Obsidian and Notion are each apps that can be utilized to create and manage notes and wikis, however they every take a essentially completely different strategy to this job.
Obsidian is a note-taking app that shops information domestically in your gadgets as a substitute of within the cloud, so it’s essential to obtain an app to make use of it. Obsidian makes use of Markdown information and language to create and format your notes, and it makes use of a data graph construction to attach notes by way of bi-directional considering as a substitute of a extra conventional and hierarchical database construction.
Notion is a cloud-based productiveness app that allows you to monitor initiatives and create and manage notes. It may be accessed through an internet browser, desktop apps for Home windows and Mac or cellular apps for iOS and Android. A Notion widget is out there for each iPhone and Android, so you possibly can entry it proper from your house display screen.
On this information, we’ll examine and distinction Obsidian and Notion that will help you work out which one is finest in your wants.
Obsidian vs. Notion: Comparability
| Linked considering visualization | ||
| Free syncing and publishing | ||
| Mission administration options | ||
| Crew collaboration | ||
| Free perpetually | ||
| Beginning worth (per person per 30 days, billed month-to-month) | ||
| Beginning worth (per person billed yearly) | ||
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Obsidian vs. Notion: Pricing
Obsidian pricing
Obsidian follows a considerably uncommon pricing scheme. Should you simply need to obtain the app for private use on a single gadget, it’s free to make use of perpetually: no file add limits, no limits on the variety of notes you possibly can have — nothing. If you wish to use Obsidian for work, it prices $50 per person per 12 months to get the business license. You get a 14-day trial earlier than you pay, and this tier comes with precedence assist.
The catch is that it’s a must to pay further if you wish to sync between gadgets or publish your Obsidian pages to the net. It prices $4 per individual per 30 days billed yearly for Obsidian Sync and one other $8 per 30 days per web site billed yearly for Obsidian Publish. Since most note-taking companies supply free syncing and publishing for all accounts, this can be a little bit of a disadvantage. Whereas Obsidian might seem cheaper at first look, these extra charges can rapidly add up.
There’s additionally the choice for all customers to pay a one-time $25 payment for Obsidian Catalyst, which will get you early entry to the beta model and the VIP channel, in addition to particular neighborhood badges. The Obsidian Catalyst is a technique to hold Obsidian’s improvement 100% user-supported.
See the Obsidian pricing breakdown beneath.
- Free: For private use.
- Business use: $50 per person per 12 months.
Add-ons
- Sync: $4 per person per 30 days, billed yearly, or $5 per person per 30 days, billed month-to-month.
- Publish: $8 per person per 30 days, billed yearly, or $10 per person per 30 days, billed month-to-month.
Early Entry
- Catalyst: A $25+ one-time fee for early entry to beta variations, particular neighborhood badges, entry to the VIP channel and assist improvement.
For extra data, learn our full Obsidian evaluation.
Notion pricing
Notion provides 4 pricing tiers and doesn’t cost further for syncing or publishing performance. The 4 pricing tiers supplied by Notion are:
- Free: This perpetually free plan means that you can invite as much as 10 visitors and add information as much as 5 MB.
- Plus: This plan prices $8 per person per 30 days, billed yearly, or $10 per person per 30 days, billed month-to-month. It means that you can invite as much as 100 visitors and options limitless blocks and file uploads.
- Enterprise: This plan prices $15 per person per 30 days, billed yearly, or $18 per person per 30 days, billed month-to-month. It means that you can invite as much as 250 visitors and options SAML single sign-on and superior web page analytics.
- Enterprise: This plan requires a customized pricing quote and consists of further options corresponding to limitless workspaces and limitless extensions.
You may as well select so as to add the non-compulsory Notion AI to any paid plan for $8 per person per 30 days, billed yearly. Notion AI can be utilized to generate summaries, rewrite paperwork and brainstorm concepts.
