Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Anytype.io VS Obsidian.md

Compare Anytype.io VS Obsidian.md and see what are their differences

Anytype.io logo Anytype.io

Anytype is a next generation software that breaks down barriers between applications, gives back privacy and data ownership to users.

Obsidian.md logo Obsidian.md

A second brain, for you, forever. Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.
  • Anytype.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-26
  • Obsidian.md Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-01

Anytype.io features and specs

  • User-friendly Interface
    Anytype.io has an intuitive and clean interface that makes it easy for users to navigate and organize their information effectively.
  • Privacy-focused
    The platform emphasizes privacy and security, ensuring that user data is encrypted and stored safely, aligning with modern data protection standards.
  • Offline Capability
    Anytype.io allows users to work offline, making it convenient for users without constant internet access.
  • Flexibility
    The application offers a high degree of customizability, allowing users to create and manage different types of content based on their unique needs.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Anytype.io supports multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and mobile devices, enabling seamless access across different devices.

Possible disadvantages of Anytype.io

  • Learning Curve
    The flexibility and extensive features can result in a steep learning curve, especially for users not familiar with similar tools.
  • Limited Third-Party Integrations
    Currently, Anytype.io offers limited integration with third-party applications, which may hinder its utility for users relying on a specific ecosystem of tools.
  • Early-stage Development
    The platform is still in its early stages, which can mean occasional bugs, missing features, or less polished aspects compared to more established alternatives.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Anytype.io can be resource-intensive on older hardware, potentially slowing down the performance on less powerful devices.
  • Limited Community and Support
    As a relatively new tool, the size of the user community and availability of support resources may be limited compared to more established competitors.

Obsidian.md features and specs

  • Local-first
    Obsidian stores your notes locally on your device, giving you full control over your data and enhancing privacy.
  • Markdown Support
    Obsidian uses Markdown, making it easy to format text and compatible with many other text editors and tools.
  • Bidirectional Linking
    You can create bidirectional links between notes, which helps in building a knowledge graph and navigating related information more easily.
  • Customizability
    Obsidian is highly customizable with community plugins, themes, and various settings to fit different workflows.
  • Graph View
    Provides a visual graph view of your notes and their connections, aiding in understanding relationships and discovering insights.
  • Offline Access
    Since the notes are stored locally, you can access and edit them without an internet connection.

Possible disadvantages of Obsidian.md

  • Learning Curve
    Obsidian can be complex and overwhelming for beginners due to its extensive features and customizable nature.
  • Sync Limitations
    While local-first is great for privacy, it requires additional steps or third-party solutions for syncing across devices.
  • No True Real-time Collaboration
    Obsidian lacks native real-time collaboration features, making it less suitable for collaborative work compared to cloud-based solutions.
  • Limited Mobile Features
    The mobile version of Obsidian, while functional, is not as robust as the desktop application, potentially hindering productivity on the go.
  • Dependence on Plugins
    Many advanced features require the use of third-party plugins, which could lead to compatibility issues and reliance on community support.
  • Performance on Large Vaults
    Performance might degrade with a very large number of notes or complex graphs, impacting usability.

Anytype.io videos

Anytype.io review: Is Anytype the Ultimate Notion Alternative?

Obsidian.md videos

OBSIDIAN: Getting Started, Facts & Pricing

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Anytype.io and Obsidian.md)
Task Management
100 100%
0% 0
Note Taking
5 5%
95% 95
Personal Notes
14 14%
86% 86
Knowledge Management
3 3%
97% 97

User comments

Share your experience with using Anytype.io and Obsidian.md. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Anytype.io and Obsidian.md

Anytype.io Reviews

The best note-taking apps for collecting your thoughts and data
Anytype, which is still in beta, is an interesting and complex app that, like Obsidian, can be fun for those who really like to investigate how to personalize their applications.

