Obsidian vs Notion: A Detailed Comparison (2024) (2024)

We all write down notes basically every day, whether it’s a detailed diary, a simple shopping list, or a to-do list. But we don’t have a notebook and a pen with us at all times, so we usually use our phones, tablets, or computers.

So, I decided to compare 2 popular note-taking tools — Obsidian and Notion — to see which is better.

I have tried the free versions of both apps, and this is my impression of them.

Obsidian vs Notion: main features comparison

The main difference between Obsidian and Notion is that Obsidian is more suitable for creating an elaborate web of notes, while Notion has much better collaboration options.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the 2 popular note-taking apps:

Obsidian offers all features for free for personal use, while Notion has 4 pricing plans to choose from

Both apps have a generous free plan for individuals, but their paid plans differ considerably.

The pricing is not so easy to compare since these 2 apps have a different approach to it. Notion (like many other apps) has a free plan and several paid plans.

Obsidian, however, offers all of its features for free for personal use. But it costs $50 per user per year if you use it for commercial purposes. To clarify, Obsidian defines commercial use as “revenue-generating or work-related activities within a for‑profit company that has two or more people”.

On the other hand, there are 4 Notion pricing plans to choose from:

Notion’s free plan includes:

• A collaborative workspace,
• 10 guests,
• File uploads up to 5MB and more.

Both apps offer add-ons that have to be paid additionally.

With Obsidian, you can purchase 2 add-ons:

• Obsidian Sync — $8 per month when billed annually or $10 when billed monthly, and
• Obsidian Publish — $8 per month per site when billed annually or $10 when billed monthly.

Notion, on the other hand, has Notion AI as an add-on. It costs $8 per user per month if billed annually or $10 if billed monthly or if added to the Free plan.

They both offer discounts to:

• Nonprofit organizations,
• Students, and
• Educators.

You can also get a refund for both apps:

• Notion offers a full refund 72 hours after signing a monthly subscription, and 30 days after signing a yearly subscription.
• Obsidian offers a full refund 7 days after purchasing a commercial license, Obsidian Sync, or Obsidian Publish.

All in all, price-wise, Obsidian may be more suitable for individuals, and Notion may be better suited for teams.

Both Obsidian and Notion are user-friendly

Both note-taking apps have a clear interface that’s not difficult to master.

Obsidian relies on Markdown, which may seem daunting at first. I thought I would find it difficult to manage, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Once I’ve learned the commands I use most often — for example, those for creating headlines or adding links — writing notes became much easier and quicker.

Notion is a bit more complex than Obsidian, so it took me a little longer to learn how to best utilize its features. But, again, it’s nothing too difficult. After a bit of practice, I got used to how Notion works. My advice is to start with the templates first — they’ll save you a lot of time until you get used to the app.

Color-wise, Notion is more interesting than Obsidian. They both have a dark and a light theme, but Notion is more colorful. Colors help you clearly see your project’s progress at a glance. You can also add cover photos and page icons to make your pages more lively and personal.

Obsidian’s visual design, on the other hand, is quite simple. The dark theme is set as default, and I liked it much more than the light version. But if you are itching for a different look, you can install some of the themes created by the Obsidian community.

Both Obsidian and Notion have a clear organizational structure

Although different, both note-taking tools are well-organized.

A basic unit of Obsidian is a note. Notes are organized into vaults — folders located on your device. All Obsidian notes can be kept in a single vault, or you can create multiple vaults. For example, if you are using Obsidian for note-taking in college, you can create a new vault for each course.

On the other hand, Notion notes consist of blocks. Everything you add to a page is a block — picture, text, table, etc.

There are no folders in Notion, but you can create subpages within pages to better organize your projects. You can access all of your pages from a sidebar on the left side of your screen.

In Notion, you can view information in the form of:

• List,
• Board,
• Calendar,
• Project Timeline, or
• Gallery.

In comparison, you need to use community plugins to organize Obsidian notes in different ways, such as:

• Kanban board,
• Timeline,
• Timetable, etc.

