Obsidian
Free tierThe free and flexible private note-taking app that sharpens your thinking
Key strengths
Facts verified against obsidian.md on
Recent changes
- Plans updated: Core app is free with no sign-up required. Optional add-ons: Sync at $4/user/month (billed annually) or $5/month; Publish at $8/site/month (billed annually) or $10/month; Catalyst one-time $25; Commercial license $50/user/year.
Get alerts when Obsidian changes
Free. We'll email you when pricing, the free tier, API access or open-source status changes.
Obsidian is a local-first, Markdown-based knowledge management application founded in 2020. It stores all notes as plain .md files on the user's local filesystem — no account or cloud dependency required for core functionality. The app is free for personal use (freemium model) and ships with a public plugin API that has driven a large ecosystem: the community repository currently hosts thousands of plugins and themes, backed by 22,499 GitHub stars. Optional paid add-ons include Sync (end-to-end encrypted, $4/user/month billed annually) and Publish (static site hosting, $8/site/month billed annually). A one-time Catalyst license ($25) grants early access to insider builds; a Commercial license is available at $50/user/year. Because the storage format is open plain text, data is fully portable and immune to vendor lock-in. Core features relevant to developers include bi-directional linking, a graph visualization engine, and an extensible plugin architecture accessible via the API.