Obsidian
Note-taking app that keeps every note as a plain text file in a folder you own.
Our verdict
Obsidian replaces OneNote or Evernote for anyone who wants their notes to outlive the app. Every note is a plain text file in a normal folder, so nothing is locked in a database you cannot open.
The trade for that freedom is Markdown, a way of formatting text with simple symbols rather than a toolbar. Most people are comfortable with it within a week, and there is a live preview so you see the result as you type.
Free for personal use with no limit on notes or devices. If you want the official sync service or a commercial licence you pay, though you can also keep the folder in Nextcloud, Dropbox or Syncthing for free. The program itself is not open source, which matters to some switchers and not to others.
What's good
- Your notes stay as ordinary text files on your own drive, readable without Obsidian
- Identical on Linux, Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone
- Huge library of community plugins and themes
What to know first
- Closed source, so you are trusting a company with a free but not open program
- Official sync across devices is a paid subscription
- Notes are written in Markdown, which means typing symbols like ** for bold rather than clicking a button
The details
- Cost
- Free with paid extras
- Open source
- No (Proprietary)
- How you install it
- App store (Flatpak), App store (Snap), .deb installer, AppImage download
Windows apps it can replace
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