Introduction

Obsidian, a popular personal knowledge management (PKM) app, often faces the perception of having a steep learning curve. This perception is partly due to the use of community plugins. In this review, I’ll focus on the unplugged version of Obsidian, which is free from community plugins. There are numerous features to explore in this pure form of Obsidian.

History

Obsidian was developed by the creators of Dynalist, an outliner app, Shida Li (lee) and Erica Xu (Shoo). Obsidian offers user one of the best combination of Data Ownership, Data Privacy and Flexibility with an Ideal business model, which includes free for all users.

Reference: https://obsidian.md/about

timeline
    Obsidian History
    2020 : March - Release 
         : September - Obsidian Publish
         : Runner up Golden Kitty Award in Productivity
    2021 : July - Mobile version release
         : Won Goden Kitty Award in Mobile App Category
    2022 : December - Released Infinite Canvas Plugin
         : Runner up Golden Kitty Award
    2023 : PDF viewer & Deeplinking
         : Table editor
    2024 : Released JSON Canvas open file format
         : November - Released Web Clipper
    2025 : Feb - Commercial license became optional 

Reference: roadmap page.

Controversy

Despite undeniable popularity of Obsidian in PKM community, there seem to be more split user opinion in Obsidian than some of the other PKMs. Some people firmly believe it’s the best personal knowledge management (PKM) tool out there, while others find it hard to understand why anyone would prefer it over other PKMs available. Personally, I’ve had both en d of opinion myself about Obsidian.

No community plugin discussion

In today’s review, I will concentrate on the core, or vanilla version of Obsidian. While it’s true that community plugins are one of the main distinguishing features of Obsidian, they come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages.

In fact, my advice for new Obsidian users is to hold off on adding any community plugins until you’re sure you need them and fully understand the associated risks. The core features of Obsidian are already quite powerful and can definitely compete with most, if not all, personal knowledge management systems available in the market, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. When watching this video, please remember that the limitations I mention may very well have some workarounds available through community plugins.

Let’s dive in!

Pros

Data Privacy

One of the main strengths of Obsidian is its focus on data privacy and security. Unlike many other applications, PKM apps are fundamentally note-taking tools, which provide users with the flexibility to decide what to include. As a result, there are no limitations regarding what can be entered into the system, whether it’s your creative ideas, intellectual property, confidential company information, or even user login details. If you’re entering sensitive information, ensuring data privacy is essential.

Recently, I’ve grown increasingly curious about the data privacy risks linked to PKM apps. I’ve begun conducting some online research. Terms such as local app, open source, or server-side encryption don’t necessarily reduce the privacy risk. Even if a hypothetical app includes all three of these features, it could still allow developers to access and collect your data whenever there is an online connection, meaning it could be a high-risk app from a data privacy perspective.

I would categorize Obsidian as minimal risk, meaning it has the lowest risk possible. The developer genuinely goes above and beyond in managing privacy risks. I would feel at ease storing both personal and sensitive company information in Obsidian.

This is because Obsidian operates completely offline, without needing any license validation or asking for your personal information before you can use all its features.

For syncing across multiple devices, they provide an optional Obsidian Sync service that allows you to utilize their server with end-to-end encryption. This ensures that only the devices at either end can access the data, while the server and developers are unable to access your information.

Since Obsidian is not an open-source or source-available project, those who are concerned about data privacy may wonder how we can be sure they are being truthful. To address this, they have demonstrated their commitment by requesting a third-party audit by Cure53 and publicly sharing the results.

Data Ownership

If you’re thinking about using a PKM as your second brain and the notes you create hold lasting value for you, it’s important to select a system that doesn’t confine you to their platform. With Obsidian, the blend of 100% local and native file storage, the use of open-source formats, and the absence of a mandatory subscription provides complete data ownership, which is one of Obsidian’s most compelling advantages.

