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Obsidian Canvas VS Logseq

Compare Obsidian Canvas VS Logseq and see what are their differences

Obsidian Canvas logo Obsidian Canvas

An infinite space to visualize and make sense of your ideas.

Logseq logo Logseq

Logseq is a local-first, non-linear, outliner notebook for organizing and sharing your personal knowledge base.
  • Obsidian Canvas Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-22
  • Logseq Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-15

Obsidian Canvas features and specs

  • Visual Organization
    Obsidian Canvas provides a flexible way to visually organize notes, ideas, and resources using a board or map-like interface. This aids in better data correlation and brainstorming.
  • Customization
    The canvas allows for a significant degree of customization with the ability to link various types of nodes, such as notes, files, and various multimedia types, enhancing user experience.
  • Integration with Obsidian
    As an Obsidian feature, Canvas integrates seamlessly with existing notes and the Obsidian ecosystem, allowing users to utilize the full suite of Obsidian functionalities.
  • Collaboration
    The canvas is designed with collaboration in mind, offering features that facilitate sharing and co-editing with others, making it suitable for team-based projects.

Possible disadvantages of Obsidian Canvas

  • Learning Curve
    Users may face a steep learning curve when initially adapting to the canvas layout and functionality, particularly if unfamiliar with non-linear note-taking systems.
  • Performance
    With extensive use and large datasets, performance can potentially decline, leading to slower load times and a less responsive user interface.
  • Limited Offline Features
    While Obsidian generally supports offline use, some advanced canvas features might rely on cloud or third-party services, limiting functionality without internet access.
  • Complexity
    The addition of another layer of organization can complicate workflows for users who prefer traditional linear note-taking, potentially leading to clutter or disorganization.

Logseq features and specs

  • Bidirectional Linking
    Logseq allows users to easily create bidirectional links between notes, enhancing organization and navigation through related information.
  • Graph View
    The graph view provides a visual representation of how notes are interconnected, helping users see the bigger picture of their knowledge network.
  • Markdown Support
    Logseq supports Markdown, making it easy to format notes and write in a widely-used plain text format.
  • Local Storage
    Notes are stored locally, giving users full control over their data and enhancing privacy and security.
  • Customizable Workflows
    Users can customize their workflows with plugins and templates to suit their specific needs and preferences.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source project, Logseq invites community contributions and ensures more transparency in development and issue resolution.
  • Task Management
    Logseq integrates task management features, such as to-do lists and scheduling, directly within notes, improving productivity.

Possible disadvantages of Logseq

  • Learning Curve
    New users may find Logseq's extensive features and unique workflow approach challenging to learn without dedicated time and effort.
  • Sync Complexity
    While storing notes locally is a pro for privacy, it requires additional tools or manual methods to sync notes across multiple devices.
  • Mobile App Limitations
    The mobile version of Logseq is still in development, meaning it may lack some features and fluidity found in the desktop version.
  • Resource Intensive
    Logseq can consume considerable system resources, particularly when dealing with large datasets or extensive use of graph view.
  • Community Dependency
    As an open-source project, certain features may rely on community contributions, which could lead to inconsistent updates or support.
  • Customization Complexity
    While high customization is a benefit, it can become overwhelming and complex to manage for users who prefer a more straightforward tool.

Analysis of Logseq

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Logseq is generally considered a good tool, particularly for individuals seeking a robust, free-form method of organizing notes and knowledge that goes beyond traditional hierarchical models.

Why this product is good

  • Logseq is a versatile tool for managing notes and knowledge using a graph-based interface similar to networked thought processing. It offers features like linked references, back-linking, and support for Markdown and org-mode, making it a valuable tool for those who value interconnected note-taking. Its open-source nature ensures constant community-driven improvements and transparency, encouraging a strong user community.

Recommended for

  • Students and researchers who manage a large volume of interconnected notes.
  • Professionals who require a flexible and dynamic knowledge management system.
  • Writers and content creators looking for a tool to visualize ideas and concepts.
  • Tech enthusiasts and developers who appreciate open-source software.

Obsidian Canvas videos

Obsidian Canvas vs Scrintal: how I use an infinite canvas in my zettelkasten

More videos:

  • Review - Obsidian Canvas core plugin (new in v1.1.0)

Logseq videos

Logseq - A Roam Research Alternative for Notes / PKM / To Do / Journal

More videos:

  • Review - How I use Logseq Daily - A Roam Research Alternative for Notes / PKM / To Do / Journal
  • Review - Logseq Update Video - A Roam Research Alternative for Notes / PKM / To Do / Journal

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Obsidian Canvas and Logseq)
Mac App
100 100%
0% 0
Note Taking
6 6%
94% 94
Knowledge Management
4 4%
96% 96
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Obsidian Canvas and Logseq

