Obsidian

Name: Obsidian
Rating: 4.87 (158 reviews)

A versatile writing app tailored to your thinking

4.9•158 reviews•

4K followers

A versatile writing app tailored to your thinking

4.9•158 reviews•

4K followers

Visit website

Note and writing apps

Store notes on your device, so you can access them quickly, even offline. Use hundreds of plugins and themes, to fit your way of thinking.

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#2 Productivity Product of the Year

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Obsidian Launches

Obsidian BasesTurn any set of notes into a powerful database

Launched on August 20th, 2025

Obsidian CanvasAn infinite space to visualize and make sense of your ideas

Launched on December 20th, 2022

Obsidian 1.0A brand new look, a fresh way to browse, a new start

Launched on October 13th, 2022

Obsidian for MobileYour plain-text second brain on the go, for iOS and Android

Launched on July 12th, 2021

ObsidianA powerful knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

Launched on May 27th, 2020

4.9

Based on 158 reviews

Review Obsidian?

Reviewers see Obsidian as a fast, local-first markdown notes app that excels at linking ideas, building personal knowledge bases, and adapting to very different workflows through a large plugin community. People repeatedly praise its speed, offline access, data ownership, cross-device flexibility, and graph or backlink features for research, writing, study, and long-form thinking. The main caveat is complexity: many say the learning curve is steep, markdown can feel limiting, and heavy customization or plugins can become cluttered, distracting, or harder to manage.

+155

Summarized with AI

Pros

community plugins (41)

customization (28)

local storage (28)

markdown support (21)

second brain (19)

graph view (15)

privacy (13)

cross-platform (11)

fast performance (11)

free tier (4)

Cons

learning curve (10)

sync feature cost (3)

closed source (2)

customization (2)

markdown support (2)

Pros

Cons

Reviews

All Reviews

Most Informative

•4 reviews

What's great

open source (2)markdown support (21)community plugins (41)customization (28)local storage (28)second brain (19)

Lightweight
Supports markdown, which is faster than using cursor-based text changes
Supports a variety of command-based interactions, which is preferable
It's free
Community plug-ins
Wide customizability

What needs improvement

sync feature cost (3)

File structure isn't always the easiest way to interact with vault
UI can get cluttered when you use a lot of community plug-ins

vs Alternatives

Notion

Anytype

Markdown language acceptance, preference for keyboard control of applications, command-centred UI, scale for customisation and community plug-ins

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

Report

109 views4mo ago

•1 review

Infinitely customizable - if you want to make it an incredibly stripped down snippet collector, Zettelkasten, or series of shower thoughts with nothing but Markdown, you can. If you want to install 60 community plugins and move on to the ones that aren't in the Community store yet, customize it with CSS, and have a widget-y dashboard with buttons and dropdown menus, you can do that too. (I'm somewhere in between.) But more to the point, it's a heck of a lot better than spreading all my notes to myself between 30232340 notepad .txt files in different folders, Notion, Docs and Notes on my phone. Has it fixed the ADHD and the tendency to pick up every new productivity software? Nope, but that's my own issue. Has it greatly helped with consolidating and getting me into a routine? It sure has -- and it also has the really cool bonus of encouraging wikilinks within notes, which scratches a hypertext itch I forgot I had. (Also, there's a really robust TTRPG community within the Obsidian forums/Discord and a whooole subsection of user-made tips for GMs and players, so that's a nice little bonus for those of you into that hobby.)

What's great

note-taking (1)community support (1)markdown support (21)strong community (1)community plugins (41)customization (28)

Report

90 views6mo ago

Fuser

•7 reviews

I’ve been using Obsidian daily for over a year now. There’s no onboarding funnel, no update pop-ups, no pressure to upgrade. It just works, and it keeps working. You let some tools into your life without thinking too hard about it. Obsidian was like that, although I did spend probably an entire week customizing it, iterating upon a template until I figured out how to structure my daily notes versus larger long-term projects. I mean, I was not really just getting into a note-taking app, I was actually looking for a new way to structure my thoughts and create meaningful habits around journaling. I really like that Obsidian doesn't get in the way once you customize it how you like. It's usually the first thing I open in the morning, so I can plan the whole day ahead of me, journal my thoughts, and take notes for my meetings without it being overly complicated.

What's great

simplicity (2)customization (28)

Report

54 views8mo ago

•4 reviews

What's great

open source (2)markdown support (21)community plugins (41)customization (28)local storage (28)second brain (19)

Lightweight
Supports markdown, which is faster than using cursor-based text changes
Supports a variety of command-based interactions, which is preferable
It's free
Community plug-ins
Wide customizability

What needs improvement

sync feature cost (3)

File structure isn't always the easiest way to interact with vault
UI can get cluttered when you use a lot of community plug-ins

vs Alternatives

Notion

Anytype

Markdown language acceptance, preference for keyboard control of applications, command-centred UI, scale for customisation and community plug-ins

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

Report

109 views4mo ago

•1 review

What's great

note-taking (1)community support (1)markdown support (21)strong community (1)community plugins (41)customization (28)

Report

90 views6mo ago

Fuser

•7 reviews

What's great

simplicity (2)customization (28)

Report

54 views8mo ago