## 1. What is [Obsidian.md](https://obsidian.md)? > These AI-generated notes draw from the knowledge of Obsidian's [creators](https://obsidian.md/about) & [community](https://obsidian.md/community) to provide you with a overview. They were created using the [Obsidian Copilot](https://obsidiancopilot.com) community plugin, which allows you to generate content using your preferred AI model and API key **Obsidian is like Windows Explorer or Finder, but for your notes.** Instead of just storing files in folders, you can: - Write and edit notes directly in the app - Create links between notes (like hyperlinks) - Organize notes in folders by date, topic, or project - Search everything instantly - See how your notes connect to each other visually It's a **local-first note-taking app**, meaning all your notes stay on your computer (not in the cloud, unless you want). You own your data, and it's completely free for personal use. Optional paid services let you sync across devices or publish your notes as a website. ### How It Works Think of Obsidian as a **smart folder system**: 1. You create a vault (a main folder for all your notes) 2. Inside, you create subfolders to organize by topic, project, or date 3. You write notes in plain text (or Markdown for formatting) 4. You link notes together with `[[brackets]]` to create connections 5. Obsidian shows you how all your notes relate to each other **The result:** A personal knowledge base that grows with you, where everything is connected and searchable. ## 2. Core and Community Plugins ### Core Plugins Obsidian comes with numerous [built-in plugins](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Core+plugins) that can be enabled or disabled: - **[Audio recorder](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Audio+recorder)** - Record audio notes and save them as attachments - **[Backlinks](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Backlinks)** - Show links from other files to the current file - **[Bookmarks](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Bookmarks)** - Save shortcuts to files, searches, headings, and graphs - **[Canvas](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Canvas)** - Arrange and connect notes on an infinite canvas - **[Command palette](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Command+palette)** - Use Cmd/Ctrl+P and begin typing to invoke a command - **[Daily notes](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Daily+notes)** - Automatically creates a new note for each day. Opens instantly when you launch Obsidian. Perfect for capturing daily thoughts, tasks, and progress. See [[Organize Daily Notes]] for the full workflow. - **[File recovery](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/File+recovery)** - Restore recent snapshots to recover from accidental data loss - **[Files](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Files)** - Browse the files and folders in your vault - **[Format converter](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Format+converter)** - Convert Markdown from other apps to Obsidian format - **[Graph view](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Graph+view)** - Visualize the relationships between your notes - **[Note composer](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Note+composer)** - Merge two notes or split one into two - **[Outgoing links](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Outgoing+links)** - Show outgoing links and detect unlinked mentions - **[Outline](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Outline)** - Show the table of contents for the current note - **[Publish](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Publish)** - Host your notes online as a website, wiki or documentation - **[Quick switcher](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Quick+switcher)** - Jump to other files with your keyboard - **[Random note](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Random+note)** - Open a random note to rediscover or review - **[Search](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Search)** - Search for a keyword in all the notes - **[Slash commands](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Slash+commands)** - Trigger commands in the editor by using the forward slash key - **[Slides](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Slides)** - Create a presentation by using "---" to separate slides - **[Sync](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Sync)** - Synchronize your files through Obsidian Sync - **[Tags view](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Tags+view)** - Show a list of all tags and their number of occurrences - **[Templates](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Templates)** - Insert template content from a folder of template files - **[Unique note creator](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Unique+note+creator)** - Create notes with unique timestamp prefixes - **[Web viewer](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Web+viewer)** - Open external links to web pages inside Obsidian - **[Word count](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Word+count)** - Show word count in the status bar - **[Workspaces](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Workspaces)** - Save and load workspace layouts ### Community Plugins Extend Obsidian's functionality with thousands of [community-created plugins](https://obsidian.md/community): - **[Calendar](https://github.com/liamcain/obsidian-calendar-plugin)** - Calendar view of your daily notes (by Liam Cain) - **[Copilot](https://www.obsidiancopilot.com/en)** - An AI Copilot in Obsidian (by Logan Yang) - **[Dataview](https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview)** - Complex data views for the data-obsessed (by Michael Brenan) - **[Excalidraw](https://github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin)** - Edit and view Excalidraw drawings (by Zsolt Viczian) - **[Kanban](https://github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-kanban)** - Create markdown-backed Kanban boards in Obsidian (by mgmeyers) - **[Tasks](https://github.com/obsidian-tasks-group/obsidian-tasks)** - Track tasks across your vault with due dates, recurring tasks, and filtering (by Clare Macrae and Ilyas Landikov) - **[Templater](https://github.com/SilentVoid13/Templater)** - Create and use templates with advanced features (by SilentVoid) - **[Text to Speech](https://github.com/joethei/obsidian-tts)** - Hear your notes (by Johannes Theiner) - **[Smart Connections](https://github.com/brianpetro/obsidian-smart-connections)** - AI-powered