Software Alternatives & Reviews

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. subtitle

Obsidian.md Reviews and details

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  • Obsidian.md Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-01

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OBSIDIAN: Getting Started, Facts & Pricing

Reviews

  1. MTRG15 avatar
     
    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 Bright avatar
     
    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

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Social recommendations and mentions

We have tracked the following product recommendations or mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you see what people think about Obsidian.md and what they use it for.
  • I switched from Notion to Obsidian
    The solution was already installed on both my computer and my phone: Obsidian. - Source: dev.to / 4 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 / 8 days 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 / 24 days 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 / about 1 month ago
  • Setting Up Obsidian for Content Planning and Project Management
    Obsidian is a writing application created to allow for offline / private note taking in markdown format, in an interface that looks a lot like our regular programming IDE. It is very flexible, with a good collection of community plugins that you can use to customize Obsidian to your heart contents. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Where Is Noether's Principle in Machine Learning?
    Thank you! In the beginning, I used kognise'z water.css [1], so most of the smart decisions (background/text color, margins, line spacing I think) probably come from there. Since then it's been some amount of little adjustments. The font is by Jean François Porchez, called Le Monde Livre Classic [2]. I draft in Obsidian [3] and build the site with a couple python scripts and KaTeX. [1]... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Show HN: Reor – An AI note-taking app that runs models locally
    Great job! I played around with this on a couple of small knowledge bases using an open Hermes model I had downloaded. The “related notes” feature didn't provide much value in my experience, often the link was so weak it was nonsensical. The Q&A mode was surprisingly helpful for querying notes and providing overviews, but asking anything specific typically just resulted in less than helpful or false answers. I'm... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Why use Obsidian for software development?
    I like to use Obsidian as a super notebook that is also quite simple. To get started with Obsidian you need to download the software from their official website. After installation you can start, Obsidian uses the markdown file format. It's similar to a text file, but it has features such as tags where you can organize the texts. I don't know about you, but I think it's really useful to use Markdown because it's... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to improve your GitHub vanity metrics FAST
    In practice I write in Obsidian, the best thing since slice bread for me. And it was obsidian-git, running every 10 minutes or so, who was keeping my GitHub vanity metrics very green. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • DevDocs
    Not a complete answer, but I hope Markdown is or becomes the standard for offline docs and text for local/offline consumption. I only ever write in markdown anyway (usually with http://obsidian.md). The closest thing I know of for a service like RSS to download documents is [Dash for macOS - API Documentation Browser, Snippet Manager - Kapeli](https://kapeli.com/dash). - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Ask HN: Is there a service for uploading Markdown files that render beautifully?
    Have you tried Obsidian? The have a markdown file publishing service. [1]: https://obsidian.md. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Ask HN: What do you use for note-taking or as knowledge base?
    I keep absolutely everything in a single folder. Saved documents, images, movies, financial records, game saves, it doesn't matter. My hierarchical naming scheme takes care of organization. On the odd occasion I actually need a folder, I just append ".d" to the filename. I use . As a hierarchy delimiter, so file extensions are just part of the hierarchy, and I can have multiple files with the same name... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Publishing to my blog from Obsidian
    I like using Obsidian for almost everything writing-wise. But, this has caused occasional friction when it comes to publishing to my blog. I've mentioned before that I'm trying out TinaCMS, which is generally working well for me (especially for posts with images), but I wanted to try something where I can push straight from Obsidian if I'm not able to use Tina for whatever reason. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Tell HN: My Favorite Tools
    Https://obsidian.md/ mainly for personal notes and journaling. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Ask HN: Best UI/UX Experience for Articles on the Web
    - Organisation of drafts (https://obsidian.md does this best) - A decent mobile app, desktop app & web app that work well offline (https://obsidian.md also does this well) - Ability to export to another platform (https://obsidian.md also does this well) - Collaboration. - Latex Support - Mermaid Support - Support for Idyll - Support for embedded items i.e interactive charts. -------------------------------- But... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Mixed Messages about the Flatpak version
    Yet Obsidian is one of the few apps that feature the Verified logo and it clearly states that the ownership of the app has been verified using obsidian.md. Source: 5 months ago
  • What do you use to write your fan fictions?
    When I was 14 and just getting started, I used Notepad. Upgraded to Wordpad when I realized I loved putting italics in every other sentence, moved to Google Docs at around 25 when I started writing on my phone and wanted to sync with my computer, finally moved to Obsidian a few months ago (with Syncthing for syncing) when I decided I don't want to live in Google's house where they can burn my stuff down whenever... Source: 5 months ago
  • Is 4 year degree the only way to break into a programming career?
    If you can show that you have these skills in your experience that you already have in the job market, then that's fine. Take a Boot Camp and write whatever you learn using https://obsidian.md/ . Source: 5 months ago
  • 1 note and 50 notes??
    Evernote now limiting free accounts to 1 notebook and 50 notes. I have been using it for 10 years and have like 167 notebooks and a total of 2.292 notes. That's it for me, I'm switching to something else, probably Obsidian. Goodbye Evernote. Source: 5 months ago
  • Why were the Classic Traveller rulebooks never "properly" re-relased as typeset PDFs?
    One other approach I've used is to create the document in Markdown and use Pandoc to convert it to PDF and other formats. Since I freely mix CSS and HTML into my Markdown docs when needed, I'm pretty well able to get any layouts I need. This is part of character sheet for a Mutant: Year Zero game I'm setting up that was built in Obsidian.md and exported to PDF. It's yet another way to get there. Source: 5 months ago
  • Tools for a GM?
    Obsidian is a good program to organise your notes and other stuff Https://obsidian.md/. Source: 5 months ago

