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Obsidian.md VS Confluence

Compare Obsidian.md VS Confluence and see what are their differences

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Obsidian.md logo 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.

Confluence logo Confluence

Confluence is content collaboration software that changes how modern teams work
  • Obsidian.md Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-01
  • Confluence Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-08-12

Obsidian.md features and specs

  • Local-first
    Obsidian stores your notes locally on your device, giving you full control over your data and enhancing privacy.
  • Markdown Support
    Obsidian uses Markdown, making it easy to format text and compatible with many other text editors and tools.
  • Bidirectional Linking
    You can create bidirectional links between notes, which helps in building a knowledge graph and navigating related information more easily.
  • Customizability
    Obsidian is highly customizable with community plugins, themes, and various settings to fit different workflows.
  • Graph View
    Provides a visual graph view of your notes and their connections, aiding in understanding relationships and discovering insights.
  • Offline Access
    Since the notes are stored locally, you can access and edit them without an internet connection.

Possible disadvantages of Obsidian.md

  • Learning Curve
    Obsidian can be complex and overwhelming for beginners due to its extensive features and customizable nature.
  • Sync Limitations
    While local-first is great for privacy, it requires additional steps or third-party solutions for syncing across devices.
  • No True Real-time Collaboration
    Obsidian lacks native real-time collaboration features, making it less suitable for collaborative work compared to cloud-based solutions.
  • Limited Mobile Features
    The mobile version of Obsidian, while functional, is not as robust as the desktop application, potentially hindering productivity on the go.
  • Dependence on Plugins
    Many advanced features require the use of third-party plugins, which could lead to compatibility issues and reliance on community support.
  • Performance on Large Vaults
    Performance might degrade with a very large number of notes or complex graphs, impacting usability.

Confluence features and specs

  • Integration with Atlassian Ecosystem
    Confluence integrates seamlessly with other Atlassian products like Jira, Bitbucket, and Trello, making it an excellent choice for teams already using these tools.
  • Real-time Collaboration
    Confluence offers real-time collaboration features, including editing, commenting, and task assignments, which enhance team productivity and communication.
  • Document Management
    With version control, easy-to-use templates, and a robust search function, Confluence excels in document management and organization.
  • Customization Options
    It provides numerous customization options including themes, templates, and plugins to suit the specific needs of different teams and projects.
  • Enterprise-Grade Security
    Confluence offers advanced security features such as data encryption, user permissions, and compliance with industry standards, making it suitable for enterprises.

Possible disadvantages of Confluence

  • Complexity for New Users
    The abundance of features can make Confluence overwhelming for new users, creating a steep learning curve.
  • Cost
    Confluence can be expensive, particularly for larger teams or when advanced features and additional plugins are required.
  • Performance Issues
    Users have reported performance issues, such as slow load times, especially with large documents or extensive use of add-ons.
  • Customization Can Be Time-Consuming
    While customization is a strength, it can also be time-consuming to set up and maintain, particularly for non-technical users.
  • Limited Offline Access
    Confluence's functionality is limited without an internet connection, which can be a drawback for teams needing constant access to documents and collaboration tools.

Obsidian.md videos

+ Add

OBSIDIAN: Getting Started, Facts & Pricing

Confluence videos

+ Add

Confluence Cloud Product Demo 2019

More videos:

  • Demo - Atlassian Confluence Demonstration Video
  • Review - (2016) Introduction to Confluence: Create, share, and collaborate on projects in one place

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Obsidian.md and Confluence)

Obsidian.md

Confluence

Note Taking
100 100%
Note Taking
0% 0
Project Management
0 0%
Project Management
100% 100
Knowledge Management
100 100%
Knowledge Management
0% 0
Task Management
0 0%
Task Management
100% 100

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.md and Confluence

Obsidian.md Reviews

  1. MTRG15
    The kind of software that may change your life

    Perhaps you know someone who swears by Obsidian, it may seem like a cult of overly devoted people for how passionate they are, but it's not without reason

    I've been using Obsidian for over 3 years, at a point in my life when I felt I had to handle too much information and I felt like grasping water not being able to remember everything I wanted, language learning, programming, accounting, university, daily tasks. A friend recommended it to me next to Notion (of which he is a passionate cultist priest) and I reluctantly picked it and fell in love almost immediately.

    Obsidian seems very simple, like a notepad with folder interface, similar to Sublime Text, but the ability to link files together in a Wiki style allows you to organize ideas in any way you want, one file may lead to a dozen or more ideas that are related

    If you want to do something specific, Obsidian has a plethora of community created plugins that expand the functionality, in my case, I use obsidian to organize my classes both as a teacher and as a student, using local databases, calendars, dictionaries, slides, vector graphic drawings, excel-like tables, Anki connection, podcasts, and more

    🏁 Competitors: Notion, Evernote
    👍 Pros:    Awesome community|Custom plugins|Local hosting|Beautiful themes|Highly customizable|Cloud storage|Becomes more useful over time|Markdown support
    👎 Cons:    Seems complicated/complex at first|Takes time to set up your personal workspace|Overwhelming for first time user
  2. Stan
    · Founder at SaaSHub ·
    My personal knowledge-base of choice

    I've been using Obsidian for more than a year. It's been great. I think it offer a great balance of control, flexibility and extensibility. What is more, you own your own data, that's been a must-have feature for me. I just can't imagine putting all my knowledge into something that I don't have control over.

