What is Obsidian?
The free and flexible app for your private thoughts. Stores notes locally on your device with open file formats and optional cloud sync via end-to-end encrypted Obsidian Sync.
Obsidian pricing
Plans, per-tier features and add-ons, dated and linked to live pricing. Pricing changes often; always verify at source before you rely on it.
Free core app. Optional: Sync from $4/user/mo (annual) or $5/user/mo (monthly). Publish from $8/site/mo (annual) or $10/site/mo (monthly). 40% discount for students, faculty, and nonprofits.
Sync (billed annually)
Sync notes across devices with end-to-end encryption
- End-to-end encryption
- Version history
- Collaborate on shared vaults
- Priority support
Sync (billed monthly)
Sync notes across devices with end-to-end encryption
- End-to-end encryption
- Version history
- Collaborate on shared vaults
- Priority support
Publish (billed annually)
Publish notes to the web
- Publish notes to the web
- No technical knowledge required
- Customizable theme
- Graph and full text search
- Priority support
Publish (billed monthly)
Publish notes to the web
- Publish notes to the web
- No technical knowledge required
- Customizable theme
- Graph and full text search
- Priority support
Catalyst
Support Obsidian development
- Early access to beta versions
- Community badges
- Exclusive channels
Commercial
Commercial use license (optional)
- Support development
- Become a featured organization
What Obsidian does
The capabilities that matter for knowledge base software, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Real-time co-editing
- ✓
- Structured database / table blocks
- -
- Bidirectional links / backlinks
- ✓
- Markdown-native
- ✓
- Version history
- ✓
- Local-first / offline files
- ✓
- AI writing / Q&A over content
- -
- Publish pages to the web
- ✓
- Permissions granularity
- Workspace
- Answer verification / expiry
- -
- Hosting
- Cloud + self-hosted
- SSO / SCIM
- -
- Public API
- ✓
- Free tier
- ✓
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- iOS
- macOS
- Web
- Linux
- Android
- Windows
- Cloud / SaaS
- Hybrid
Obsidian alternatives
Other knowledge base software we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- Codamedium · 63%
- CraftYour space for notes, tasks, and big ideaslow · 37%
- NuclinoYour team's collective brainmedium · 53%
- Confluencemedium · 50%
- TettraStop answering repetitive questions in Slack. Create an AI-powered knowledge base that does it for you.medium · 59%
- NotionThe AI workspace that works for youmedium · 62%
The Vioscale score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Obsidian, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | 92 | 32.00 | 2932.2 | ✓ |
| Pricing Transparency | 100 | 16.00 | 1600.0 | ✓ |
| Price Level | 80 | 10.00 | 800.0 | ✓ |
| Reliability | 50 | 12.00 | 600.0 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 0 | 18.00 | 0.0 | - |
| Security Posture | 0 | 12.00 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | {"hosting":"both","free_tier":true,"api_access":true,"local_first":true,"markdown_native":true,"version_history":true,"public_publishing":true,"bidirectional_links":true,"real_time_coediting":true,"permissions_granularity":"workspace"} | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 60% |
Pricing
Reliability
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Status page | Yes | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 60% |