External sources with reviews and comparisons of Obsidian.md

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 in a moment) or Craft have a lot of...
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 for free — depending on which devices you...
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 as an option for the user; you can...
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 with URLs.
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 visible in the sidebar. In Logseq, every...
Best 5 Obsidian Alternatives
Bi-directional note-taking applications have become more and more popular on the productivity scene this past year. Obsidian is one of the fastest-growing productivity tools right now, based on plain text Markdown files stored in a local folder, it gives your notes the security and longevity they deserve.
Obsidian vs. Roam vs. LogSeq: Which PKM App is Right For You?
Obsidian as an application sits on top of qlocal files stored on your computer. The files themselves are not imported into Obsidian, they are simply opened and viewed there. That means that if you ever decide to stop using Obsidian, what you are left with is a folder full of plain text files and images. While some features in Obsidian may use special formatting, the foundation of your notes documents is standard...
11 Best Notepad.pw Alternatives To Use
Obsidian is your personal second brain and long-term memory. The knowledge base becomes more valuable as you add more notes and make connections. You can also 100% control your data and not depend on any cloud services.
Best Next-Level Note Apps for 2021
Obsidian is a home-grown note app supporting every common form of Markdown. The app is a developer’s dream fulfilled as Obsidian enables visual presentation between notes with backlinks, graph views, and cross-referencing. Security and data privacy is an important factor that Obsidian takes care of by running all of the data, whether coming in or out of the app, through an encryption process. Safe to say, Obsidian...
Best Evernote Alternatives in 2021 for Serious Note Takers
A direct competitor to Roam, Obsidian markets itself as “a second brain” that helps you make connections between your notes and ideas. This knowledge base works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. Encouraging you to make connections between your ideas, Obsidian makes it easy to connect notes with backlinks and a graph view. The ability to use offline may be a game-changer for those who want to...
11 Best Note-Taking Apps to Help You Stay Organized at Productive in 2021
Obsidian is a note-taking tool that lets you build a personal knowledge base using plain-text markdown files. Similarly to Roam Research, you can use Obsidian to link notes to each other, building a web of associated ideas over time. Obsidian is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux (so no mobile app) and saves your data to a local folder instead of cloud storage. It comes with a toolbox of optional plugins too.
Which App is Best for Taking Notes?
Obsidian works similar to Roam, it’s just offline (private) and free. In Obsidian, making and following [[connections]] is frictionless. Tend to your notes like a gardener; at the end of the day, sit back and marvel at your knowledge graph.

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