Obsidian vs Notion: comparing published plans for knowledge work

The short answer

For a solo knowledge worker, both tools can run at $0 — but they are free in different ways. Obsidian's pricing page opens with "Free without limits. No sign-up required. No strings attached": the app costs nothing, and the company charges only for optional add-ons (Sync from $4/user/month billed annually, Publish at $8/site/month billed annually). Notion's Free plan is a genuine tier of a cloud service, with published limits — 5 MB file uploads, 7 days of page history, 10 external guests — that lift when you pay $10 or $20 per member per month.

The deeper difference is architectural, and both vendors document it plainly. Obsidian stores notes locally on your device as plain-text Markdown files and states your data "is not sent to our server." Notion's help centre states your data "will always be backed up in the cloud." Neither is strictly better; they optimise for different buyers.

Local-first vs cloud-first

Obsidian's license overview is unusually direct about where your data lives: "Your data is saved locally on your device and is not sent to our server," and "You retain ownership of all content you create in Obsidian. We do not claim any rights to it." Downloading does not require an account. The pricing FAQ adds that the apps collect no telemetry and that the company never sells user data. Its homepage frames the pitch as privacy and permanence: "Obsidian stores notes privately on your device, so you can access them quickly, even offline. No one else can read them, not even us."

Notion is built the other way round. It positions itself as "one tool to run your company" — a shared cloud workspace of pages, databases and, increasingly, AI agents. Its help documentation describes cloud storage with "per-minute backups" on Notion's servers, and its collaboration model (teamspaces, permission groups, guest access, enterprise search) only works because content lives server-side. The practical consequence: with Obsidian your notes are files you happen to open in an app; with Notion they are records in a service you can export from.

Plans and prices, side by side

Notion sells seats; Obsidian sells optional services around a free app. Notion's pricing page advertises "Save up to 20% with yearly" billing; the USD figures below come from the pricing data embedded in that page (Notion serves localised currency — the same page displayed €9.50 and €19.50 per member per month for Plus and Business to euro-zone visitors).

Two Obsidian footnotes matter for budgeting. Students, faculty and non-profit employees get a 40% discount on Sync and Publish — the only discounts offered. And refunds are full within 7 days for Sync and Publish, while Catalyst licences, Commercial licences and Obsidian Credit are non-refundable.

What the free tiers actually allow

Notion meters capability by plan. Its published comparison grid gives the Free plan 5 MB per uploaded file (paid plans: unlimited uploads with a roughly 5 GB maximum per file), 7 days of page history (30 on Plus, 90 on Business, unlimited on Enterprise), 10 external guests (unlimited on paid plans), one chart, basic forms and a single notion.site domain. Blocks are "unlimited for individuals" but "limited for 2+ members" on Free — the page does not publish the numeric block cap for teams. Not verified

Obsidian has no equivalent ladder, because the editor itself is not metered: the app is free "without limits" and no sign-up is needed. The limits that do exist sit inside the paid add-ons — Sync Standard caps you at one vault, 1 GB of storage, 5 MB per synced file and one month of version history; Sync Plus raises those to 10 vaults, 10 GB, 200 MB and 12 months. Publish includes hosting for a site up to 4 GB.

The structural contrast: with Notion, paying removes restrictions on the workspace itself. With Obsidian, paying buys sync capacity and hosting while the local tool stays unrestricted. Notably, both free options cap individual synced/uploaded files at 5 MB.

Offline behavior, as documented

For Obsidian, offline is the default state. The Sync page says the app "is designed to work even without an internet connection" — when you are flying or remote, you still have your files, and "when you're back online Sync merges changes for you." There is nothing to configure: the notes are already local Markdown files.

Notion documents offline as a managed feature with published edges. All workspace members on all plans can use pages offline, but only in the desktop and mobile apps — not in web browsers. You toggle "Available offline" per page; on paid plans, recently visited and favourited pages download automatically, but subpages do not. Databases download only "the first 50 rows of the first view." While offline you can create and edit pages, but embeds, AI blocks, forms and buttons require a connection, and you cannot share pages or edit permissions. Downloaded pages update automatically in the background when you reconnect.

If your work regularly happens on planes, in the field or behind unreliable connectivity, the documentation itself tells you how much friction each model carries: none for Obsidian, a per-page download discipline for Notion.

Export and data ownership

Obsidian's ownership story is short because there is no custody transfer: your content stays as local files, the licence disclaims any vendor rights to it, and if you opt into Sync, the data is AES-256 end-to-end encrypted so that — in the vendor's words — staff cannot read it.

Notion's story is an export story, and the tooling is available at every tier: the pricing grid shows "Export entire workspace as HTML, Markdown, & CSV" checked for all four plans, including Free. Individual pages and databases export as PDF, HTML, or Markdown & CSV (databases become CSV plus Markdown files for subpages). Full-workspace PDF export is reserved for Business and Enterprise. The help centre is candid about the limits: workspace export runs only from desktop or web, can take up to 30 hours, delivers a link that expires in 7 days, excludes other users' private pages and some teamspace-governed content — and "you can't instantly recreate your workspace by reuploading your exported workspace content." On Enterprise workspaces, admins can disable exporting for members or teamspaces.

Both routes end at portable formats, but the negotiating positions differ. Obsidian: your notes never left your disk. Notion: your notes are cloud-resident with per-minute vendor backups, and you can take a snapshot — round-tripping it back in is not supported.

Who each tool fits

Mapping the published facts to buyer profiles:

The asymmetry to price in: Notion's cost scales with headcount — every member is a seat — while Obsidian's scales with devices and sites. A ten-person team on Notion Business pays $200/month billed annually; ten Obsidian users on Sync Standard pay $40/month, but without Notion's shared workspace, permissions layer or AI features. Those are different products at that point.

What we could not verify

• Notion's Free-plan block cap for multi-member workspaces. The pricing page says blocks are "limited for 2+ members" without publishing the number. Not verified
• A displayed Notion Enterprise seat price. The page shows only "Custom pricing / Contact Sales." Pricing data embedded in the page carries Enterprise at $35 per member per month, or $28 per member per month billed yearly, but that figure is not publicly offered or negotiable on the page itself. Not verified
• Notion AI trial allowances. Free and paid plans list a "trial of Notion AI" without published quantities or durations. Not verified
• Obsidian team or organisation plans. Beyond per-user Sync and the optional Commercial licence, no team-wide plan details appeared on the pages reviewed here.

Prices, limits and plan structures change. This comparison reflects what Notion and Obsidian published on their pricing and help pages on 19 October 2026; where a figure is not officially published, it is labelled unverified rather than presented as fact.