scopic turns those lines into records: named, typed, and as queryable as any element.
Join waitlistScopic map view
Screenshot: Scopic map view
Every connection typed and named. Filter the map to any relationship type. Open any connection to see what it carries.
Heptabase whiteboard
Screenshot: Heptabase
Visual cards on a whiteboard. Lines between cards show proximity but carry no data about the relationship itself.
Heptabase helps you see your notes spatially. Scopic helps you understand what the space between them means.
What it gets right
Heptabase takes the insight seriously that spatial layout is a form of thinking, not just presentation. The whiteboard is the primary interface, not a view you switch to occasionally. Cards are proper documents — they support rich text, LaTeX, and multimedia. The visual design is considered and clean.
The daily notes workflow and the focus on learning and knowledge synthesis means Heptabase works well for researchers, students, and anyone building understanding over time. It is a genuine tool for thought, with a clarity of purpose that many competitors lack.
Where it stops
The connections in Heptabase are spatial and visual but not semantic. A line between two cards shows proximity — it does not say anything about the nature of the relationship. You cannot name a connection 'influences', give it a date or a confidence rating, open it as a record, or filter your whiteboard to show only one kind of connection.
There is no database view underneath the whiteboard. The spatial layout is the only representation. You cannot sort your cards by property, query a subset, or see your material as structured data. For work that requires both spatial thinking and structured querying of the same material, Heptabase reaches its limit.
Name the relationship, not just show it
In Scopic, a connection between two elements carries its own meaning. Name it 'challenges', 'cites', 'precedes'. Every named type is a filter you can apply to the map and a column you can sort in the database. In Heptabase, a line between two cards is a spatial indicator. It has no name and holds no data.
Screenshot: connection with name, type, and date visible
The database and the map are the same thing
In Scopic, every card on the map is also a row in the database. Add a property in the database and it appears on the element's page and is filterable on the map. Sort by any property, group by any single-select field. In Heptabase, the whiteboard and any structured data you might add are in separate places.
Screenshot: same elements visible as database rows and on the map
Filter to one kind of connection
If you have spent time naming your connections, you can ask Scopic to show you only one type at a time. Filter to 'supports', hide everything else. The network that type creates becomes visible. This is only possible because connections carry data. In Heptabase, all connections look the same.
Screenshot: map with one connection type visible, others dimmed
What people say
Loved Heptabase for thinking visually. Switched to Scopic when I realised I kept wanting to label my connections and couldn't. The labels were the information I actually needed.
1 month ago
Heptabase is for building understanding. Scopic is for building maps you can interrogate. Different tools. I needed the second one.
3 weeks ago
Two months in Heptabase and I had a beautiful visual mess. Moved to Scopic, named every connection type, now I can filter the whole map to a single relationship and see what it reveals.
2 months ago
What Heptabase lacks is a layer of meaning on top of the spatial layer. Scopic has that layer. It's called connection types.
5 weeks ago
The database view in Scopic was the thing I didn't know I was missing. Same data as the map, different perspective. Heptabase has only one way to see.
2 months ago
I still use Heptabase for writing. For understanding how things relate to each other, Scopic. The distinction became obvious quickly.
6 weeks ago
At a glance
| Scopic | Heptabase | |
|---|---|---|
| Connections you can name and describe | ✓ | — |
| Filter map by connection type | ✓ | — |
| Database view of all elements | ✓ | — |
| Custom properties on connections | ✓ | — |
| Page view for each element | ✓ | ✓ |
| Map as primary workspace | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rich text cards / documents | ✓ | ✓ |
| Daily notes workflow | — | ✓ |
| Local-first storage | — | ✓ |
Map your thinking. Read what connects.
Join waitlistScopic vs Heptabase
You can see what connects. You cannot ask why.
Heptabase puts your notes on a beautiful canvas and lets you draw lines between them. Scopic turns those lines into records: named, typed, and as queryable as any element.
Join waitlistHeptabase helps you see your notes spatially. Scopic helps you understand what the space between them means.
At a glance
| Scopic | Heptabase | |
|---|---|---|
| Connections you can name and describe | ✓ | — |
| Filter map by connection type | ✓ | — |
| Database view of all elements | ✓ | — |
| Custom properties on connections | ✓ | — |
| Page view for each element | ✓ | ✓ |
| Map as primary workspace | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rich text cards / documents | ✓ | ✓ |
| Daily notes workflow | — | ✓ |
| Local-first storage | — | ✓ |
Map your thinking. Read what connects.
Join waitlist- Connections you can name and describe ✓ Scopic — Heptabase
- Filter map by connection type ✓ Scopic — Heptabase
- Database view of all elements ✓ Scopic — Heptabase