Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Obsidian.md VS Signal

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

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.

Signal logo Signal

Fast, simple & secure messaging. Privacy that fits in your pocket.
  • Obsidian.md Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-01
  • Signal Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-20

Obsidian.md videos

OBSIDIAN: Getting Started, Facts & Pricing

Signal videos

Why We Should All Be Using Signal Messenger

More videos:

  • Review - WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal: Which is the BEST?!
  • Review - THE SIGNAL: explained

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Obsidian.md and Signal)
Knowledge Management
100 100%
0% 0
Communication
0 0%
100% 100
Note Taking
100 100%
0% 0
Group Chat & Notifications

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 Signal

Obsidian.md Reviews

  1. 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. 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...
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
Logseq vs Roam Research vs Obsidian: which one should you choose?
Block Reference and block embeds: Adding block reference and block embeds in Logseq is simple. You use double-open parentheses (( and type to search the block you want to link. In Obsidian, you have to first add the link to the note and then use # to embed headers and ^ to embed blocks.– Obsidian also makes it hard to see the origin of block references, as they are only...
Source: medium.com

Signal Reviews

20 Telegram Alternatives to Chat With in 2024
Signal is not a broadcasting app (although it does have a stories feature), nor is it a community-building app. It's a simple messaging Telegram alternative for those wanting to chat with friends.
10 Best Telegram Alternatives in 2024
Signal is an alternative Telegram app which was first developed in the year 2014 by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton, Signal was launched after whatsapp and after its launch various organizations shifted their work to Signal from Whatsapp due to its highly secured and safe features than any other app.
Top 10 Apps like Telegram for Android and IOs [2023]
Signal is a messaging program that offers all the features you would anticipate from a modern instant messaging app, with a heavy focus on privacy. Signal is one of the safest messaging apps on the market thanks to its open-source architecture, end-to-end encryption, and commitment to never accumulating user data. If you're seeking secure apps like Telegram, Signal's...
The best WhatsApp alternatives for 2023
Signal's open-source end-to-end encryption protocol is also used by WhatsApp, so you'll be getting WhatsApp's security without Facebook's involvement. The Signal app regularly conducts security audits on its software as well, and manages to combine that security with a user-friendly interface that even your technophobic uncle could manage.
The 7 best apps you can use as a WhatsApp alternative
If you're looking for the strongest security in a WhatsApp alternative, Signal is probably what you need. The app leans hard into privacy with complete end-to-end encryption for voice, video, and text conversations when you chat with other Signal users. And the company behind Signal is a US-based non-profit organization that has no profit incentive to sell your data. You can...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Obsidian.md should be more popular than Signal. It has been mentiond 1454 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 (1454)

  • UX Case Study: Markdown Heading
    The closest editor that follows our first principle is Obsidian editor:. - Source: dev.to / 25 days ago
  • I switched from Notion to Obsidian
    The solution was already installed on both my computer and my phone: Obsidian. - Source: dev.to / 29 days ago
  • Why single vendor is the new proprietary
    > why does open source need to "win" Open source does not need to win. But your ability to be in control of your computer needs to be preserved. A proprietary fridge cannot control your diet, while a proprietary App Store can control what software you install on YOUR phone (unless you live in EU, hello DMA!). The tail wags the dog, so to speak. Proprietary software has also been shown to break user workflows or... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Replatforming from Gatsby to Zola!
    So I've had my fair share of personal websites and blogs. I have built them on stacks ranging from the most basic HTML and CSS, to hosted frameworks like Wordpress and Laravel, to the more modern single page applications built in Vue and React. For a simple content blog I think you can't go wrong with a Static Site Generator though. These days I am almost exclusively writing everything in Obsidian. Which is great... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Show HN: Godspeed is a fast, 100% keyboard oriented todo app for Mac
    Consider making an Obsidian[^1] plugin, or writing to Obsidian-compatible Markdown files :) [^1]: https://obsidian.md/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
View more

Signal mentions (180)

  • WhatsApp forces Pegasus spyware maker to share its secret code
    Just so you know: https://grapheneos.org/ and https://signal.org/ do exist! - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • What are you shocked people are still doing nowadays?
    Signal works the same but without the user tracking from Meta/Facebook. Many people use it as well but I'm surprised that a majority sticks to WhatsApp. Source: 5 months ago
  • A Practical Guide For Safety And Reporting Crimes For Our Community
    A question I often get is "Well are my text messages safe" The short answer is... Maybe? Depends on what type of phone you use, your carrier, and a bunch of other factors. One way to avoid this is to use an end-to-end encrypted text service like Signal if that is a concern of yours. VERY IMPORTANT NOTES: Telegram and WhatsApp are not secure. The way to think of this security is that if is retained by a server... Source: 6 months ago
  • Signal Public Username Testing (Staging Environment)
    The linked page is on signalusers.org, but Signal's regular home site is https://signal.org/. I'm looking all over signal.org for some link from there to signalusers.org, as that would make me more relaxed about the authenticity of the latter -- i.e., that it really is run by the same people who run signal.org. Yes, maybe I'm being paranoid. But we're talking about an app whose whole purpose is secure... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Breaking Global Communication Barriers
    WhatsApp and Signal: Of course I’m going to conclude with the point to point encrypted communication apps Signal and WhatsApp. Most of our clients around the world communicate in these apps more than they make phone calls or send emails. Set up an account in each app and start leveraging the text, photo, phone and video features to have easy and fast conversations with your global contacts. See https://signal.org... Source: 11 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Telegram - Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security. It’s superfast, simple and free.

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.

WhatsApp - WhatsApp Messenger: More than 1 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere.

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

Element.io - Secure messaging app with strong end-to-end encryption, advanced group chat privacy settings, secure video calls for teams, encrypted communication using Matrix open network. Riot.im is now Element.