Obsidian

A versatile writing app tailored to your thinking

4.9•161 reviews•

4.1K followers

A versatile writing app tailored to your thinking

4.9•161 reviews•

4.1K followers

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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.

Obsidian Reviews

The community submitted 161 reviews to tell us what they like about Obsidian, what Obsidian can do better, and more.

4.9

Based on 161 reviews

Review Obsidian?

Reviewers see Obsidian as a fast, flexible, local-first notes tool that works especially well for personal knowledge management, writing, research, and study. The most repeated praise is for Markdown, backlinks, graph view, strong search, cross-device use, and a huge plugin community that lets people shape it into a second brain or a simple notes app. The tradeoff is complexity: many say the learning curve is steep, plugins can clutter the UI, and setup or sync can feel fiddly. Makers of NextPhone and Novi Notes also praise its local-first data ownership.

+158

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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

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Reviews

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Most Informative

Founder Reviews (54)

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Other Reviews (107)

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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)

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88 views10mo ago

NLX

•6 reviews

I've been using Obsidian for the past three years now. I moved over from Bear in order to have a cross platform experience and haven't missed it all. Interface and sync combined with plugins makes for a powerful organization tool and lightweight markdown behind the scenes makes it easy to backup and share notes through the filesystem. There is a small learning curve to get obsidian to work the best for you, however it's more than usable out of the box.

What's great

cross-platform (11)markdown support (21)community plugins (41)

What needs improvement

learning curve (10)

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23 views1yr ago

PlayerZero

•2 reviews

Fantastic. As an engineer and technically savvy person, I've tried and used things for a while like Evernote, notion, and a variety of note tools available for linux. Trying to be able and create a mini/personalized wiki like thing to reference other things I've done but also allow me to do a clean slate. And this allowing me to use markup (comfortable for me) and vi support I'm able to get all of my itches out of the way and focus on content in a way that matters to me. The brain scan stuff is cool but not the real selling point for me just yet anyway. Perhaps once I finish consolidating everything across all the other tools that things have been done I'll be able to see more use for the brain map.

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29 views3yr 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

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172 views5mo 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)

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131 views7mo ago

•3 reviews

Obsidian is a powerful knowledge management and note-taking application that stands out due to its unique approach to organizing information. Obsidian uses Markdown for formatting, allowing users to create rich text documents easily. The app enables users to create links between notes, fostering a network of interconnected ideas. Users can visualize their notes and connections through an interactive graph view, which helps in understanding relationships between concepts. Obsidian stores notes locally on your device, providing users with full control over their data. The app supports various plugins and themes, allowing users to tailor the interface and functionality to their needs. Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with mobile versions for iOS and Android, ensuring accessibility across devices. Pros • Flexibility: Users can structure their notes in a way that suits their workflow, whether for personal use, research, or project management.  • Community Support: A vibrant community contributes plugins and themes, enhancing the app's capabilities.  • Privacy: With local storage, users can keep their notes private and secure, unlike cloud-based solutions. Cons • Learning Curve: New users may find the interface and features overwhelming at first, especially if they are not familiar with Markdown.  • Limited Collaboration: While great for individual use, it lacks real-time collaboration features found in some other note-taking apps.

•2 reviews

Absolutely love this software and the strong extensibility of it. There can be a little friction in setting things up to work just right for you, but if you explore the community plugins can think about how your note-taking should work it's one of the most versatile products out there to achieve it. My only frustration so far is with Obsidian's use of Markdown. Markdown is loved by programmers, and it's valuable for the tech underpinning the notes, but it makes the interface and usability of the the software more difficult than a WYSIWYG implementation.

What's great

community plugins (41)customization (28)

What needs improvement

learning curve (10)markdown support (2)

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10 views3yr ago