StartupAlternatives
Notes & Knowledge4 alternativesFreemium · $50 commercial licenseBootstrapped

Alternatives to Obsidian

Local-first Markdown knowledge base.

Visit Obsidian ↗
Obsidian website preview
What is Obsidian?
Obsidian is a note-taking app that stores everything as plain Markdown files in a folder on your own device.
Who is it for?
People who want their notes in files they control and enjoy configuring their tools. A poor fit for teams needing real-time multiplayer editing and shared permissions.
What are the alternatives to Obsidian?
Logseq and SiYuan are outliner-shaped takes on the same local-first idea; Notesnook leads with encrypted sync across devices; Heynote is a scratchpad rather than a knowledge base.

Pricing

$50 commercial license

Free for personal use

Freemium

About

Bootstrapped

Founders

The people behind Obsidian.

Erica XuCo-founder
X
Shida LiCo-founder

Top alternatives

Smaller, founder-led tools that quietly compete with Obsidian.

Logseq website preview

Logseq

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Open-source networked notes.

Outliner-style, fully open source.

OSS
SiYuan website preview

SiYuan

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Local-first knowledge base.

Native, open core, with optional cloud sync.

$3/mo cloud syncOSS
Heynote website preview

Heynote

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Dedicated scratchpad for developers.

Tiny app for fast Markdown + code notes.

Notesnook website preview

Notesnook

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Encrypted notes.

Small open-source team, end-to-end encrypted.

$5/moOSS
4 alternatives to Obsidian (2026) · Startup Alternatives