Obsidian vs. Notion

Obsidian is a note-taking, knowledge base, and visualizing program to see how your project is linked.

Notion has many usages. How do both compare? This is the Obsidian vs. Notion comparison to find the ideal program.

What are both

Obsidian

Obsidian is a note-taking and knowledge graph app letting you create pages and link them to create a graph and help you visualize projects (above video).

Obsidian is your second brain because it visualizes the project to make changes beforehand.

Obsidian Free is offline, so it’s more secure and gives you full control over your data.

You can save notes online in OneDrive and Dropbox to sync data. The paid Obsidian Sync plugin lets you sync vaults on multiple devices.

Notion

Notion is a block-based note-taking, database management, and project management to create and share notes with teammates.

The power of Notion is its views. You can create spreadsheets, calendars, documentation, kanban boards, and resumes.

For example, you can add a calendar to a page, and each day can have pages in itself.

Backlinking

Backlinking is the backbone of Obsidian. I have been using Obsidian’s graph view to see the backlinks on this website. With this, I can see what pages are linking where.

When you mention a page in a note, a link is created. All the links are in the “Graph view.” You can then adjust links and animate the whole graph.

Notion can also link pages, but it does not have the Knowledge graph that Obsidian is famous for.

Platforms

Both apps are available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS devices. Notion comes with a web clipper extension that lets us save a whole web page or just a part in our notes.

Editing tools

Notion supports both rich text and markdown formats.

In Obsidian, we can type in the plain text or the markdown format. In markdown format, we use keyboard symbols for formatting. There is no direct way to get to editing tools.

In Notion, typing “/” shows all the available blocks. Notion has over 50 blocks to add text, images, videos, embeds, dates, reminders, quotes, lists, tables, calendars, and more.

While you are here: Joplin vs. Obsidian

Templates

This round of Obsidian vs. Notion goes to Notion. If you want to see the full potential of Notion, the template library will be the best place.

You will find hundreds of templates from project management, investment, and habit tracking to HR.

If interested, check out my list of the best Notion templates for students and habit tracking.

There are no built-in templates in Obsidian, but we can create our text fragments and insert them into pages as templates.

Collaboration

Collaboration is a strong suit of Notion because, without it, it’s weak. You can invite up to ten guests for free.

Obsidian does not support real-time collaboration. However, we can share the stored markdown files with others.

We can also benefit from its cloud storage options, store files online, and share them with anyone who can access Obsidian.

Page exporting options

Obsidian can only save notes in markdown format, which can also be opened in a text viewer or editor. Notion lets us export notes as PDF, HTML, Markdown, and CSV files.

Use of AI

Obsidian does not use any AI tools. Notion has released its Notion AI bot to help in completing tasks. The bot produces the same results as ChatGPT.

The add-on is available for $10 per month and can help in creating summaries, improving the text, giving answers, and more.

Read next: Nimbus Note vs. Notion

Integrations

Another potent nature of Notion is that it supports integrations, including Google Drive, Zoom, and Jira.

Additionally, Notion offers to view and edit their API, so a company’s developers can create their integrations.

Obsidian lacks integrations, but we have plugins. With its 621 community plugins available on the plugins page, you will find several free plugins to extend its power.

We can open any plugin in the Obsidian desktop app by clicking the “Open in Obsidian” link below any plugin’s name. Then we can install this plugin on our desktop app and use it.

Also, the markdown files created by Obsidian are editable with any tool that supports markdown editing, such as Visual Studio.

Pricing

Obsidian is free to use along with its plugins, API, and community support.

The Catalyst plan costs a one-time $25 that lets users support development, earn special community member badges, access the development channel, and get early access to inside builds.

The Commercial plan costs $50 per year, gives you priority support, and lets you use Obsidian for commercial purposes.

The app also has a separate paid plugin, “Obsidian Sync.” Its monthly package costs $10, and its yearly package costs $96. With the help of this plugin, we can synchronize our vaults across multiple devices.

---

Notion’s free plan has options for individuals and small teams. Some of its benefits include:

• Unlimited notes and blocks
• Collaboration with up to ten guests
• API
• 7-day page version history

Its Plus plan supports up to 100 guests, unlimited file storage, and version history for up to 30 days. It costs $8 or $10 per user per month on the monthly plan.

The Business plan supports up to 250 members, private team spaces, and bulk PDF export options. The package charges $15 per monthly member if paid yearly or $18.

Which one is for you

Both are among the best apps. Use Notion for note-taking, documentation, meetings, interviews, wikis, tasks, and other ordinary stuff.

If you have a project in any industry where objects are connected, you must use Obsidian. It will give insights into the project’s future and help you adjust accordingly.

This is the end of the Obsidian vs. Notion guide. I hope the article helped you choose the right app.

Please let me know what you think in the comments and share it with your friends to help them decide.

Obsidian vs. Notion: Links