79
Stack Score
Best for
Power users, researchers, and developers who want fully local, plain-text notes with AI plugins they configure themselves.
At a glance
- Pricing
- freemiumfrom $5/mo
- Setup time
- 1 hour
- Learning curve
- steep
- Last verified
- 5/19/2026
What we love
- ✓You own your notes forever — plain markdown files
- ✓Most flexible PKM tool with deepest customization
- ✓AI plugins let you choose your own model and key
Where it falls short
- −Setup overwhelming for non-technical users
- −AI features require plugins, not bundled
- −Mobile experience trails the desktop app
Pricing
✓ Pricing verified Jun 21, 20264 tiers
Sync
$4
per user/month annual
- ✓Sync notes across devices
- ✓End-to-end encryption
- ✓Version history
- ✓Collaborate on shared vaults
- ✓Priority support
Publish
$8
per site/month annual
- ✓Publish notes to the web
- ✓No technical knowledge required
- ✓Customizable theme
- ✓Graph and full text search
- ✓Priority support
Catalyst
$25
one-time payment
- ✓Early access to beta versions
- ✓Community badges
- ✓VIP channel
- ✓Support Obsidian development
Commercial
$50
per user/year
- ✓Commercial use license
- ✓Support development
- ✓Become a featured organization
- ✓Keep Obsidian user-supported
Why we picked it
The privacy-first option. Bring-your-own AI key, run everything locally.
Overview
Local-first markdown notes app with a huge AI plugin ecosystem (Smart Connections, Copilot, etc.). Self-hosted by default.
Key features
- ●Local-first markdown vault — files live on your disk
- ●Bidirectional links and graph view of your notes
- ●Massive plugin ecosystem including AI plugins
- ●Smart Connections and Copilot plugins for LLM chat
- ●Canvas for spatial visual thinking
- ●Sync via Obsidian Sync or your own iCloud/Git
Best use cases
Personal knowledge management
Researchers and writers build a permanent local knowledge graph they fully own.
AI-augmented note taking
Use Smart Connections or Copilot plugins to chat with your own notes via OpenAI or Claude.
Privacy-sensitive notes
Lawyers, doctors, and journalists keep notes off the cloud entirely.
Integrations
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