About Obsidian
Obsidian stores notes as plain markdown files on your machine, links them like a personal wiki, and visualizes the connections as a graph. Privacy folks love the local-first model; tinkerers love a plugin ecosystem exceeding a thousand community extensions. It asks more setup than cloud apps, and sync costs extra, but your notes remain yours forever.
Key Features
- Markdown vaults on local disk
- Backlinks and graph visualization
- Canvas for spatial thinking
- Community plugin ecosystem
- End-to-end encrypted sync (add-on)
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Files stay local and portable
- Bidirectional linking and graph view
- 1,000+ community plugins
- Free for personal use
Cons
- Sync is a paid add-on
- Collaboration is not the focus
- Plugin rabbit holes consume hours
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Obsidian really free?
Yes for personal use, including commercial use as of 2025. Sync and Publish are optional paid services.
Where are my notes stored?
As markdown files in a folder you control, so no vendor lock-in.
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Writers, researchers, and developers building a permanent personal knowledge base.
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