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Notion and Obsidian are among of the most popular note-taking apps on the market. Both offer a wide range of features and tools for organizing and managing notes. But which one is best for you? Although both of these apps are capable of creating and organizing a knowledge base, they have different approaches and capabilities.

In this article, we'll compare Notion and Obsidian in terms of their note-taking capabilities, features, API and plugins, storage options, and pricing to help you decide which one is the best fit for your needs.

The two apps use different terminology. Notion uses workspaces which are made up of pages. Obsidian uses vaults, which are, in turn, made up of notes. Both applications offer an intuitive user interface that makes it easy to customize and organize data.

Notion has a minimalist design that makes it easy to find items quickly. It uses a sidebar with a list of options presented as buttons. You can use the visual interface or commands to add blocks to your page. The left pane in the interface organizes your workstation into a hierarchygranting you a quick overview of your workstation.

Aside from note-taking, Notion can serve as your one-stop destination for creating databases, managing tasks, and sharing projects. In fact, Notion is much more than a note-taking app. Notion comes packed with built-in features, and it tries to make formatting as easy as possible through templates. You can use the Notion page templates to quickly set up lists, tables, wiki pages, and more.

Another feature that sets Notion apart from the competition is Notion AI. Notion's AI feature can summarize entire pages, generate new text based on what's already there, and translate text to different languages.

Obsidian, on the other hand, has a no-nonsense approach to note-taking. Obsidian is solely and purely about taking notes and creating a knowledge base. As a result, you need to create your Obsidian notes from scratch by yourself.

Obsidian relies completely on Markdown, which you can use to format your notes. Although not as animated as Notion's blocks, Obsidian's Markdown is more than capable when it comes to formatting your notes. You can create lists and even tables using Markdown.

Obsidian's interface is a distraction-free writing experience that lets you focus on your work. Its core features include a minimalist markdown editor, a built-in graph that displays related notes, and a robust search engine.

The graph view is a feature unique to Obsidian. It displays your notes and their connections to each other as a cluster of nodes. You can customize the graph view and have it display exactly what you want.

Obsidian is built upon plugins. Almost all the features of Obsidian are enabled through its core plugins. As a result, you can add new features to Obsidian by simply installing the related plugins. This way, you can use Obsidian as a database by installing the Dataview plugin. Or use Obsidian as a Kanban organizer by installing the Kanban plugin.

This attribute turns Obsidian into an uncut gem. Despite not having that many built-in features, Obsidian provides you with a platform to customize with various plugins and maximize your workflow to its full potential. Obsidian's API is freely available on GitHub, so if you have a very particular plugin in mind, you can try your hand at building it yourself.

Conversely, Notion does not have any plugins. It compensates for this by having an arsenal of features that come built into the app. Notion has so many features that you probably won't even need a plugin, unless it's for integrating other apps into Notion. On that note, Notion has an API that developers can use to create custom apps that integrate with Notion.

Notion has tons of different integrations that you can add to your setup. With the right integrations installed, you can make Notion truly your ultimate workstationyou won't ever have to switch between different apps.

Obsidian stores data locally by default. This means that you can access your vault even when you're offline. What's more, this enables the possibility of securing your vault in a literal sense by storing it in a physical hard drive.

Obsidian's method of storing files also ensures their technical longevity. Your files are stored as .MD files that you can view and edit with any other Markdown editor.

On the flip side, offline storage means that you won't have access to your vault on other devices. To sync your Obsidian vault online, you'll have to either pay for an Obsidian Sync subscription, or use a cloud service such as Google Drive to sync your Obsidian vault for free.

Notion, however, stores data on its cloud servers. Your workstation is saved under your Notion account, and whenever you log in to Notion, your workstation will automatically load up. This means that you can access your Notion workstation anywhere, without the need to carry a hard copy of it.

However, if you can't log in to your Notion account for whatever reason, your workstation will be unreachable. An advantage that comes with being online is Notion's collaboration feature. You can add other people to your workspace and work on different projects and pages together in real-time.

Both Notion and Obsidian are free to use, but they both come with paid plans for users who want more than the essentials. From a personal note-taking perspective, you probably won't need any more than the free plan on either app.

Notion has three paid plans including Plus, Business, and Enterprise. The Plus plan costs $10 per month, and it extends the version history, the number of guests you can invite, and removes the file upload limit. The Business and Enterprise plans are intended for those who want to manage their company and projects through Notion.

Obsidian has two paid plans called Catalyst and Commercial. The Catalyst plan is a one-time payment of $25, and it grants you access to insider builds. The point of this plan is mostly to support the developers, rather than unlock new features.

The Commercial plan costs $50 per user per year. It grants you the right to use Obsidian for commercial purposes and also includes priority support.

When it comes to Notion vs. Obsidian, both offer an extensive range of features and tools for organizing and managing information. Despite the fact that both apps are powerful tools for note-taking, they have some differences.

Notion is the better choice for users who want a powerful wiki feature and an extensive range of features and templates. If you intend to do more than just take notes, and instead bring everything into a single workstation, then Notion is for you. Obsidian is the better choice for users who prefer a Markdown-based note-taking app and want access to an extensive plugin ecosystem.

Obsidian is purely intended for organizing and managing information, but you can do much more with it through plugins. If you're looking for a note-taking platform to organize your knowledge base without distractions, then Obsidian is the best choice for you.

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Notion vs. Obsidian: Which Note-Taking App Should You Use? - MUO - MakeUseOf