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Obsidian (software)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Obsidian (disambiguation).

Obsidian
Original authors
  • Shida Li
  • Erica Xu
DeveloperDynalist Inc.
Initial releaseMarch 30, 2020; 5 years ago (2020-03-30)
Stable release
1.10.6[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 25 November 2025; 12 days ago (25 November 2025)
Written inElectron, JavaScript, HTML, CSS
PlatformWindows, macOS, Android, Linux, iOS
Type
LicenseFreemium[2]
Websiteobsidian.md

Obsidian is a proprietary personal knowledge base and note-taking application that operates on markdown files.[3][4][5] The software is free for personal and commercial use; only the offered cloud services, optional commercial licenses, and early access versions are paid.[6] It is available as desktop versions for macOS, Windows and Linux as well as for mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android,[7] but not as a web application.

History

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Shida Li and Erica Xu, the two eventual co-founders of Obsidian, met while studying at the University of Waterloo.[8] They both collaborated on several development projects, including note-taking software Dynalist.io since 2015.[9]

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and they were left quarantining, they founded Obsidian—which had been envisioned two years before the first beta version released.[10] Obsidian's first beta release came not long after on March 30, 2020,[11] and released its 1.0.0 version on October 13, 2022.[12][13]

On December 5, 2022, Obsidian launched its Canvas core plugin in early access version 1.1.0.[14] This feature was later released to all Obsidian users on December 23, 2022 in version 1.1.9.[15]

On February 6, 2023, Steph Ango joined Obsidian as CEO after his contributions to Obsidian version 1.0.0 and involvement in the community.[16] Previously, he'd been working at the startup Lumi before it was acquired in 2021.[17][18]

On November 11, 2024, Obsidian launched its Obsidian Web Clipper browser extensions for all major browsers on desktop and mobile, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and other Chromium-based browsers.[19]

On February 20, 2025, Obsidian announced that its commercial licenses were now completely optional, citing, "The Commercial license terms were confusing and added unnecessary complexity to our pricing" as the reason for the change. Companies that purchase 25 or more commercial licenses are featured on the Obsidian Enterprise page.[20]

On May 21, 2025, Obsidian launched its Bases core plugin in early access version 1.9.0.[21] This feature was later released to all Obsidian users on August 18, 2025 in version 1.9.10.[22]

Availability

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Obsidian is built on the cross-platform Electron framework, allowing for the application to run on desktop operating systems like Windows, Linux, and macOS. There are also available native apps for mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS[23] using the cross-platform Capacitor native runtime.[24] While built using web technologies, it is not available as a web app.

Obsidian is free for both personal and commercial use; they offer paid premium services (Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish), an optional commercial license, and the Catalyst license, which grants users access to beta versions of Obsidian.[6]

A community forum and Discord server are hosted by the developers.[25][8] Both allow users to ask for help, share tips & workflows, and discuss knowledge management. The forum can additionally be used for submitting feature requests and bug reports.[26]

Usage

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Obsidian is particularly suitable as a knowledge database for personal knowledge management and as software for creating notes that works with Markdown files.[27][28] It is designed to help users organize and structure their thoughts and knowledge in a flexible, non-linear way.[23]

Obsidian has also been described as a tool that facilitates a digital method of Zettelkasten, a note-taking methodology which heavily involves connecting related notes together, due to its internal linking and graph visualization features, which can reveal connections between notes.[29][27]

Obsidian has been used for a wide variety of use-cases, in large part due to the extensibility of the app through plugins, which allow users to tailor Obsidian to their needs by keeping it as simple or advanced as needed.[30] Some use-cases include writing,[31] task management,[4] and learning.[29]

Features

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Obsidian operates on a folder of text documents named a "vault";[32] each new note in Obsidian generates a new text document, and all documents can be searched from within the app.[23][4] Text formatting in Obsidian is achieved through markdown, with the ability to switch between a raw text (Source Mode) and a pre-rendered (Live Preview) mode while editing.[23]

Obsidian allows internal linking between notes, formatted either as Wikilinks or traditional markdown links, with links contributing to the interactive graph view that visualizes the relationships between notes.[23][8][4]

Plugins

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Users may customize their Obsidian vaults by using plugins, which extend the software's functionality with additional features or integration with other tools.[23]

Obsidian differentiates between core plugins, which are released and maintained by the Obsidian team, and community plugins, which are open-sourced through GitHub and are contributed to primarily by users.[33][Note 1]

Core plugins

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Canvas
[edit]

Obsidian Canvas provides a freeform, infinite 2D space where users can spatially arrange, group, and connect notes, attachments, and web pages to visually map out ideas (akin to a whiteboard).[34][35][36]

Canvases created in Obsidian are stored as .canvas files, using the JSON Canvas file format, which was designed for Obsidian.[37] This format is open source under the MIT license.[38]

Bases
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Obsidian Bases enables users create database-like views of their notes. A Base allows a user to view, edit, sort, and filter files and their properties. Each Base can have several "views," with different layouts such as tables, cards, and lists.[39]

Bases can be embedded into markdown notes either through embedding a link to a .base file in a user's Obsidian vault, or by creating a code block with the language set as base.[40]

As of November 29, 2025, Obsidian has plans on their roadmap for a Base search feature, a Kanban view type, and a calendar view type.[41]

Graph
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A screenshot of Obsidian's graph view, which features nodes (representing files/notes in a vault) and edges connecting them (representing the internal links between files). Some nodes in the graph have different colors, based on groups defined by the user.
An Obsidian graph view with lots of brightly colored nodes and many connections between them.