You may request a trial of the Marketing strategy and a demo or a trial of the Enterprise plan, however you’ll have to contact the gross sales staff to do each — you possibly can’t join both immediately.
For extra data, learn our full Notion evaluation. You may as well see how Notion stacks up in our comparability of Notion vs. Asana, Notion vs. Trello, Coda vs. Notion and ClickUp vs. Notion.
Characteristic comparability: Obsidian vs. Notion
Notes administration
Each Obsidian and Notion can be utilized to create private notes and wikis for both private or staff use. Along with creating textual content, you possibly can add photos, movies and hyperlinks to make your notes extra interactive.
Obsidian takes a barely completely different strategy since it’s designed for use as a second mind, a.okay.a., a searchable repository of a person’s ideas and data. You categorize every observe with completely different hashtags after which discover the various alternative ways they’re linked collectively within the open graph view. You may view a number of notes at a time utilizing a cut up window and format the content material visually with the Canvas function. Obsidian makes use of Markdown to create and format notes, which is usually a studying curve when you’re not already acquainted with it.
Notion doesn’t supply this sort of interconnected group — it takes a extra conventional database strategy to organizing notes and pages in a hierarchical construction, which will probably be acquainted to individuals who have used different note-taking apps. Notion doesn’t require markdown data to create and format notes utilizing the included toolbar, presenting a decrease studying curve and making it way more user-friendly. Should you’re not dedicated to constructing a second mind with bi-directional considering connection and simply need to hold monitor of your notes, Notion will in all probability be a greater match in your wants.
Mission administration
Obsidian doesn’t supply any native mission administration options. Nonetheless, the in depth library of greater than 1,000 plug-ins does help you add sure mission administration performance, corresponding to kanban boards and time monitoring. That being mentioned, it can take loads of plug-ins and tinkering round to get Obsidian anyplace near the extent of performance of a devoted mission administration app, since that’s not what it’s meant for. Should you want a mission administration answer, it is going to be simpler to decide on a platform that’s designed for that.
Notion does supply a wide variety of mission administration options paired with a low studying curve, which is why it made our lists for each the finest mission administration software program for startups and the finest mission administration software program for freelancers. You may assign duties to your self or different folks, set deadlines and select from a number of mission views corresponding to kanban boards and Gantt charts (referred to as timelines).
Nonetheless, Notion just isn’t as sturdy as different mission administration options like monday work administration, and it lacks sure native options corresponding to time monitoring. Because of this it isn’t the only option for energy customers who want loads of mission administration options.
Sharing and collaboration
Obsidian was designed for private note-taking firstly, and that exhibits up within the lack of collaboration options. Should you pay for the sync model, you possibly can share your file vault with different folks to allow them to edit it. However to go away feedback, it’s a must to use Markdown language, so the feedback don’t perform the identical manner they do in different instruments. You can also’t tag another person with an @ point out.
On the flip aspect, Notion means that you can touch upon gadgets, tag colleagues in messages, reply to feedback immediately throughout the device and react to feedback with emojis to acknowledge them. It doesn’t supply direct messages like Asana or a local video chat choice like Teamwork, so that you’ll want to maneuver to a unique software program like Slack or Zoom if you wish to have an prolonged dialogue. That being mentioned, Notion does supply far more sharing and collaboration options than Obsidian, so it’s a better option in case you are in search of a device you should utilize with teammates.
Importing information
Usually, we don’t embody importing in our comparisons as a result of most productiveness platforms enhance built-in instruments that automate importing your notes and information from one other service. The concept is to make switching platforms as painless as attainable, so it’s not an obstacle to customers.
Nonetheless, Obsidian requires you to manually export your notes as Markdown information (.md) after which add them into the device, which might be time-consuming and tedious when you’re not acquainted with the method already.
