Obsidian

Local-first note system with optional AI features

Obsidian is a powerful local note platform with support for AI plugins (including Copilot and other integrations). It excels at linking concepts and building knowledge graphs, with AI helping summarise and generate content.

Official website

At a glance

Price from	Free (with optional paid add-ons)
Best for	Advanced students and researchers building interconnected knowledge bases

From Obsidian's own website.

Company facts

Social profiles

X, YouTube, GitHub

Facilities and features

Its website also mentions:

Published pricing
API

What stands out

The product stores notes privately on your device for offline access.

“Obsidian stores notes privately on your device, so you can access them quickly, even offline.”Obsidian, own website

The product offers thousands of plugins and themes for customisation.

“With thousands of plugins and themes, you can shape Obsidian to fit your way of thinking.”Obsidian, own website

Worth knowing

Steep learning curve; requires understanding of Markdown and knowledge management concepts
AI features require additional plugin setup and configuration

How it ranks

Obsidian is ranked 8th of 10 in Best note-taking apps (Lister Score 86.0).

#8 in Best note-taking apps · Lister Score 86.0

Obsidian is a product. It says it is built for individual knowledge workers.

Offers thousands of plugins and themes for customisation.

How the score is made up: fit to this ranking's criteria 40; evidence on its own site 20; how complete its published information is 14; buying information on its own site 12.