The graph view in Obsidian allows users to quickly visualize the connections between their notes. The graph is composed of nodes representing files (typically markdown documents) and edges between nodes representing the internal links that connect notes together.[42]

Users can customize the appearance of the Graph view by filtering out unwanted notes, coloring certain nodes that fit a criteria, modifying the values in the "Display" and "Forces" configuration.[43]

Beyond the "global" graph view (which shows every note in the vault by default), users can also open a "local" graph view, which only shows the currently focused note and all of its backlinks and outlinks.[44]

Community plugins

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As of December 04, 2025, there are 2,692 community plugins available for Obsidian.[45] Community plugins are primarily developed by members of the Obsidian community under open source licenses (although the Obsidian team does develop Importer and Maps as community plugins).

Theming

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A screenshot of the Obsidian app, showing a dark app theme with a red accent color.
A dark Obsidian theme with a red accent color.
A screenshot of Obsidian, showing dark Obsidian theme with a light blue accent color.
A (lighter) dark Obsidian theme with a light blue accent color.

Users may customize the appearance of their Obsidian vaults through the use of themes and CSS snippets. Themes and CSS snippets are made using CSS. Themes are typically much more complex, modifying large portions of the app, whereas snippets are smaller CSS files that might only modify one or a few things.[46][47]

Web Clipper

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Obsidian Web Clipper is a set of browser extensions that allow users to highlight and "capture" information from the web and save it in their vault in a markdown format.[48]

It is available on all major browsers including Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. It also supports many of their derivatives, including Brave, Arc, and Orion.[19]

Web Clipper is open-source under the MIT license, with its source code being hosted on GitHub.[49]

Premium services

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Obsidian follows a freemium model, where core software features remain free and certain add-on services are paid.[2][20] Although the plaintext storage of notes in Obsidian enable users to employ their own synchronization and backup methods, the subscription-based "add-on" services for Obsidian, Sync and Publish, supply users with features they would otherwise require do-it-yourself solutions or rely on plugins for, which often have limitations or complex or manual setup.[50]

Within Obsidian, these services are core plugins, which can be enabled or disabled on a per-vault basis, and can be configured in the same way any other core plugin would.[51][52]

Sync

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Obsidian Sync is file synchronization service designed to synchronize vaults across multiple devices running Obsidian. Files and vault settings are end-to-end encrypted while being synced between devices, and are able to be versioned. Additionally, vaults can be shared to other users who can then read and/or edit any files on the vault, enabling collaborative editing.[53]

Publish

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Obsidian Publish is a web hosting service that allows users to publish entire vaults or select notes from Obsidian onto the Internet. Content that is published with the service is formatted in the same way as it is in Obsidian, except for Canvases and Bases, which are currently unsupported.[41] Publish sites provide a Graph view to show links between pages, and supports the use of custom domains, themes, and analytics solutions.[54]

Development

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Obsidian is developed by a small team of just eight people: Shida Li (Co-founder - CTO), Erica Xu (Co-founder - COO), Steph Ango (CEO), Liam Cain (Engineer), Johannes Theiner (Engineer), Matthew Meyers (Engineer), Tony Grosinger (Engineer), and Rebbecca Bishop ("Customer success").[55] Obsidian is owned by Dynalist Inc., a company based in Ontario, Canada which is named after its original product, Dynalist.io.[56]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The Obsidian team maintains some community plugins, including Importer (for importing notes from other apps into Obsidian) and Maps (which adds a map view for the Bases core plugin).

