Obsidian alternative: 8 apps for when markdown isn't enough

Obsidian has 1.5 million active monthly users. The average user spends 43 minutes per day in the app; with an obsidian alternative you might achieve more with less configuration. It has over 1,000 community plugins. By most measures, it's a remarkable success story for a note-taking application.

And yet, people keep searching for an Obsidian alternative.

I was one of them. When I discovered Obsidian, I thought I'd finally found the answer to my scattered notes and half-finished ideas Notion vs Obsidian: which fits ADHD brains?. The concept was perfect for an obsidian alternative: local markdown files, bidirectional linking, a graph view that made my personal knowledge management look like a beautiful neural network. I spent three weekends configuring my vault, installing plugins, designing templates.

Then I realised something uncomfortable Notion vs Obsidian: which fits ADHD brains?. I'd spent more time setting up my Best second brain app for memory and focus in an obsidian alternative than actually using it. My carefully crafted system within an obsidian alternative had become its own form of procrastination. The perfect vault was empty.

This isn't a criticism of Obsidian itself Notion alternative: how ADHD made me ditch Notion. For many people, it's exactly the right tool. But if you're reading this, you've probably hit the same wall I did, or you're evaluating an obsidian alternative. Maybe the sync costs feel unreasonable Best second brain app for memory and focus. Maybe the plugin ecosystem is overwhelmed Best note taking app adhd. Maybe you just want an obsidian alternative that works without a weekend of configuration best note taking app adhd that actually sticks.

This guide won't tell you there's one "best" Obsidian alternative, A guide to personal knowledge management for messy thinkers. Instead, I'll break down different tools for different needs: open-source options for the privacy-conscious, simple apps for those who just want to capture thoughts quickly, collaborative tools for teams, and powerful alternatives for researchers who genuinely need the complexity.

:::quick-answer There isn’t a single best obsidian alternative. Pick based on your needs: privacy-focused open-source options, simple capture apps, or team-friendly collaboration tools. For teams, choose cloud-based tools with real-time editing and clear permissions, since Obsidian lacks built-in collaboration Second brain app. :::

Why people actually leave Obsidian

Before exploring alternatives, it helps to understand what drives people away from Obsidian Notion vs Obsidian: which fits ADHD brains?. If you recognise yourself in these frustrations, you're not alone.

Sync costs money. Obsidian is free to use, but syncing between devices costs $4 per month, a consideration when weighing an obsidian alternative. For an app built on open markdown files, paying for sync feels wrong to many users. Yes, you can set up your own sync with iCloud, Dropbox, or Git, but these workarounds add complexity and can cause conflicts.

Plugin overwhelm is real. The 1,000+ plugins are both Obsidian's strength and its weakness. Every time I opened the community plugins page, I found three more that seemed essential for an obsidian alternative. Calendar integration, task management, spaced repetition, daily notes templates. I installed dozens. Most I never used. The "procrastivity" trap is real: spending time tweaking your system instead of doing actual work.

The mobile experience is lacking. Obsidian's mobile apps exist, but they feel like afterthoughts. Capture is slow. The interface is cluttered. If you have an idea while walking the dog, by the time the app loads and you navigate to the right folder, the thought is gone.

There's no built-in collaboration second brain app. Obsidian is fundamentally a single-player tool. If you need to share notes with colleagues, manage permissions, or edit in real-time, you're out of luck. This makes it a non-starter for many work contexts.

The learning curve is steep personal knowledge management. Markdown isn't difficult, but Obsidian's full power requires understanding plugins, templates, dataview queries, and the endless customisation options. For people who just want to take notes, this is overkill.

My own Obsidian experience ended with a vault containing more configuration files than actual notes. The perfect system I'd imagined never materialised because I couldn't get past the setup phase. If this sounds familiar, you're ready for something different.

What to look for in an Obsidian alternative

Not every Obsidian user leaves for the same reason, which means not every alternative will solve your specific problem. Before evaluating tools, get clear on what actually matters to you.

Match the feature to your problem. If sync costs are your issue, look at free alternatives with built-in sync. If plugin overwhelm is the problem, you need something simpler by design. If collaboration is missing, you need a team-oriented tool. Don't just swap one complex system for another.

Decide on local-first vs cloud. Obsidian's local-first approach appeals to people who want ownership of their data. If that matters to you, look at Logseq, Joplin, or Anytype. If you're comfortable with cloud storage, Notion or Evernote offer simpler experiences.

Consider your collaboration needs. Working solo? Almost any tool will work. Need to share with a team? Your options narrow significantly. Obsidian Publish exists but isn't the same as real-time collaboration.

Think about capture speed. This is where I learned the hard way. If getting information into your system takes more than a few seconds, you won't do it consistently. After years of failed note-taking systems, I realised capture friction was my biggest obstacle. Any alternative needs to solve this problem.

Evaluate search and retrieval. The point of any knowledge system is finding things when you need them. Good search matters more than perfect organisation. Check whether the tool you're considering has search that actually works.