I personally like to view my notes in Obsidian Canvas. Obsidian Canvas is a core plugin that enables you to organize notes visually. Just as there are different types of blocks in Notion, notes added to Obsidian Canvas can be images, PDFs, videos, interactive web pages, etc.

You can use Obsidian Canvas as a whiteboard. You can type text wherever you need it (to make titles or subtitles for example), and you can connect items using arrows.

Both apps offer an easy way to link your files and a clear overview of backlinks

Obsidian and Notion have developed systems of links and backlinks to keep your files connected.

As we mentioned, Obsidian doesn’t organize notes linearly but instead creates a web of notes through links and backlinks.

You can see how notes in your vault are connected in the Graph view. This is great if you are trying to create a knowledge base.

For example, I’ve put in recipes and created a great knowledge base to access quickly when I need it. When I enter my lasagna recipe, there is a backlink that takes me to the basic tomato sauce recipe I use in many dishes.

Obsidian enables you to link to other files or notes using:

• Internal links, and
• Embedded files.

Both Obsidian and Notion enable you to link to parts of notes — you can link to headings in Obsidian and to blocks in Notion.

Similarly to Obsidian, Notion uses links and backlinks to connect pages and projects across its platform.

In both apps, you can easily find the list of all backlinks a note has. In Obsidian, all backlinks from any note are available in the backlinks pane in the right sidebar. And in Notion, there is a list of links underneath the title of the note.

Both apps offer an easy way to publish your notes, but with Notion, you can do it for free

Both apps offer a way for you to publish your notes online.

This means you don’t need to know how to create and configure websites — you can just publish directly from the tool you are already using.

You can publish notes in Notion for free, but in Obsidian, you have to pay for the Obsidian Publish add-on. This add-on enables you to:

• Publish notes you want to share with others,
• Choose the site name, and
• Customize the layout of the site to make it your own.

A great feature Obsidian Publish has is the Hover Preview. When you hover over a link, a small window pops up where you can view the contents of the link without clicking on it. This can make your site more user-friendly and informative.

On the other hand, Notion lets people leave comments and duplicate a page, which Obsidian doesn’t.

Notion has much better collaboration features than Obsidian

Maybe the biggest difference between Notion and Obsidian lies in their collaboration options. While Obsidian offers only the most basic collaboration features, Notion enables comprehensive collaboration with your colleagues.

In Obsidian, you can collaborate with Obsidian Publish by adding collaborators to your page, who can publish and unpublish pages and make changes to a page.

But Obsidian wasn’t made with collaboration in mind, and this is reflected in its limited collaboration options. If you are looking for a collaboration tool, Obsidian is not the app for you.

On the other hand, you can collaborate with your teammates in Notion in a variety of ways.

Notion allows people to edit the same document at the same time. Teammates can edit documents in real time, and you can see the avatar of the teammate making changes while you’re viewing the document.

Another way to collaborate with your team is through comments. You can leave a comment at the top of a page, or you can comment on a particular block on the page. Moreover, if you want to direct your comment to a specific person, you can @mention them, and they will be notified.

For example, let’s say you are reviewing a business case proposal your subordinate wrote. You might find mistakes you can correct immediately. But there are also sections of the proposal you feel need to be changed but aren’t sure how. You can comment on that block and ask for ideas so other team members can contribute.

Also, there could be parts that are not completely clear to you. In that case, you can leave a comment and @mention the writer of the business case to clarify further.

Obsidian offers a generous number of plugins, but some provide you with features Notion already has without integrations

Obsidian uses plugins to help improve the functionality of the app.

It offers core plugins that enable basic features of the app such as:

• Backlinks,
• Graph view,
• Page view, and
• Tags, etc.

There are also 1,300+ community plugins you can install to:

• Search and open Wikipedia articles,
• Protect your notes with a password,
• Turn text to speech,
• Edit CSV files, and much more.

Notion, on the other hand, has 80 integrations, such as:

• Dropbox,
• GitHub,
• Figma,
• Zapier, etc.

