Obsidian review 2026: features, pricing (free core app plus paid Sync and Publish), pros, cons, and the best alternatives for note-taking and PKM.
Obsidian is a free, local-first note-taking and personal knowledge management application in which every note is stored as a plain Markdown file directly on the user's device. It was founded in 2020 by Shida Li and Erica Xu, former builders of the outliner app Dynalist, who created Obsidian during COVID-19 lockdowns to serve as an extensible, durable alternative to existing note-taking tools.
The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and operates as a small, fully remote team of roughly 18 people that describes itself as user-funded rather than venture-backed. Steph Ango has served as CEO since February 2023, continuing the team's focus on data longevity, privacy, and deep customization over rapid feature sprawl.
Obsidian's defining feature is bidirectional linking: any note can link to any other note, and a backlinks panel automatically shows every note that references the current one, while the interactive graph view visualizes the entire vault as a connected network. Because notes are plain Markdown files stored locally, users retain full ownership of their data and can access it offline, back it up manually, or sync it through any file-syncing tool of their choice.
A large community plugin and theme ecosystem extends the core app with features like task and project management, spaced-repetition flashcards, a freeform Canvas board, and database-style queries over notes. Optional paid services extend the free app further: Obsidian Sync provides end-to-end encrypted synchronization across devices, and Obsidian Publish turns a vault into a hosted public website.
The core Obsidian application is free for both personal and commercial use, a restriction the company fully removed in 2025 when it made the commercial license free as well. There is no seat limit, feature paywall, or trial period on the base app.
Paid add-ons are entirely optional: Obsidian Sync costs about $4 per month billed annually (or $5 per month billed monthly) for encrypted cross-device synchronization, Obsidian Publish is priced separately for hosting a public vault as a website, and a one-time Catalyst payment grants supporters early access to beta builds and exclusive perks like custom app icons.
Yes, the core Obsidian app is free for both personal and commercial use; optional paid add-ons are Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish.
Obsidian was created in 2020 by co-founders Shida Li and Erica Xu, who previously built the outliner app Dynalist.
Obsidian Sync costs about $4 per month when billed annually, or $5 per month when billed monthly.
Obsidian stores every note as a plain Markdown (.md) file locally on the user's own device rather than in a proprietary cloud database.
No, Obsidian describes itself as user-funded and supported entirely by paying customers rather than outside investors.
Commonly compared alternatives include Notion, Roam Research, Logseq, Evernote, OneNote, and Apple Notes.
Yes, the core app works entirely offline since notes are stored locally; an internet connection is only needed for optional Sync or Publish services.