Obsidian

A versatile writing app tailored to your thinking

4.9•156 reviews•

4K followers

A versatile writing app tailored to your thinking

4.9•156 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.

Obsidian Reviews

The community submitted 156 reviews to tell us what they like about Obsidian, what Obsidian can do better, and more.

4.9

Based on 156 reviews

Review Obsidian?

Reviewers praise Obsidian’s local-first reliability, speed, and Markdown workflow, calling it a flexible “second brain” that scales from simple notes to research systems. The plugin ecosystem and customization earn consistent acclaim, though some caution that heavy setups clutter the UI and raise the learning curve; a few want better native LaTeX, drawings, and faster mobile startup. Founders echo the power-user angle: makers of

ApyHub : The All in one API Platform

Grimo

, and

Mac Pet

highlight command-driven efficiency, IDE-like feel, and extensibility that fits complex, cross-device workflows.

+153

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

•14 reviews

I love Obsidian, I love that it can be anything you want it to be. For a while I tried to make it everything but recently I realised that 60+ plugins to do everything possible was basically Obsidian abuse. I have now realised that Obsidian does one thing brilliantly. It handles knowledge. So now I am using it as my complete second brain. I am using plugins like banners and call out manager to make it look pretty, I need that. I am using Templater and Dataview because hello, why wouldn't you and I am using the Tasks plugin with all the optional statuses so they show things like bookmarks and alerts. Also for knowledge based tasks, it I need to research this subject etc. I am moving the rest of my standard tasks back out into a tool that was designed for that very purpose, because it makes sense to do so.

What's great

community plugins (41)customization (28)second brain (19)

Report

8 views2yr ago

•1 review

I used the revelatory Notational Velocity many years ago. When it disappeared, I searched high and low, using many competing apps and services that tried to offer something beyond (ahem) TextEdit and the OS. Years later, here it is. Obsidian is superb: the right amount of privacy that doesn't expect you to upload everything into the cloud and the right amount of base features that does everything some cloud services do — and then some, with the relative reliability and speed — and all this before we get to the plug-ins and add-on services if you need complex collaboration or a publishing platform.

What's great

fast performance (11)privacy (13)community plugins (41)local storage (28)

Report

3yr 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)

Report

14 views12mo ago

•6 reviews

Great alternative to other note- or "PKM"-apps. Obsidian works with Markdown files in local storage, making it easy to use sync tools you already use. What makes Obsidian truly great, is the plugin system which allows developers to create truly custom experiences. You can work with your Obsidian notes like in any other app, but using third party or even included plugins, you can make it your own personal second brain with back-linking, daily notes, a dashboard, tasks, and so much more. This means that it requires a lot of up-front customisation to get it to look and work as well as other more "out of the box" apps. However, I personally feel like Obsidian, in comparison to these other apps, after configuration works a lot better with my personal workflow, as I can customise it in a way that works the best for me.

Report

3yr ago

•2 reviews

I started using Obsidian about two years ago and it has literally change my life. I now have all of my knowledge inside, and every single day I find new ways to use the app and also new knowledge inside my own notes - as everything is connected. And this last point is the number one reason for using Obsidian: Every time I add some new information, it connects to old information, and make old information resurface because of backlinks. Brilliant. I have started THINKING differently after using Obsidian, which is a testament for how clever this app is. And everything is "just" text files that easily fit on flash drive if I wanted. Futureproof and light.

Report

3 views3yr 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.

Report

20 views3yr ago

•28 reviews

The fact that it's very fast to take notes (simple markdown format, Latex included…) and to retrieve quickly something (through the fuzzy filename matching, full-text search or tags). That it's possible to sync across various devices (with an excellent mobile app) is outstanding. The extension system is very helpful to supplement features. Also having an open file format is reassuring in case the creators stop updating the app.

What's great

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

Report

2yr ago

•2 reviews

Before Obsidian, I was using Notion. I liked all the possibilities to edit and highlight information. But since Notion is not local, I had to wait for quite some time before my large notes would load. Then I got introduced to Obsidian, that stores all the notes locally. Combined with iCloud sync and a personal graph view, Obsidian became an irreplaceable tool in my daily life.

What's great

graph view (15)local storage (28)

Report

2yr ago

•1 review

Obsidian is a terrific way to take and organize notes. Creating links between notes (or topics, ideas, or whatever you want them to represent) is super easy. It feels lightweight and very fast compared to alternatives, yet it is quite powerful. The base functionality can be extended further by installing one of the many available community plugins. Excellent support for customized hotkeys.

Report

3yr ago

•7 reviews

Ah man I love this tool, have lost legitimate cumulative days in it, 1500 odd notes and counting. I've tried a few other PKMs (currently liking Capacities), but I always have Obsidian in the background as it's open source and reliable. Endlessly customisable with the plugins too... I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse!

What's great

open source (2)community plugins (41)customization (28)

Report

9mo ago

1 2 3

•••