Look at AI features. This is the new frontier. AI can summarise content, suggest connections, and reduce the manual work of organising. Some newer tools are built AI-first. It's worth considering whether that matters to your workflow.

Best open-source alternatives

If you value privacy, data ownership, and community-driven development, these open-source alternatives deserve your attention.

Logseq is the closest philosophical match to Obsidian. It's an outliner-first tool that stores everything as local markdown files. The key difference is the block-based approach: instead of linking pages, you link individual blocks of text. This creates more granular connections than Obsidian's page-level linking.

I spent a month with Logseq after leaving Obsidian. The daily journal feature is excellent, automatically creating a new page each day where you dump thoughts, tasks, and ideas. The queries are powerful once you learn them. But I ran into the same problem: too much time configuring, not enough time using. A poll from Android Authority found 64% of users haven't heard of Logseq, 15% use it regularly, and 13% tried but didn't stick with it.

Joplin takes a different approach: straightforward note-taking with built-in sync and end-to-end encryption. It supports markdown, works across all platforms, and offers a web clipper for saving content from browsers. Joplin Cloud starts at $2.99/month for sync, but you can also sync via Dropbox or OneDrive for free. It scores a perfect 5.0 on G2, which is rare for any software. The trade-off is a less polished interface and a steeper learning curve than commercial alternatives.

Anytype bridges the gap between Obsidian's local-first philosophy and Notion's feature richness. Your data stays on your device, syncs peer-to-peer, and remains encrypted. But the interface feels more like Notion than Obsidian, with databases, templates, and structured content. It's currently free while in development, though pricing will eventually apply.

AppFlowy is essentially an open-source Notion clone. If you like Notion's interface but worry about vendor lock-in or privacy, AppFlowy offers a viable alternative. It's newer and less mature than the others, but development is active.

The open-source trade-off is always community support versus polish. These tools improve through volunteer effort. When something breaks, you might wait for a fix. But you also get freedom from subscription pricing and corporate decisions about your data.

Best for simplicity and quick capture

Sometimes the best Obsidian alternative isn't another knowledge management system. Sometimes it's something simpler.

Apple Notes might seem too basic to mention, but that's exactly its strength. It's instant. It syncs across Apple devices without configuration. It handles images, PDFs, and basic formatting. Search works. For many people, Apple Notes does 90% of what they actually need without any of the complexity they thought they wanted.

Google Keep excels at quick capture. Voice memos, photos, short notes, reminders. It's not a knowledge management system, but if your main Obsidian frustration was slow capture, Keep solves that problem instantly. The limitation is organisation: it's designed for temporary notes, not a permanent knowledge base.

Bear offers markdown with a beautiful interface, exclusively on Apple platforms. It strikes a balance between simplicity and capability. Tags provide organisation without the overhead of folders. The editor is a pleasure to use. At $2.99/month, it's affordable. The limitation is the Apple ecosystem lock-in.

Simplenote does exactly what the name suggests. Plain text notes that sync everywhere. No formatting complexity, no plugins, no configuration. It's free. It works. For users who discovered Obsidian was overkill, Simplenote might be exactly right.

Ultrathink takes a different approach entirely. Rather than trying to be a complete note-taking system, it focuses on one thing: capturing information from the web quickly. The browser extension lets me save any webpage with a single click. AI summarises the content automatically. I don't have to decide where it goes or how to tag it.

I built Ultrathink after years of failing at PKM systems because I realised capture was my bottleneck. Obsidian is great for organising notes, but it's terrible at getting information into the system in the first place. The web clipper is basic. Capturing fleeting thoughts requires too many steps. If capture friction has been your main obstacle, a simple dedicated capture tool might be what you actually need.

Best for teams and collaboration

Obsidian's biggest limitation for many professionals is collaboration. If you need to share notes, work together in real-time, or manage permissions, you need a different tool.

Notion dominates this space for good reason. Databases, real-time collaboration, templates, integrations. It's rated 4.7/5 on both G2 and Capterra. Teams can build wikis, project trackers, and documentation all in one place. The trade-off is complexity: Notion can become its own time-sink as you design elaborate systems. And it's not local-first, your data lives on their servers.

Coda offers similar functionality with a stronger spreadsheet heritage. Documents can contain tables with formulas, automations, and integrations. It's particularly strong for teams that need to combine documents with data. The learning curve is real, but less steep than building the same functionality in Notion.

Dropbox Paper provides lightweight collaboration without the overhead. It's essentially a shared document editor with good formatting, comments, and task assignments. For teams that just need to write together, it's simpler than Notion or Coda.

When should you move from Obsidian to a team tool? When you catch yourself exporting notes to share via email. When colleagues need access to your documentation. When version control becomes a problem. These are signs you've outgrown single-player tools.