note linking and discovery - **[Obsidian Git](https://github.com/denolehov/obsidian-git)** - Version control integration for your vault - **[Periodic Notes](https://github.com/liamcain/obsidian-periodic-notes)** - Create weekly, monthly, and yearly notes - **[QuickAdd](https://github.com/chhoumann/quickadd)** - Rapid note capture and automation - **[Advanced Tables](https://github.com/tgrosinger/advanced-tables-obsidian)** - Enhanced markdown table editing - **[Obsidian Web Clipper](https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-web-clipper)** - Capture web content directly into Obsidian ## 3. Obsidian Sync and Publish ### [Obsidian Sync](https://obsidian.md/sync) A premium service that securely synchronizes your notes across devices: - End-to-end encryption for maximum privacy - [Version history](https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Sync/Version+history) to recover previous versions (up to 12 months) - [Selective sync](https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Sync/Select+folders+to+sync) for specific folders - Works across all platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android) - Improved iOS/Android sync performance - Enhanced security protocols for all synced data **Pricing Plans (2025-2026):** - **Standard Plan:** $5/month (monthly) or $4/month (annual) - 1 vault, 1GB storage, 12-month version history - **Plus Plan:** $10/month (monthly) or $8/month (annual) - up to 10 vaults, 10GB storage (upgradable to 100GB), 12-month version history **Alternative Syncing Options:** If you prefer not to use Obsidian Sync, you can sync your vault using free alternatives like iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, though these are slower than the official Sync service. Technical users can also use Git for version control. ### [Obsidian Publish](https://obsidian.md/publish) Share your notes with the world as a beautiful website: - [Customizable appearance](https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Publish/Customize+your+site) and navigation - [Password protection](https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Publish/Publish+and+unpublish+notes#Password+protection) options - [Custom domain](https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Publish/Set+up+a+custom+domain) support - Full control over which notes to publish - Preserves your note connections and graph - New themes and customization options - **Pricing:** $10/month (monthly) or $8/month (annual) per site ## 4. Alternative Tools to Obsidian - **[Notion](https://www.notion.so)** - All-in-one workspace with databases, kanban boards, and wikis; cloud-based with block editor - **[Roam Research](https://roamresearch.com)** - Focused on bidirectional linking and daily notes; subscription-based with cloud storage - **[Logseq](https://logseq.com)** - Open-source, privacy-focused with local-first storage; combines outlining with bidirectional linking - **[Evernote](https://evernote.com)** - Established note-taking app with web clipping and OCR; primarily cloud-based - **[OneNote](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onenote)** - Microsoft's note-taking solution with free-form canvas; integrates with Office ecosystem - **[Craft](https://www.craft.do)** - Beautiful, modern document editor with linking capabilities; primarily for Apple ecosystem - **[Remnote](https://www.remnote.com)** - Combines note-taking with spaced repetition for learning; good for students - **[Athens Research](https://github.com/athensresearch/athens)** - Open-source knowledge graph with outlining interface; inspired by Roam - **[Dendron](https://www.dendron.so)** - Hierarchical note-taking for developers; VS Code-based with powerful schemas - **[Bear](https://bear.app)** - Elegant markdown editor with tagging system; Apple ecosystem only ### AI-Powered Note-Taking Alternatives - **[Claude Projects](https://claude.ai)** - Custom workspaces with persistent memory and document knowledge base; powered by Claude AI ($20/month) - **[Elephas](https://elephas.app)** - Offline-first AI assistant with Mac integration and support for multiple AI providers ($14.99/month) - **[remio](https://www.remio.ai)** - Auto web capture, AI summarization, daily notes, and highlighting features ($8/month) - **[Tana](https://tana.inc)** - Supertags, AI workspace, and voice-to-tasks functionality ($10/month) - **[Unriddle](https://unriddle.ai)** - Multilingual summaries, collaboration features, and graph view ($12/month) - **[Saner.AI](https://www.saner.ai)** - Auto-tagging, voice notes, and integrations with Drive and Slack ($8/month) - **[MyMind](https://mymind.com)** - Visual search and privacy-focused organization with AI capabilities ($7.99/month) - **[Anara](https://www.anara.ai)** - Academic-focused with superior citation management and research tools ($20/month) - **[Open NotebookLM](https://github.com/open-notebooklm)** - Open-source alternative with PDF-to-podcast conversion in 13 languages and AI chat (Free) - **[Bohrium](https://bohrium.ai)** - Access to 160+ million research papers with AI capabilities; ideal for researchers (Free) ### Visual and Canvas-Based Alternatives (2026) - **[Heptabase](https://heptabase.com)** - Visual PKM with whiteboards and AI deep thinking tools; ideal for visual thinkers and complex knowledge mapping - **[Scrintal](https://scrintal.com)** - Infinite canvas for visual note mapping and thought structuring; enables visual connections between ideas - **[Xtiles](https://xtiles.app)** - Visual tiles workspace blending Notion and Miro; offers offline access and intuitive organization (Free tier available) ### Structured and Collaborative Alternatives (2026) - **[Anytype](https://anytype.io)** - Free, local-first app with networked, privacy-focused notes; block-based editing similar to Obsidian but with decentralized architecture - **[Coda](https://coda.io)** - Advanced project management and databases with shorter learning curve than Notion; top pick for teams needing PM tools alongside notes (Free tier available) - **[Weavernote](https://weavernote.com)** - AI-powered with knowledge graphs, flashcard generation, OCR, and smart quizzes; early-stage but legitimate with active development ($9/month or $90/year) ### Research and Academic Alternatives (2026) - **[Zotero](https://www.zotero.org)** - Research-focused with superior citation management and bibliography generation; ideal for academic workflows - **[Joplin](https://joplinapp.org)** - Open-source Evernote alternative with end-to-end encryption and cross-platform support (Free)