Obsidian and Notion are two of the top note-taking and knowledge management software solutions. Thanks to their unique approach to productivity and flexibility, both platforms have gained a devoted following. While Obsidian is laser-focused on delivering a personal and interconnected knowledge base, Notion takes a different route with powerful and customizable collaborative workspaces.

In this post, we will compare Obsidian and Notion based on UI, features, philosophies, note-taking style, organization, and pricing, and discuss their unique strengths and drawbacks to help you pick an ideal tool for your workflow.

User interface

Both Obsidian and Notion use a unique interface, and if you are moving from traditional note-taking software like OneNote or Evernote, it may take some time to get used to it. Neither app offers a standard toolbar. Obsidian relies on Markdown language, while Notion has a block editor with ‘/’ commands.

As for the theming engine, you can switch between the dark and light themes in Notion. Obsidian is simply miles ahead. It comes with a robust theme manager where you can change to the accent color of your choice. Obsidian takes the entire experience to the next level with a dedicated theme manager menu, where you can find themes created by community members and change the entire look of the app with a single click.

As for Notion, you can create aesthetic pages with icons and banners. In comparison, Obsidian notes may look basic to some.

Markdown vs. Blocks: Notes editor

Obsidian and Notion have a different approach here. As mentioned, Obsidian uses a Markdown editor where you can edit text using hashtags, asterisks, and other signs. You can use a dedicated plugin (more on that later) if you want to enable a toolbar.

Notion uses a ‘/’ command to enable all the relevant text editing tools. It’s more user-friendly than Obsidian’s Markdown approach. The latter requires some learning curve and may discourage early adopters.

Notes organization

With Notion, you can create different workspaces and add pages and subpages to them. You also have the option to interconnect relevant pages. Many Notion users create a central home page and pin their important pages in different columns for easy access per category.

As for Obsidian, you can create different vaults and start adding folders, subfolders, and notes to it. Like Notion, it also supports backlinks to connect relevant notes. I would give an edge to Obsidian here, though. It supports tags where you can simply type #invoice, #personal, and more and find the related notes from the search menu in no time. It’s quite similar to Evernote’s class-leading tag system and works as expected.

Obsidian vs. Notion: Features

We will now go over some of the top features of Obsidian and Notion. Let’s start with Obsidian.

Knowledge graphs

It is one of the best features of Obsidian. You can link your related notes and check their relationships from a dedicated graph view menu. It’s a must-have feature for researchers, power users, and even students. Check out our dedicated guide for how to visualize your notes in graph view.

Canvas

Obsidian offers a dedicated Canvas add-on with multiple tools to jot down your thoughts on a blank slate. You can fire up a canvas for brainstorming and use arrows, boxes, text, sticky notes, and more to create an ultimate mind map.

Plugins

Plugins are the heart and soul of the Obsidian experience. It takes your Obsidian setup to the next level. Whether you want to add a calendar view, enable a toolbar, write daily notes, unlock advanced tables, or craft Kanban boards, you have ample plugins to get the job done in no time. Another handy add-on Obsidian offers over Notion is split view for multi-pane viewing. Many may find it useful when dealing with multiple notes on a large monitor. Multi-tab support remains the same on both the software.

Now, let’s move on to Notion and check what makes it so special according to productivity nerds.

Rich databases

Notion lets you create advanced databases in no time. Whether you want to track your favorite books, business contacts, potential clients, or candidates, you have ample options to create an ideal database with different column properties and customization options.

Notion Calendar

Notion recently acquired Cron, a popular cross-platform calendar app, and integrated its functionality right into the software. Now, you can check your Google Calendar events and manage appointments right from your workspace. You no longer need to switch over to another calendar app to check the weekly agenda.

Templates

Notion has nailed the templates library with a rich collection. Apart from hundreds of company templates, you can find feature-rich and aesthetic templates from the community, too. There is a template for practically every use case, and you will never need to worry about starting from scratch.

Project management tools

With Kanban boards, Calendar view, Gantt view, and multiple databases, Notion has nailed project management. It can be an excellent project management tool for personal users and small businesses. You can even invite your team members and start real-time collaboration.

Notion AI

Obsidian falls short in the AI category. Notion has a handy AI tool to help summarize a page, translate paragraphs, generate text, change tone, and do a lot more. You can even ask Notion AI specific questions about the current page. That alone is a major productivity booster for power users who frequently deal with large pages. In my experience, Notion AI has been a hit-and-miss. It’s an optional add-on priced at $10 per month (more on that later).

There are also a few other Notion features that are worth pointing out. The first one is synced databases. As the name suggests, you can create a synced database and use it across other pages in a specific workspace. When you make a change in the database, the system edits the same content across the other pages where it resides, too. Microsoft copied the same with Loop components.

The second major add-on is web publishing. While Obsidian also supports web publishing, Notion just gives more flexibility with decorative pages. With a paid plan, you can even use a custom address for your websites. I have seen many companies and startups using it for press releases, hiring announcements, and other important updates.

Notion widgets

As I mentioned, Notion lets you create visually appealing pages in no time. Apart from built-in options like quotes, highlighters, banners, different blocks, and more, you can also use third-party widgets on your pages. For example, you can easily integrate weather, clock, quote, life tracker, and more widgets from unofficial sources. Read our dedicated post for creating beautiful Notion pages.

Overall, Notion easily beats Obsidian in the features department.

Obsidian vs. Notion: Privacy

Here is where it gets interesting. Since Obsidian is Markdown-based and has an offline approach, it remains a go-to choice for privacy-focused individuals. You can save your notes locally or on the cloud storage of your choice and have complete control over your data. Since these are Markdown files (.md), you can open them using another software, too.

In contrast, Notion doesn’t have an offline mode. It's a major con with Notion. If you have trouble with internet connectivity, you can't view or edit your workspace. Besides, all your data resides on the company servers only. Notion recently announced it would suspend all the workspaces based in Russia due to a restriction from the U.S. government. On the flip side, you do have an option to export your data in CSV, PDF, and Markdown.

Obsidian vs. Notion: Pricing

Obsidian offers an excellent free plan with unlimited vaults, notes, plugins, and more. You only need to pay $4 per month for the Sync add-on, which you can avoid by storing your vaults on OneDrive or Google Drive.

Notion’s free plan is quite capable, too. The Plus plan starts at $10 per month, which unlocks unlimited blocks for teams, unlimited file uploads, 30-day page history, custom websites, synced databases, and more.

Connected vs. Curated

Choosing between Obsidian and Notion isn't rocket science. Obsidian focuses on privacy with its local setup, offers interconnected graphs, an infinite canvas, and numerous plugins. Notion boasts better flexibility, a comprehensive template library, collaboration features, and versatility. The choice depends on which platform suits your intellectual needs best.

If you want to explore more options, check out our separate listicle on top tools for Personal Knowledge Management system.