While Obsidian hits a home run with graph views and canvas, its Markdown approach and plugin ecosystem aren’t ideal for everyone. If you're tired of wrestling with Obsidian’s complexities and looking for a private and easy-to-use alternative, Notesnook might just be the tool you need. With a familiar toolbar, excellent cross-platform availability, reminders support, and a private vault, Notesnook ticks all the right boxes.

Let’s discuss why Notesnook is proving to be a compelling Obsidian alternative for those seeking a more streamlined and secure note-taking experience.

7 Cross-platform availability

Accessible on all your devices

Here is where Notesnook truly surprised me. Unlike many Obsidian alternatives (looking at you, Bear Notes and Craft), Notesnook is available on every platform you can think of. It has native Windows (arm64 and x64), Mac (Intel and Apple Silicon), Linux, Android, and iPhone apps. Notesnook also offers a handy web clipper on both the Chrome Web Store and Firefox.

Whether you use a Windows desktop, MacBook, Pixel, or iPad, your Notesnook data is just a tap away on your device.

6 Easy to get started

With a familiar and rich toolbar

One of the biggest hurdles with Obsidian is its learning curve. First, you need to create a vault on a relevant location on your device, create a folder, and start adding notes. Even with notes, you must be familiar with the Markdown language to get the best out of it. Even a basic thing like adding a table requires multiple steps.

Notesnook is relatively easy to use. You can simply create a new account and start adding notes with a toolbar you are already familiar with. Notesnook also supports Markdown if you prefer, but most Obsidian convertibles should be fine with rich formatting options at the top. You can insert task lists, outline lists, code blocks, quotes, images, embed a URL, callout blocks, and more. Overall, you have ample options to format the notes exactly the way you want.

You can even enable the focus mode, hide all the distracting elements from the screen and focus on writing. Like Obsidian, there is even an option to link your related notes. However, it lacks a graph view to check the relationship between your notes.

5 Reminders support

Manage your tasks like a pro

With reminders support, Notesnook fills in a major missing gap left by Obsidian. You can simply head to the Reminders menu, insert a title and description, and fill in the required details to receive alerts. I would love to see more features here. Notesnook can consider offering task lists, natural language like ‘complete research on a blog post by 2PM tomorrow’, and reminders support with task lists within notes in future updates.

You can even create recurring tasks, which is an added bonus for your productivity.

4 Robust notes organization

With a familiar tag system

If you are a power note-taker, you will soon fill up Notesnook with thousands of notes. Here is where note organization plays a key role. For example, you can mark your frequently used notes as favorites or even pin them at the top for easy access. As for your other notes, use the tag system like #finance, #personal, #travel, #memories, and more to organize your notes effectively.

3 Publish notes on the web

Share your research in no time

Sharing your notes with others is quite seamless in Notesnook. It is not necessary to export a note in a specific format and then find and share the file on PC. You can simply publish your note on the web, copy the URL, and share it with the recipient. You can enable the Self destruct toggle, which allows the system to automatically delete the note once it’s viewed by someone. You can even password-protect the URL to keep prying eyes away.

2 Private Vault

Hide your sensitive and most important notes

Notesnook encrypts all your notes by default. You can even go a step ahead and add an extra layer of security for your confidential notes. You can head into Settings > Privacy & security > Vault, create a new vault and set a password for it.

Now, head back to your notes, right-click on any note, and click Lock. This feature is particularly useful when you prefer to keep your notes confidential, even if others have access to your phone.

1 End-to-end encryption and open-source

Transparent nature

Thanks to its end-to-end encryption and open-source nature, Notesnook is easily one of the best PKM tools for privacy advocates. Unlike Obsidian, you don’t need a paid add-on to enable E2EE for your notes. You can even lock the app with biometrics on both the mobile and desktop platforms. Being an open-source solution, anyone can inspect the code and verify its tall privacy claims.

Tired of Obsidian’s complexity?

Not everyone wants to keep looking for third-party Obsidian plugins just to add missing features to their vaults. For those who value a familiar rich toolbar, built-in reminders, and the peace of mind offered by private vaults and open-source transparency, Notesnook presents a compelling alternative to Obsidian. Give it a try and see if it fits your workflow.

If Notesnook isn’t your cup of tea, check out the top open-source Obsidian alternatives from my separate post.