Obsidian — The private, extensible knowledge base that lives on your local markdown files
Obsidian is a second brain software that stores notes locally in plain text markdown files, connected through a dynamic graph view.
About Obsidian
Obsidian puts you in complete control of your data. Storing your notes as local Markdown files on your hard drive, Obsidian offers bidirectional page linking, an interactive visual knowledge graph, canvas mapping, and over 1,500 community plugins without vendor lock-in.
Key features
- Local Markdown Plaintext Storage — Your data stays on your device forever with zero cloud vendor lock-in.
- Interactive Knowledge Graph — Visualize connections, clusters, and back-links across your second brain.
- Massive Plugin Community — Customize your workspace with Dataview, Kanban, Spaced Repetition, and AI.
Pricing
Pricing model: Freemium.
- Personal Free — $0 — 100% Free for personal use, Full access to plugins & API, No account required
- Obsidian Sync — $4 / month — End-to-end encrypted cloud sync, Version history 1 year, Device sync
- Commercial License — $50 / year — Use in revenue-generating work, Priority email support
Pros
- 100% data ownership — all notes are plain Markdown files on your disk
- Lightning fast performance with no network latency
- Huge library of community-developed plugins
Cons
- Syncing between desktop and mobile requires paid Obsidian Sync or iCloud/Git setup
- Can require configuration to achieve desired workflow
Platforms
Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
Related free ToolVerse tools
- Word & Character Counter — Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and estimate reading time instantly.
- Character Counter — Check exact character limits for SMS, tweets, meta tags, and social media captions.