Notes review
Obsidian
Local-first markdown notes that you actually own. Free for personal use, infinitely extensible via plugins, and your files outlive any subscription.
At a glance
- Pricing
- Free for personal use; $50/yr commercial; Sync $4/mo; Publish $8/mo
- Category
- Notes
- Last reviewed
- Best for
- Solopreneurs who want a permanent, plain-text knowledge base they own and never have to migrate out of.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I've used and would happily suggest to a friend.
Benchmarks
How Obsidian actually scores.
Five axes that matter for a one-person business. Each score is editorial, 1–10, higher is better. A tool that maxes every axis doesn't exist; the shape of the chart is the signal.
- Price
- Value for a one-person budget
- Solo fit
- Built with solo operators in mind
- Learning curve
- How fast a beginner gets useful work done
- Lock-in
- How easy it is to leave (high = easy)
- Support
- Quality and responsiveness of help
Scores are set by the editor after hands-on use and revised as the tool evolves. They're not paid for and don't change based on affiliate partnerships.
The case for
- Notes are plain markdown files in your filesystem: portable, scriptable, future-proof
- Free for personal use without a subscription nag
- Plugin ecosystem covers nearly any workflow you can imagine
- Stays fast at 10,000+ notes where Notion starts feeling sluggish
The case against
- Genuine learning curve, especially around linking conventions and plugin choices
- No native real-time collaboration, sharing means publishing or syncing files
- Mobile app is functional rather than delightful
- The plugin rabbit hole can absorb a Sunday before you notice
What makes Obsidian different
Most notes apps are SaaS-shaped: your notes live in their database, behind their auth, accessible only through their app. If the company pivots, raises prices, or goes under, your notes are stranded. Notion, Roam, Mem all share this risk.
Obsidian flips the model. Your notes are markdown files in a folder on your computer. The Obsidian app is a viewer and editor. If Obsidian disappeared tomorrow, you would still have every note in plain text, openable in any editor for the next 50 years.
For a one-person business, that durability is the killer feature. The compounding value of a personal knowledge base is real. You do not want to lose it because of a company decision out of your control.
What it is good at
- Backlinks and graph view. Type
[[note name]]and Obsidian creates and tracks the link. Over time you build a personal knowledge graph that reveals connections you forgot. - Daily notes. A built-in template that creates a note per day, useful for journaling, work logs, or capturing scattered thoughts.
- Search. Full-text across thousands of notes is instant, no indexing wait.
- Plugins. Calendar views, kanban boards, citation tracking, AI assistants. You can mould Obsidian into almost anything.
What it is not for
If you need to share notes with collaborators in real time, Obsidian is not the tool. Use Notion, Coda, or Google Docs for that. Obsidian Sync is fine for syncing your own notes across devices, but it is not collaboration.
If you want a tool that comes pre-configured with opinions, Obsidian will frustrate you. The empty vault on day one is intimidating. The community has plenty of starter setups and YouTube guides, which both helps and adds to the rabbit hole.
My setup
Three folders: Inbox (everything new lands here, processed weekly), Projects (active client and product work), Reference (anything I want to find again). Daily notes for journaling. The Templater plugin for new project templates. The Dataview plugin for one summary page that lists all open projects.
That is it. Five hours to set up. Pays back every week since.
Verdict
If you take notes seriously and you plan to keep doing it for the next decade, Obsidian is worth the learning curve. Free for personal use makes the trial cost zero. The escape hatch (your files in plain markdown) makes the lock-in zero.
Related reading: our roundup of the project management tools that actually work for solo founders.
Bottom line
Ready to try Obsidian?
Solopreneurs who want a permanent, plain-text knowledge base they own and never have to migrate out of.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I've used and would happily suggest to a friend.
Switching?
Migrating to or from Obsidian
Step-by-step guides from the editor. Time estimates, deliverability check, and the things most people get wrong.
Living document
What did we miss about Obsidian?
Every review evolves. Spot something wrong, missing, or out of date — drop a note. The most useful ones land in our monthly "Reader corrections" post, with credit if you're up for it.
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