I recently decided to start taking notes and writing down my new gathered knowledge. For this, I was looking for a good note-taking app. I checked out various software and I ended up choosing Obsidian.

Obsidian is a note-taking app with a strong focus on building a personal knowledge base. The software is being developed by a team of only two and it also has a small community build around it, which create their own plugins and themes. I use it to write down newly found knowledge and connect it. I find it a very interesting and good approach because it is based on how our brain connects thoughts.

I this article I wanted to write down some reasons why I chose Obsidian and why you might want to check it out.

- Markdown

I wanted one that works with Markdown, which is very lightweight, meaning it’s simple text files that do not take away too much storage. Additionally, Markdown is easy to learn and a very common format, which allows for easy switching to other apps.

- Media

Obsidian allows for the integration of all sorts of media, like images, embedded files, code blocks and LaTex math.

- Folder Structure

Obsidian is based on the normal folder structure. This means all the files are easily accessible outside the software.

- Knowledge Base

Obsidian lays a huge focus on connecting files and building a knowledge base with a graph view. It’s loosely oriented on Roam Research, which is a paid note-taking graph database. It allows linking between files. And what I find specifically interesting, it also allows backwards-linking. Additionally, it could be used as a digital Zettelkasten.

- Taxonomies

Next to sorting files by folder structure, Obsidian also allows hashtags as well as the already mentioned linking. This allows the user to freely structure, connect and categorize files. It also allows for easy searching and simple conversing through the connections.

- Simple & Good Design

The user interface of the software is very intuitive with the possibility to create your own theme to personalize it. It looks like a very clean and minimalistic text editor with a lot of features.

- Free

The main features of the app are free for personal use they have a yearly subscription which is mainly for supporting the developers. As well as a Sync and Publish service with a monthly subscription that are extra features that most users might not use or can work around if wanted.

- App

The team and community work on new features including an app for Apple and Android, which is currently in private beta. However, because it uses Markdown, other apps that have Markdown support can also be used.

Conclusion

It is a very cool software that can make note-taking more fun and interesting. It has all the features I was looking for in a note-taking app without being bloated. And I can only recommend you to check it out for yourself.