Obsidian Canvas Reviews

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Logseq Reviews

The 5 Best Open Source Miro Alternatives in 2024
Logseq is a powerful and advanced tool for thought that has been gaining attention among note-taking enthusiasts and productivity seekers. In this article, we will provide an overview of Logseq, explore what users can do with the tool, and highlight its strengths and weaknesses compared to Miro, another popular tool in the note-taking and organization space.
Source: affine.pro
Supercharge Your Productivity: Three Recommended Tools for Thought
Outliners (think Workflowy, Roam, Logseq) rely on blocks and indentation for primary connections, and references to other blocks or pages for richer links. They’re optimized for capturing quick thinking.
Source: medium.com
Logseq vs Roam Research vs Obsidian: which one should you choose?
Refined user interface: Logseq offers a refined user interface that is easy to understand and pleasing to the eyes. On the other hand, Obsidian looks like a jumble of various UI elements which are hard to figure out and look daunting. Logseq wins this round for me, hands down. – The only reason to choose Obsidian’s user interface over Logseq’s is that the former is far more...
Source: medium.com
Best 5 Obsidian Alternatives
Logseq is an open-source outliner application that makes it easy to write, organize and share your thoughts and to-do lists thanks to the ability to create and edit plain-text Markdown and Org-mode files. This means that your data is locally stored and yours forever and that it can be edited with any tools supporting those formats.
Obsidian vs. Roam vs. LogSeq: Which PKM App is Right For You?
While LogSeq and Roam function very similarly, LogSeq isn’t quite as refined. There’s a lot of thought that went into Roam’s simple interface, and while we appreciate that LogSeq is trying to push things forward in specific areas (like the addition of a Journals page), it doesn’t feel quite as smooth.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Logseq should be more popular than Obsidian Canvas. It has been mentiond 291 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Obsidian Canvas mentions (35)

  • Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software
    No, Obsidian is quite more powerful. Obsidian has built-in support for markdown, images, PDFs, canvas (via JSON Canvas which they developed and open sourced https://obsidian.md/canvas), and others. For databases, you can add fields/properties both in the markdown frontmatter or in the text and query it via very popular plugins: - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Launch HN: Haystack (YC W21) – Visualize and edit code on an infinite canvas
    This looks like a very simple mindmap, but more annoying to use because of the big elements. Some automated positioning seems very necessary here. Additionally, what about proper mindmap/diagram-features and notes? If you take a look at https://obsidian.md/canvas you will see that they have things like colored groups and different element-types. And their community-extensions have many more improvements for the... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • An infinite canvas for code exploration
    To fix this, I added a digital whiteboard to my workflow, and this is phenomenal. You can use any digital whiteboard, such as https://www.figma.com/figjam/, https://excalidraw.com/, https://miro.com/, or https://obsidian.md/canvas. My workflow generally goes like:. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • JSON Canvas: an open file format for infinite canvas data
    The spec basically fits on a page: https://jsoncanvas.org/spec/1.0/ Summary: "node: { type: ..., x/y/color }; edge: { from/to: ..., color/label/... }" Refreshingly simple, especially paired with their "gif of usage": https://obsidian.md/canvas. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • 100% User-Supported
    Even when they step away from Markdown, like for example the canvas feature (https://obsidian.md/canvas), they make sure to build it on top of JSON files instead of inventing a more proprietary format. Does any of the competition use it? Not that I'm aware of. If Obsidian disappeared tomorrow, could anyone reasonably replicate it? Yes. If you don't want to pay for sync, you have other options. If you want to... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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Logseq mentions (291)

  • Ditching Obsidian and building my own
    I don't understand the negative concerns mentioned by the author. It's quite easy to sync notes to your mobile device using a free method, or using a cloud service you might already be paying for [4]. The great thing about Obsidian is that the notes itself are just markdown files, so you can use them in any other program. This protects you as a user in case Obsidian enters a enshittification phase. A good... - Source: Hacker News / 16 days ago
  • Why I switched from obsidian: A real developer’s story and what I’m using now
    Logseq Official Website A strong alternative if you love graph-based thinking. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Notetime: Minimalistic notes where everything is timestamped
    This idea feels a little like bullet journaling or logseq [0] to me. For what it's worth, I do this in Obsidian and clean-up my thoughts on a regular basis. It hits the right balance of minimalism and usefulness for me. 0: https://logseq.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Dear (Rust) Devs: Article Request
    You want to build custom tooling or workflows in Logseq but you don't know Clojure (or Datalog, whatever that is). - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to Apply Zettelkasten with Obsidian
    I previously discussed how to apply this method using Logseq, another popular tool that has strong support for journaling. This time, we'll explore how to apply the same principles to Obsidian, another very popular note-taking app. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Obsidian Canvas and Logseq, you can also consider the following products

Obsidian.md - A second brain, for you, forever. Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.

DeepNotes - Infinite Canvas Encrypted Note-taking

Notion - All-in-one workspace. One tool for your whole team. Write, plan, and get organized.

Miro - Scalable, secure, cross-device and enterprise-ready team collaboration tool for distributed teams. Join 2M+ users & 8000+ teams from around the world.

Joplin - Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor.

iAntiSpy - Block ads, reduce online tracking, protect your Mac from malware.