Software Alternatives & Startups

Obsidian VS Write App

Compare Obsidian VS Write App and see what are their differences

Obsidian logo Obsidian

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.

Write App logo Write App

No-distraction writing tool for your productivity.
  • Obsidian Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-01
  • Write App Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23

Obsidian 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

  • 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.

Write App features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Write App features a clean and intuitive interface that is easy to navigate, making it accessible for users of all tech proficiency levels.
  • Distraction-Free Writing
    The app provides a minimalistic writing environment that helps users stay focused by eliminating unnecessary distractions and interruptions.
  • Markdown Support
    Write App supports Markdown, allowing users to format their text effectively and export it easily to various formats like HTML, PDF, and more.
  • Cross-Platform Availability
    The app is available on multiple platforms, enabling users to access their work from different devices seamlessly.
  • Autosave Feature
    Write App includes an autosave feature that ensures users do not lose their work due to unexpected shutdowns or accidental closures.

Possible disadvantages of Write App

  • Limited Collaboration Tools
    The app lacks advanced collaboration features, making it less suitable for teams who need to work on documents simultaneously in real-time.
  • Subscription Cost
    Write App operates on a subscription model, which might be a deterrent for users looking for a free writing tool.
  • No Offline Mode
    The app requires an internet connection to function, limiting its use in environments where connectivity is an issue.
  • Limited Customization Options
    Users may find the customization options for themes and layouts to be limited compared to other writing tools.
  • Basic Editing Tools
    The app offers basic text editing tools but lacks more advanced features like grammar checking and style suggestions.

Analysis of Obsidian

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Obsidian.md is an excellent tool for users looking for a versatile and powerful note-taking application. Its unique features such as backlinking, markdown support, and robust customization options make it a favorite among knowledge management enthusiasts.

Why this product is good

  • Obsidian.md is considered good by many users because it is a powerful knowledge management and note-taking application that leverages Markdown for document formatting. It allows for bi-directional linking between notes, which helps in creating a network of interconnected ideas, often described as a 'second brain.' Its ability to support plugins, themes, and robust graph visualization also adds to its appeal. Additionally, it stores notes locally, ensuring privacy and data ownership, while being cross-platform compatible across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Recommended for

  • Knowledge workers who need a powerful tool to organize and connect their thoughts.
  • Students who are looking to create a structured and visually interconnected note system.
  • Writers and researchers who benefit from linking related ideas and maintaining detailed notes.
  • Tech-savvy users or developers who appreciate the local storage and open ecosystem for plugins and customization.

Analysis of Write App

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Write App is considered good for users who prioritize simplicity and efficiency in their writing process, particularly for individual writers, academics, and creative professionals.

Why this product is good

  • Write App is designed to provide a distraction-free writing environment, making it appealing for users looking to focus purely on content creation. It offers a clean interface and useful features like version history, cloud sync, and collaboration tools for teams.

Recommended for

  • Freelance writers who need a streamlined writing tool
  • Students and academics looking for a dedicated space for drafting papers
  • Creative writers focusing on fiction or non-fiction projects
  • Teams looking for collaborative writing features

Obsidian videos

OBSIDIAN: Getting Started, Facts & Pricing

Write App videos

No Write App videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Obsidian and Write App)
Note Taking
100 100%
0% 0
Text Editors
0 0%
100% 100
Knowledge Management
100 100%
0% 0
Writing Tools
0 0%
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 and Write App

Obsidian 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. 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...
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

Write App Reviews

7 Best Scrivener Alternatives
Write! Application is a writing tool application that helps you to write in a distraction-free environment. The Write! application offers the option to disallow any distraction that could distract from your writing activity.
17 Top Evernote Alternatives for Note-Taking for 2019
Tags, passcode lock, text formatting. The Write app has everything Evernote has, plus syntax highlighting, distraction-free mode, and live word counts.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Obsidian seems to be a lot more popular than Write App. While we know about 1523 links to Obsidian, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Write App. 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 mentions (1523)

  • Which Markdown editor to choose
    Inline preview, usually called WYSIWYG. Obsidian's Live Preview mode hides the syntax except where the cursor is. Obsidian is a far better personal knowledge base than anything else on this page, with backlinks, a graph and years of plugins, and if that is what you need the question of what its editor is called does not matter much. - Source: dev.to / 16 days ago
  • I Built a Self-Evolving Knowledge Base — Here's the Architecture
    The stack is all open source: Obsidian, GBrain, Horizon, PGLite, and a couple of small Python scripts for the state machine and quality gates. None of the interesting parts are proprietary — the interesting part is the discipline. - Source: dev.to / 22 days ago
  • A Second Brain Your AI Agent Can Read
    Obsidian is a note-taking app that stores everything as Plain markdown files. It lets you organize and structure your notes in a Flexible way, and because the files are plain text on disk, anything that can Read a directory can read your notes, including an AI agent. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Bringing Notes, WeChat Reading, and Zhihu into Obsidian: My LLM-Wiki Knowledge Hub
    Install Obsidian: Download the client from obsidian.md and create a local Vault — just a local folder. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser?
    Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/) Honestly its not huge and most are probably obvious, but those are what I immediately install on my machines. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
View more

Write App mentions (2)

  • Nothing Related to the Write! App or its Website are Working
    The twitter handle for write! App leads to this site - https://writeapp.co/ - which is clearly not the writing app I paid 20 bucks for. Source: over 3 years ago
  • What program do you guys use to write?
    I'm also still trying out Write! Which was recommended here on this sub a while ago. It has a cloud so I can open it from all my computers, but sadly not from mobile. But I only use mobile for jotting down notes, anyway, so I use Docs for that. What I like about Write! Is that you have an overview of your document in the sidebar and it highlights where in your document you are right now. It's also nice that you... Source: over 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Obsidian and Write App, you can also consider the following products

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

iA Writer - Minimal Design, Maximum Focus

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

Scrivener - Scrivener is a content-generation tool for composing and structuring documents.

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.

Refly - Refly es una plataforma que pone en contacto a personas que quieren vender sus vuelos para que alguien más pueda hacer uso de él; así el vendedor no pierde su dinero y el comprador puede viajar ahorrando dinero.