In the meantime, Notion allows you to add 5 completely different file sorts: plaintext (.txt), markdown (.md or .markdown), Microsoft Phrase (.docx), CSV (.csv) and HTML (.html). It additionally provides import instruments for plenty of different apps, together with Confluence, Asana, Evernote and Trello. As such, it’s a lot simpler to change to Notion from one other service, no matter the way you presently take notes.
Ease of use
Each Obsidian and Notion supply user-friendly interfaces and clear organizational buildings. Nonetheless, by way of ease of use, some customers discover Notion to be extra simple and intuitive. Notion’s interface is very visible and requires minimal effort to navigate. Its in depth collaboration options, corresponding to real-time enhancing, commenting and job assignments, make it a superb alternative for staff initiatives.
Throughout my expertise with each instruments, I discovered Notion simpler to make use of than Obsidian. Notion tends to be extra understandable, making it a most well-liked choice for people who prioritize simplicity and accessibility of their note-taking and group instruments.
Obsidian vs. Notion on Reddit
I checked Reddit to see what real-world customers are saying about Obsidian versus Notion. Here’s a abstract of their opinions:
Some customers want Obsidian for its sturdy concentrate on textual content and note-taking capabilities. They recognize its Markdown assist, interconnectedness of notes and plain-text file storage. In addition they discover Obsidian to be extra appropriate for private data administration and tutorial analysis, whereas Notion is healthier for mission administration and staff collaboration.
In keeping with ultra_nick, a Reddit person, “Obsidian is better for personal notes and learning.”
Others want Notion for its versatility and adaptability in creating several types of content material corresponding to databases, job lists, calendars and extra. They recognize its user-friendly interface and the power to collaborate with others in real-time.
“Notion is a tool that lets you have a structure in your data. You can experiment with the structures to find what fits you, and this experimentation is very easy to do. Also, it has a better typing experience, and it has better-looking text out of the box. And it also has clients for every major platform, + it syncs everything and is free,” 1Soundwave3 mentioned.
Obsidian professionals and cons
Execs of Obsidian
- Nice for making a “second brain” observe repository.
- The desktop app is free to make use of perpetually.
- Provides a novel open graph view to visualise connections between notes.
Cons of Obsidian
- Tougher to import current notes.
- Should pay to sync throughout gadgets or publish to the net.
- No collaboration instruments.
- No native mission administration instruments.
Notion professionals and cons
Execs of Notion
- Wonderful note-taking capabilities.
- Extremely customizable structure.
- Small studying curve, particularly in comparison with Airtable.
- Inexpensive than some opponents.
Cons of Notion
- No Gantt charts can be found.
- Can develop into unwieldy as you create extra initiatives.
- Might use extra security measures.
Ought to your group use Obsidian or Notion?
Whereas they could seem to be comparable note-taking apps at first look, Obsidian and Notion have been truly designed with two utterly completely different finish customers in thoughts.
Obsidian is supposed to behave like your “second brain,” turning into a complete repository of notes for a single particular person. For this reason it consists of options like open graph visualization however lacks staff collaboration and mission administration performance.
The desktop app provides full performance without spending a dime, however you’ll should pay if you wish to sync throughout gadgets or publish to the net, which implies that Obsidian can rapidly develop into costlier than opponents.
However, Notion is healthier suited for individuals who need to create and share notes and wikis with teammates. It additionally provides far more mission administration options and templates than Obsidian does, although it falls wanting extra sturdy PM instruments corresponding to monday work administration.
This mixture of notes and mission administration makes Notion particularly well-suited for content material creators, advertising departments and different groups that work largely with textual content. You could possibly additionally conceivably use Obsidian and Notion collectively, making your private notes in Obsidian whereas utilizing Notion for staff collaboration and mission administration.
Overview methodology
To match Obsidian and Notion, I signed up without spending a dime accounts and consulted demo movies, product documentation, person evaluations and neighborhood useful resource boards. I thought-about components corresponding to pricing, interface design, ease of use and importing, in addition to options corresponding to mission administration, staff collaboration and observe group.