100% local

Obsidian is a completely offline app, ensuring that all your data is stored locally. It doesn’t even require mandatory online license validations or re-authentication. You can access your data anytime and anywhere, as long as you have a device with Obsidian installed, regardless of your internet connection.

If you discover that the latest version of Obsidian no longer meets your needs, you can simply continue using the current version and enjoy its full functionality without spending a dime.

Non-proprietary format

Obsidian steers clear of proprietary file formats. Each note in Obsidian is saved in Markdown format, making it accessible with any text editor. For their whiteboard feature, known as Canvas, they have developed their own open-source format called JSONCanvas. All file types are simply individual native files located right in your local computer folder.

Whether you’ve chosen to move on from Obsidian to another PKM or if the Obsidian app becomes incompatible with your device down the line, all your individual files will remain accessible and there will be options to access them through third-party apps.

Ideal business model

Despite all these class-leading fundamental designs, Obsidian offers one of the fairest business models from the consumer’s perspective. For local use of the app, it’s entirely free. There is no feature limitation between free and paid tiers.

Business Sustainability

Free sounds fantastic for consumers, but if developers don’t see any benefits in continuing to enhance their product, they may halt development, which would impact us. Therefore, it’s crucial to think about developers’ motivation to keep improving their app. Is Obsidian’s business sustainable?

The simple answer is a resounding yes! But how do they accomplish this? Is there a hidden agenda?

Donation-base

The first part relies on the thoughtful support of users. For individual contributors, there is a one-time donation options available, ranging from $25 to $100. Depending on the donation tier, you could enjoy early access, entry to a special Discord channel, and a digital badge on the official and Discord forums.

Unlike many other PKM apps, the early access in Obsidian appears to provide only a few weeks to maybe a month of a head start, and even that isn’t consistent. For instance, as of today there is no early access version available since the public version is the latest one.

For commercial, profit use, there used to be a mandatory licensing plan, but it has recently become optional. This change aligns with the individual user’s optional licensing concept and, most importantly, makes the app truly free to use, regardless of the purpose. In fact, I found the original required commercial subscription a bit ambiguous because what defines business use versus personal use can be less clear in certain situations. Additionally, small business owners who wanted to be honest were previously required to pay a constant subscription fee per user.

This is thought to be one of the primary revenue sources for Obsidian. Major corporations like Amazon and Google have this commercial license subscription. Since the optional license plan change occurred very recently, I hope these companies continue to support Obsidian.

Reference: https://obsidian.md/enterprise/

Subscriptions

Obsidian has two completely optional subscription service plans: Obsidian sync and publish.

Obsidian Sync

The Obsidian Sync allows users to synchronize their content across multiple devices using end-to-end encryption through Obsidian’s server.

Reference: https://obsidian.md/sync

Obsidian Publish

The Obsidian Publish allows users to publish our notes on an Obsidian-hosted web server.

Since both of these services rely on Obsidian’s physical server resources, providing them as optional subscriptions makes perfect sense.

Both of these services are optional, and alternatives do exist for them.

Organization freedom

Obsidian offers one of the most flexible collections of note organization tools for users.

Hierarchy in Obsidian

Since Obsidian utilizes native folder structures, it allows for hierarchical organization in a way that feels most familiar to us. Furthermore, Obsidian enables the creation of hierarchical organization through nested tags.

Network in Obsidian

Obsidian supports both tags and bi-directional links

Tags

Tags in Obsidian are versatile! You can tag each note with properties, and you also have the option to use inline tags. Plus, Obsidian supports nested tags, allowing you to create groups of tags with limitless levels.

Bi-directional link

Linking notes in Obsidian can be created with the minimal friction, by use of simple Wiki-style, double bracket link format. You can create a link to even non-existing file, as a placeholder. Some users use this in place of tag.

Graph View

Obsidian provides a graph view mode that enables us to visually explore the connections among our organized notes in the “network.”

