{
  "slug": "obsidian",
  "name": "Obsidian",
  "aliases": [
    "Obsidian.md"
  ],
  "vendor": {
    "name": "Dynalist Inc. (Obsidian)",
    "slug": "obsidian",
    "website": "https://obsidian.md"
  },
  "homepage_url": "https://obsidian.md/",
  "docs_url": "https://help.obsidian.md/",
  "pricing_url": "https://obsidian.md/pricing",
  "license_url": "https://obsidian.md/license",
  "privacy_url": "https://obsidian.md/privacy",
  "product_type": "application",
  "product_status": "active",
  "summary": "Local-first Markdown note-taking app with bidirectional links, graph view and a large community plugin ecosystem; optional paid Sync and Publish",
  "description": "Obsidian is a desktop and mobile note-taking application in the personal knowledge-management category, developed by the small team behind Dynalist. Notes are plain Markdown files in a folder on the user's device (a vault), so they remain readable by any editor and under the user's control. On top of the files Obsidian adds wikilinks and backlinks, a graph view of connections, tags and properties (YAML front matter), embedded notes and media, canvas boards, a daily-notes workflow and full-text search.\n\nThe application is proprietary but free for personal and commercial use under its licence, with optional paid add-ons: Obsidian Sync for end-to-end encrypted synchronisation between devices and Obsidian Publish for hosting a vault as a website. Optional Catalyst and Commercial licences support development. The community plugin directory contains thousands of extensions, including Dataview for querying note metadata, Templater, Excalidraw drawings, Zotero citation integration and Git-based backup, and themes and CSS snippets customise the interface.\n\nResearchers and developers use it as a literature notebook, lab journal or project wiki that lives next to code and LaTeX sources in a Git repository; the Markdown files can be processed by Pandoc, Quarto or static-site generators. Limits include the absence of real-time multi-user editing, mobile apps that depend on a sync mechanism, plugin quality and security that vary because plugins run with full access, and a closed codebase, so the openness lies in the file format rather than the application.",
  "capabilities": [
    "Markdown vault stored as local files",
    "Wikilinks, backlinks and graph view",
    "Properties, tags and full-text search",
    "Canvas boards and embedded notes",
    "Community plugins and themes",
    "End-to-end encrypted Sync and web Publish add-ons",
    "Command palette and keyboard-driven navigation"
  ],
  "workflows": [
    "Keep a literature notebook linked to Zotero references",
    "Version a vault with Git alongside a research project",
    "Query note metadata with the Dataview plugin"
  ],
  "advantages": [
    "Plain-text files under user control",
    "Works fully offline",
    "Very large plugin ecosystem",
    "Free for personal and commercial use"
  ],
  "limitations": [
    "No real-time collaborative editing",
    "Closed-source application",
    "Plugins run with full access and vary in quality",
    "Device sync requires Obsidian Sync or a third-party mechanism"
  ],
  "prerequisites": [
    "macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS or Android device"
  ],
  "audiences": [
    "Researchers and students building knowledge bases",
    "Developers keeping Markdown notes with code",
    "Writers organising long projects"
  ],
  "alternatives": [
    "logseq",
    "notion",
    "bear",
    "craft",
    "apple-notes"
  ],
  "comparison_notes": "Logseq is an open-source, outliner-first alternative that also stores Markdown locally. Notion is cloud-hosted with databases and collaboration but no local files. Bear and Craft are polished Apple-centric editors with their own storage; Apple Notes is free and built in but lacks linking depth and plugins.",
  "categories": [
    {
      "slug": "knowledge-management",
      "primary": true
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "notes",
    "markdown",
    "local-first",
    "pkm",
    "plugins",
    "macos"
  ],
  "use_cases": [
    "manage-notes",
    "write-papers"
  ],
  "operating_systems": [
    "macos",
    "windows",
    "linux",
    "ios",
    "android"
  ],
  "execution_modes": [
    "local",
    "cloud"
  ],
  "interfaces": [
    "desktop",
    "mobile"
  ],
  "deployment_models": [
    "desktop"
  ],
  "integrations": [
    "Zotero (plugin)",
    "Git (plugin)",
    "Excalidraw (plugin)",
    "Pandoc",
    "Dataview (plugin)"
  ],
  "data_formats": [
    "Markdown",
    "YAML front matter",
    "Canvas JSON",
    "PDF export"
  ],
  "languages": [],
  "source_model": "proprietary",
  "pricing_model": [
    "free",
    "paid"
  ],
  "pricing_checked_at": "2026-11-02",
  "self_hostable": null,
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://obsidian.md/",
      "type": "official_site",
      "supports": [
        "name",
        "summary",
        "operating_systems"
      ],
      "checked_at": "2026-11-02",
      "title": "Obsidian"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://help.obsidian.md/",
      "type": "official_docs",
      "supports": [
        "capabilities",
        "data_formats"
      ],
      "checked_at": "2026-11-02",
      "title": "Obsidian Help"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://obsidian.md/license",
      "type": "license_page",
      "supports": [
        "pricing_model",
        "source_model",
        "advantages"
      ],
      "checked_at": "2026-11-02",
      "title": "Obsidian license overview",
      "note": "Free for personal and commercial use; optional Commercial and Catalyst licences"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://obsidian.md/pricing",
      "type": "pricing_page",
      "supports": [
        "pricing_model"
      ],
      "checked_at": "2026-11-02",
      "title": "Obsidian pricing — Sync and Publish add-ons"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "depth": "deep",
  "featured": false,
  "discovery_method": "editorial-research",
  "editorial_status": "reviewed",
  "visibility": "public",
  "author": "batch-F"
}