    I think two of the most popular alternatives that people consider are Logseq and Roam Research. Although Logseq is a bit different, it's considered compatible with Obsidian. Supposedly, you can use them with a shared database (files. Both use simple text files for storage). I tried that once, a few months ago. It worked, yet it messed up a bit my Obsidian files ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

    🏁 Competitors: Logseq, Roam Research
The 6 best note-taking apps in 2024
One thing to note: Notion bills itself as an Evernote competitor for personal users. It can be—but it's too much for most people, and its offline functionality isn't the best. If you love the idea of Notion, go right ahead and try the free Personal Plan, but for me, it's really best as a team notes app or an AI-powered notes app. Something like Obsidian (which we'll look at...
Source: zapier.com
The best note-taking apps for collecting your thoughts and data
This app is the kind of thing that, if you’re into it, will have you exploring its various ins, outs, and add-ons for days and weeks on end. Obsidian uses the Markdown format for its notes (which means they can be used on a variety of other apps). Your notes and other media are kept locally in a Vault (in other words, a main folder). There are ways to sync between devices...
Source: www.theverge.com
The 5 Best Open Source Miro Alternatives in 2024
However, it's important to note that Obsidian's whiteboard functionality is not as robust as dedicated collaboration tools. While it lacks real-time basic collaboration features, Obsidian compensates with its vibrant plugin ecosystem, empowering users to customize their experience.
Source: affine.pro
The best encrypted note taking apps
For a consumer coming from Evernote, Notion, OneNote, or a similar product, we would advise trying Obsidian along another product on this list as it has the largest learning curve. However, if you are an expert with markdown, experts, linking, and graph views, Obsidian could be an excellent choice. Like many other configuration options, Obsidian leaves end-to-end encryption...
Source: www.skiff.com
Supercharge Your Productivity: Three Recommended Tools for Thought
One of my AP Productivity: Cohort mentors has a powerful system pairing Obsidian with OmniFocus. In OmniFocus, he builds his project and task structures, and in Obsidian he develops and organizes the project support materials as well as other relevant information. Because it’s easy to link to an Obsidian note or an OmniFocus project, he can seamlessly navigate back and forth...
Source: medium.com

Confluence Reviews

Top 10 Notion Alternatives for 2025 and Why Teams Are Choosing Ledger
Confluence is great for documentation-heavy teams, especially when paired with other Atlassian products like Jira. But as a standalone collaboration tool, it lacks the fluidity and connected workflows that many modern teams need.
Source: www.ledgerteams.com
11 Popular Knowledge Management Tools to Consider in 2025 
Confluence is a web-based collaboration tool developed by Atlassian. It allows teams to create, store, and organize information in one place. This can include project documentation, meeting notes, how-to guides, and company policies.
Source: knowmax.ai
Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
Confluence is a collaboration tool from Atlassian that focuses on remote-ready teams that need to organize content. It has a built-in editor and allows for version control, making it easy to track changes and collaborate with team members. Confluence also has a wide range of templates and add-ons available, allowing users to add all types of documents for a knowledge base....
Source: www.archbee.com
Best 25 Software Documentation Tools 2023
Confluence is the perfect way to collaborate with your team. Is a web-based team collaboration and documentation tool. It helps teams work together, share information and create documentation in a centralized and organized manner. It's a platform that allows the team to create, edit, and organize content such as documents, pages, blogs and multimedia.
Source: www.uphint.com
Introduction to Doxygen Alternatives In 2021
Confluence is a tool in the innovation stack category of project management. In Confluence, it is easy to capture the details which is often lost in email inboxes and shared network drives due to the fact that it is easy to browse, update, as well as use.
Source: www.webku.net

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Obsidian.md seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1486 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.md mentions (1486)

  • Why I switched from obsidian: A real developer’s story and what I’m using now
    Obsidian Official Website Still an incredible tool for the right type of workflow. - Source: dev.to / about 11 hours ago
  • Show HN: An AI agent in Obsidian that can (sort of) write plugins
    This is a plugin for Obsidian [1] that can extend Obsidian with custom functionality. There's a demo video in the readme. Why? Obsidian is a note taking app with tons of extensions. Even so, there must be hyper-niche use cases that aren't being served by any existing extension. LLMs are decent at coding though, so maybe an LLM can write custom functionality on demand. That's the experiment, to see if you can... - Source: Hacker News / 7 days ago
  • Journey to GNOME Circle: Community, App Ideas, and Getting Started
    These are useful and beneficial for your reputation and branding. I use my email alias for GNOME-related work at AlirezaSh@gnome.org, have my blog at alirezash.gnome.org, and sync my Obsidian notes with Nextcloud on GNOME infrastructure. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my travel sponsorship as a speaker at events because I'm from Iran, and due to OFAC regulations which is so unfair. - Source: dev.to / 18 days ago
  • Ask HN: Where are the good Markdown to PDF tools (that meet these requirements)?
    It's not marketed as a markdown-to-pdf tool, but I've found that Obsidian (https://obsidian.md) does an excellent job. Just create a new "vault", paste your markdown into a new note, and export to PDF. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Build personal blog easy with 11ty.js
    Limited Scope: Eleventy is primarily suited for blogs and simple static sites. It lacks advanced interactivity and business logic capabilities. ## Start with a Starter Projects — Eleventy When starting an 11ty project, there are many templates available to help you get started quickly. These templates provide pre-configured setups for various use cases, such as blogs, portfolios, and more. I chose the Official... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
View more

Confluence mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Confluence yet. Tracking of Confluence recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Obsidian.md and Confluence, you can also consider the following products

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

Trello - Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It's free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.

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.

Logseq - Logseq is a local-first, non-linear, outliner notebook for organizing and sharing your personal knowledge base.

Slack - A messaging app for teams who see through the Earth!

Roam Research - A note-taking tool for networked thought

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