The transition can be painful. I've seen teams attempt to share Obsidian vaults through synced folders, resulting in constant conflicts and lost data. If collaboration is becoming a need rather than a nice-to-have, it's time for a purpose-built solution.

Best for power users and researchers

Some people genuinely need Obsidian's complexity or more. If you're an academic researcher, a writer working on a book, or someone building a genuine knowledge practice, these tools offer serious capability.

Roam Research pioneered the bidirectional linking that Obsidian popularised. At $15/month, it's expensive, but users who stick with it tend to be devoted. The block-level linking, queries, and graph database are powerful. If Obsidian felt limiting rather than overwhelming, Roam might be what you need.

Mem.ai takes an AI-first approach. Instead of manually organising notes, Mem uses AI to surface relevant content when you need it. It's designed for people who want to capture freely and let the system handle retrieval. At $14.99/month, it's not cheap, but for the right workflow it removes significant friction.

NotePlan combines notes with tasks and calendar integration. If your knowledge work is closely tied to project management, having everything in one system can be valuable. At $9.99/month, it's positioned for productivity-focused users rather than pure knowledge management.

Tana represents the bleeding edge: an outliner with "supertags" that add structured data to your notes. It's complex, still in development, and not for everyone. But for users who found Obsidian too simple, Tana offers genuine power.

The question to ask yourself: do you actually need this complexity, or do you just like the idea of it? I spent years convincing myself I needed power-user features when really I needed to capture more and organise less. Be honest about your actual usage.

The capture problem Obsidian doesn't solve

Here's what most "Obsidian alternative" articles miss entirely: they focus on organisation and ignore capture.

Obsidian is excellent for writing and connecting notes. The graph view is beautiful. The linking system is powerful. But how do you get information into Obsidian in the first place?

The built-in web clipper is basic compared to Evernote's or even the browser's native bookmarking. Capturing from mobile is slow. There's no easy way to save an article you're reading, summarise a video you're watching, or quickly dump a thought before it evaporates.

This is the bottleneck that killed my Obsidian practice. I'd spend time setting up elaborate templates and workflows, but my vault stayed empty because actually getting information in required too many steps. Every click, every decision about folder and tags, created friction that prevented consistent capture.

Think about where your knowledge actually comes from. Articles you read on your phone during commutes. Insights from podcasts. Ideas that strike while you're doing something else. Random connections that occur in the shower. None of these fit neatly into Obsidian's workflow.

This is exactly why I built Ultrathink. After failing repeatedly with capture in Obsidian and other tools, I realised I needed something dedicated to the input problem. One click captures any webpage. AI summarises automatically, so I don't need to read the whole thing before saving. I can capture on mobile as fast as taking a photo. The information goes into my system, and I can always organise later if I need to.

The point isn't that Ultrathink is the only solution. The point is that capture deserves as much attention as organisation. If your Obsidian frustration is really a capture problem, the alternative might not be another note organiser but rather a dedicated capture tool that complements whatever you use for organisation.

Do you actually need to replace Obsidian?

Before you migrate to something new, consider whether replacement is actually what you need.

Complementary tools often work better than replacement. Use Obsidian for what it's good at: writing, connecting ideas, building your permanent notes. Use something else for quick capture. Use another tool for collaboration. The best personal knowledge system might be several tools working together rather than one tool doing everything.

The hybrid approach is underrated. I use Ultrathink for capturing from the web, Obsidian for longer-form writing when I need it, and Apple Notes for random thoughts. Each tool does its job well. No single tool tries to do everything poorly.

Switching has real costs. Migration takes time. You lose the muscle memory you've built. Your existing notes may not transfer cleanly. If your frustration with Obsidian is moderate, the switching cost might exceed the benefit.

Sometimes the problem is habits, not tools. If you've bounced between several note-taking apps and never stuck with any of them, the issue might not be the tools. It might be the underlying habits around capture and review. A new tool won't fix that.

When should you actually switch? When the frustration is constant rather than occasional. When the limitations are blocking your actual work. When you've tried workarounds and they haven't helped. These are signs that a different tool might genuinely serve you better.

Making your choice

After trying more tools than I'd like to admit, here's what I've learned about choosing an Obsidian alternative.

Match the tool to your actual workflow, not your aspirational one. Be honest about what you actually do, not what you wish you did. If you don't do weekly reviews now, a tool that requires them won't change that.

Start simple, add complexity only when needed. Most people overestimate how much tooling they need. Apple Notes might genuinely be enough. Try the simple option first. Add complexity only when you hit real limitations.

The best tool is the one you'll actually use. A perfect system you don't use is worth less than an imperfect system you use daily. Consistency beats capability.

Capture before you organise. If there's one lesson from my years of PKM failures, it's this. You can always organise later. You can't capture later. Prioritise getting information in, and worry about structure only when it becomes a problem.

There is no best Obsidian alternative for everyone. But there is probably a right alternative for you, one that matches your actual needs rather than someone else's ideal system. Take the time to identify what you're actually trying to solve, then choose accordingly.