References

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  1. ^ "Obsidian 1.10.6 Desktop (Public)". Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Pricing". Obsidian. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  3. ^ Eastman, David (24 April 2022). "Obsidian and the Case for Using More Markdown". The New Stack. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d Myrick, Andrew (15 September 2021). "Obsidian is the best note-taking app that you've never heard of". Android Central. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  5. ^ Shah, Parth (29 July 2024). "5 reasons why you should learn Markdown for taking notes in Obsidian". XDA. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  6. ^ a b "License Overview". Obsidian. Archived from the original on 29 August 2025. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  7. ^ "Download". Obsidian. Archived from the original on 29 November 2025. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  8. ^ a b c Ionescu, Stefan (4 August 2022). "Obsidian". TechRadar. Future plc. Archived from the original on 10 October 2025. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  9. ^ "Changelog". Dynalist. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  10. ^ Le Cunff, Anne-Laure (6 August 2021). "Exploring the power of note-making with the co-founder of Obsidian". Ness Labs. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  11. ^ "Obsidian Release v0.0.1". Obsidian. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  12. ^ "Obsidian Release v1.0.0". Obsidian. 13 October 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  13. ^ Rudra, Sourav. "Notion-like Markdown Note-Taking App 'Obsidian' is Out of Beta". It's FOSS News. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  14. ^ "Obsidian 1.1.0 Desktop (Early access)". Obsidian. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  15. ^ "Obsidian 1.1.9 Desktop (Public)". Obsidian. 23 December 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  16. ^ "I'm joining Obsidian full-time as CEO". Obsidian. 6 February 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  17. ^ Newton, Casey (18 August 2025). "Obsidian's CEO on why productivity tools need community more than AI". The Verge. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  18. ^ Ango, Steph. "Lumi — Steph Ango". Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  19. ^ a b Ango, Steph (11 November 2024). "Save the web". Obsidian. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  20. ^ a b Ango, Steph (20 February 2025). "Obsidian is now free for work". Obsidian. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  21. ^ "Obsidian 1.9.0 Desktop (Early access)". Obsdian. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  22. ^ "Obsidian 1.9.10 Desktop (Public)". Obsidian. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  23. ^ a b c d e f Pot, Justin (22 January 2024). "Obsidian Review". PCMag. Archived from the original on 7 March 2025. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  24. ^ "Credits > Capacitor". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  25. ^ Newman, Jared (13 October 2023). "The cult of Obsidian: Why people are obsessed with the note-taking app". Fast Company. ISSN 1085-9241. OCLC 33444063.
  26. ^ "Community". Obsidian. Archived from the original on 9 October 2025. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  27. ^ a b Pyne, Yvette; Stewart, Stuart (March 2022). "Meta-work: how we research is as important as what we research". British Journal of General Practice. 72 (716): 130–131. doi:10.3399/bjgp22X718757. PMC 8884432. PMID 35210247. Today, we are familiar with interlinked pockets of information in the form of hyperlinks on webpages such as Wikipedia. However, in the context of personal knowledge systems, the last year has seen an explosion of 'Personal Knowledge Graph' (PKG) tools such as 'Roam Research', 'Obsidian', and 'Notion', which digitise and personalise this powerful concept.
  28. ^ Hastings, Robin (September 2022). "Linked data tools to help users create webs of personal knowledge". Computers in Libraries. 42 (7): 19–22. However, there are some recent entries into the PKM space that might just fit the full bill. Both Obsidian and Roam, which will be discussed later, are relatively new applications that get us a little closer to that perfect PKM solution, and they add a new wrinkle. They are both conversant in linked data and can be used as networks of linked information that live on your computer or, with a few tweaks, on a shared server or other shareable drive.
  29. ^ a b Walker, Michael (2022). Shaffer, David (ed.). More Than Words: Teaching for a Better World – Proceedings of the 29th Korea TESOL International Conference (PDF). Korea TESOL. pp. 293–304.
  30. ^ Pierce, David (29 March 2023). "My impossible search for the best, most powerful, most private journaling app ever". The Verge. OCLC 867048487. Retrieved 30 November 2025.
  31. ^ Pot, Justin (28 November 2023). "How to Use Obsidian for Writing and Productivity". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  32. ^ Krasnoff, Barbara (16 November 2023). "The best note-taking apps for collecting your thoughts and data". The Verge. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  33. ^ "Core plugins". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  34. ^ "Obsidian Canvas – Visualize your ideas". Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  35. ^ "Complete tutorial to canvas in Obsidian - techtooler.com". 27 November 2023. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  36. ^ "Canvas". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  37. ^ "An open file format for infinite canvas data". JSON Canvas. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  38. ^ "obsidianmd/jsoncanvas". GitHub. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  39. ^ "Introduction to Bases". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  40. ^ "Create a base". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  41. ^ a b "Roadmap". Obsidian. Archived from the original on 2 December 2025. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  42. ^ "Graph view". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  43. ^ "Graph view - Settings". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  44. ^ "Graph view - Local Graph". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  45. ^ "Plugins". Obsidian. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  46. ^ "Themes". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  47. ^ "CSS snippets". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  48. ^ "Introduction to Obsidian Web Clipper". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  49. ^ "obsidianmd/obsidian-clipper". GitHub. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  50. ^ Bohlooli, Amir M. (28 February 2023). "How to Sync Your Obsidian Vault Across Multiple Devices for Free". MUO. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  51. ^ "Set up Obsidian Sync". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  52. ^ "Set up Obsidian Publish". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  53. ^ "Introduction to Obsidian Sync". Obsidian. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  54. ^ "Introduction to Obsidian Publish". Obsidian Help. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  55. ^ "About". Obsidian. Archived from the original on 20 September 2025. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  56. ^ "Terms of Service". Obsidian. Archived from the original on 29 November 2025. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
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