But if the available integrations are not enough for you, you can always create the integrations you need since Notion has a public API.

Both Obsidian and Notion have adequate support

Both Obsidian and Notion offer support over email, while Notion also offers messaging support through the app. However, neither app offers phone support, which is a bit of a letdown.

They also both have a help site where you can find articles with instructions on how to use these tools. Notion help site includes videos to make using Notion even easier.

Obsidian has a forum where you can:

• Report bugs, or
• Suggest new features.

There is also a community on Discord, for you to:

• Ask questions,
• Take part in discussions, and
• Meet other Obsidian users.

Notion, too, has a community where you can join an event or a webinar or just share ideas and exchange tips with other members of the community.

If you’re on the Enterprise plan, you can get a dedicated success manager to help you best utilize Notion.

Notion offers sufficient security, but Obsidian lets you store data on your device instead of a cloud

If you’re squeamish about sharing your information, the Obsidian app is the right choice for you. You can use it fully without creating a profile or giving your name or email address.

It stores all your notes locally on your device and not in Obsidian’s cloud storage. That means they are truly yours, and if one day you decide you don’t want to use Obsidian, you will still have all your notes.

Unlike Obsidian, to use Notion, you have to create an account, and your data is stored on a cloud server. To ensure your data is secure, Notion:

• Encrypts data in transit (using TLS 1.2 or greater) and at rest (using AES-256),
• Offers 2-step verification on all plans,
• Complies with GDPR, SOC 2 Type 2, and ISO 27001, and more.

You can export your entire workspace from Notion and also ask Notion to delete your data. But these are additional steps you need to take to have more control over your data, which Obsidian solves simply by letting you store your data on your device.

However, if you have Obsidian Sync, your data is stored on Obsidian servers. They use AES-256 encryption to secure your data and offer:

• End-to-end encryption — all data is encrypted going in and out of your device, and can be accessed only with your encryption key.
• Managed encryption — in this case, Obsidian manages your encryption password, so you don’t have to remember it.

Frequently asked questions

Here are my answers to some common questions about the two apps.

Can you connect Obsidian with Notion?

Yes, you can connect Obsidian with Notion. Using community plugins in Obsidian, you can import data from Notion or share files to Notion. So, you don’t have to choose — you can utilize the advantages of both tools.

What is the difference between Obsidian Canvas and Notion?

The difference between Obsidian Canvas and Notion is the intended use.

Obsidian Canvas is meant to represent a board where you can attach information like sticky notes, which is ideal for brainstorming. On the other hand, Notion consists of pages more adequate for task lists, tables, and collaborative notes.

Is Obsidian better than Notion?

It depends on what you’re looking for.

Obsidian is one of the best note-taking apps for students because it allows you to create elaborate knowledge bases. It is also great for making notes in your personal life, such as keeping a diary.

However, Notion is a much better choice for teammates working together on a project. It has better task management options and much better collaboration possibilities.

If neither Obsidian nor Notion is what you’re looking for — you should try Plaky — a task management tool with a clear and user-friendly interface.

Its robust free plan makes it an ideal collaboration tool for teams on a budget.

While Obsidian is free for personal use, and Notion offers an unlimited number of blocks for free only for one user, Plaky’s free plan includes unlimited:

• Users,
• Spaces,
• Boards,
• Items, and more.

It also offers unlimited storage, with a limit of 10MB per file on the free plan, which is double what Notion is offering.

Moreover, unlike Obsidian and Notion, which lack phone support, Plaky offers 24/7 support via phone, chat, and email on all plans.

If you are looking for more advanced features, such as an unlimited activity log or custom OAuth2 SSO, you can choose one of the 2 paid plans:

• Plaky Pro Plan — $3.99 per user per month if paid annually, and
• Plaky Enterprise Plan – $8.99 per user per month if paid annually.

Finding the right tool for storing your notes and documents is not easy. I hope I’ve helped you see all the advantages and disadvantages of Obsidian and Notion.