Objects in Obsidian

Obsidian offers the capability to set and create advanced properties to each note, including multi-select fields and links to other notes. These features empower us to develop fully functional object-based notes. However, the core version of Obsidian does not yet include an object view mode like the database views in Notion. For now, you’ll need a community plugin to access this feature, but official Dataview support is on the way, as it is currently listed as active on their roadmap.

Vault = Power of native file system

A vault in Obsidian is a folder on our local file system that we choose to open as the current working group of Obsidian files. This encompasses all files and subfolders contained within it. Vault can serve as a workspace in other PKMs. For instance, I have personal and couple work Vaults tailored to my specific role at work. Vault being native folder in our local system, it opens up a few noticeable benefit over those PKMS that creates own database file that their content cannot be accessed other than by the own apps.

Folder operations

A vault can be easily created, copied, moved, and even combined or split. However, the latter two actions carry their own risks for indexing if you’re not careful, so it’s a good idea to exercise caution when performing them.

Any file workflow

A vault can hold any file type, including MS Word and Apple Numbers, and allows us to organize them alongside our notes using straightforward native folder grouping. These files can be opened with the default local app. This way, even when working on projects that involve special file types, we can keep everything related to the project in one convenient location.

Template

Obsidian’s template is simple yet incredibly effective. The template is essentially just a note, but its content will be inserted exactly at the cursor position of the active note. This feature enables us to use the template as a convenient snippet that can be added while we write, or it can act as the complete outline of a new note, including properties.

https://help.obsidian.md/plugins/templates

Multidevice sync

Because Obsidian is 100% local, multi device sync can be setup using choice of your own Cloud storage without any extra cost, and you don’t necessary need to subscribe to Obsidian Sync. Since all my devices are Apple based, I personally use iCloud. This works amazingly well. The sync between devices are nearly instant, and I haven’t lost any data so far. However, I’ve heard that iCloud doesn’t function very well with Windows, which is more of a limitation of iCloud. So in such case you need to find alternative cloud storage. If you can’t find one or prefer to use an end-to-end encrypted service, then the Obsidian sync subscription option may be perfect for you!

Multitasking

We can multitask in Obsidian in every way we can think of! It offers multi-split views, tabs, multiple windows, and even several app instances. The versatility of the multi-split view lets us arrange them side by side, top and bottom, in different combinations, like 2 side by side on top and one on the bottom, and more. Additionally, we can save these layouts for easy switching back and forth!

Stability, speed and scalability

Obsidian has proven to be incredibly reliable so far. It’s both fast and stable. With its approach of using individual files for each note, it also scales well for the large collection.

Mobile app

Obsidian’s mobile app is available for free, and can be synced with other devices via cloud service. I’ve only tested it on iOS devices, but it works smoothly and reliably, and of course fully offline.

Web viewer

In December 2024, Obsidian introduced a Chromium-based browser within the Obsidian app. This browser is quite powerful, featuring ad blocking, bookmarking, a reader view, and the ability to save pages directly to your Vault.

It’s worth mentioning that Obsidian took extra precautions by having this new module tested by Cure53 to ensure its security compliance.

Craftsmanship work

Obsidian showcases exceptional craftsmanship in its app design. When you take a closer look at what I call corners and edges of the app, it’s clear that a thoughtful approach has been taken to minimize friction for each functionality.

The selection of markdown syntax, including Wikilink style and its embedded counterparts, serves as a great example of this. Whether it’s images, files, or notes, we can utilize the same minimal footprint syntax.

Another recently noticed example is related to the bookmark. Obsidian includes a bookmark section where we can bookmark notes, folders, or other files. When we use Web Viewer to add a web page to the bookmarks, it joins the same section as the other local item bookmarks.

While each detail may appear minor and might not be immediately noticeable to users unless they intentionally look for it, this is a positive indication of the app’s design. When things aren’t functioning smoothly, we tend to notice them as friction points.