Obsidian.md Reviews

  1. The kind of software that may change your life

    Perhaps you know someone who swears by Obsidian, it may seem like a cult of overly devoted people for how passionate they are, but it's not without reason

    I've been using Obsidian for over 3 years, at a point in my life when I felt I had to handle too much information and I felt like grasping water not being able to remember everything I wanted, language learning, programming, accounting, university, daily tasks. A friend recommended it to me next to Notion (of which he is a passionate cultist priest) and I reluctantly picked it and fell in love almost immediately.

    Obsidian seems very simple, like a notepad with folder interface, similar to Sublime Text, but the ability to link files together in a Wiki style allows you to organize ideas in any way you want, one file may lead to a dozen or more ideas that are related

    If you want to do something specific, Obsidian has a plethora of community created plugins that expand the functionality, in my case, I use obsidian to organize my classes both as a teacher and as a student, using local databases, calendars, dictionaries, slides, vector graphic drawings, excel-like tables, Anki connection, podcasts, and more

    🏁 Competitors: Notion, Evernote
    👍 Pros:    Awesome community|Custom plugins|Local hosting|Beautiful themes|Highly customizable|Cloud storage|Becomes more useful over time|Markdown support
    👎 Cons:    Seems complicated/complex at first|Takes time to set up your personal workspace|Overwhelming for first time user
  2. Stan
    · Founder at SaaSHub ·
    My personal knowledge-base of choice

    I've been using Obsidian for more than a year. It's been great. I think it offer a great balance of control, flexibility and extensibility. What is more, you own your own data, that's been a must-have feature for me. I just can't imagine putting all my knowledge into something that I don't have control over.

    I think two of the most popular alternatives that people consider are Logseq and Roam Research. Although Logseq is a bit different, it's considered compatible with Obsidian. Supposedly, you can use them with a shared database (files. Both use simple text files for storage). I tried that once, a few months ago. It worked, yet it messed up a bit my Obsidian files ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

    🏁 Competitors: Logseq, Roam Research

The 6 best note-taking apps in 2024
One thing to note: Notion bills itself as an Evernote competitor for personal users. It can be—but it's too much for most people, and its offline functionality isn't the best. If you love the idea of Notion, go right ahead and try the free Personal Plan, but for me, it's really best as a team notes app or an AI-powered notes app. Something like Obsidian (which we'll look at...
Source: zapier.com
The best note-taking apps for collecting your thoughts and data
This app is the kind of thing that, if you’re into it, will have you exploring its various ins, outs, and add-ons for days and weeks on end. Obsidian uses the Markdown format for its notes (which means they can be used on a variety of other apps). Your notes and other media are kept locally in a Vault (in other words, a main folder). There are ways to sync between devices...
The 5 Best Open Source Miro Alternatives in 2024
However, it's important to note that Obsidian's whiteboard functionality is not as robust as dedicated collaboration tools. While it lacks real-time basic collaboration features, Obsidian compensates with its vibrant plugin ecosystem, empowering users to customize their experience.
Source: affine.pro
The best encrypted note taking apps
For a consumer coming from Evernote, Notion, OneNote, or a similar product, we would advise trying Obsidian along another product on this list as it has the largest learning curve. However, if you are an expert with markdown, experts, linking, and graph views, Obsidian could be an excellent choice. Like many other configuration options, Obsidian leaves end-to-end encryption...
Source: www.skiff.com
Supercharge Your Productivity: Three Recommended Tools for Thought
One of my AP Productivity: Cohort mentors has a powerful system pairing Obsidian with OmniFocus. In OmniFocus, he builds his project and task structures, and in Obsidian he develops and organizes the project support materials as well as other relevant information. Because it’s easy to link to an Obsidian note or an OmniFocus project, he can seamlessly navigate back and forth...
Source: medium.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Obsidian.md seems to be a lot more popular than Anytype.io. While we know about 1492 links to Obsidian.md, we've tracked only 57 mentions of Anytype.io. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Anytype.io mentions (57)

  • Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)
    Expanding some - the tags concept is similar to AnyType[0] types, but the rest of the software I’m writing is more oriented towards dump-first, tag, and let it sort itself out, whereas AnyType requires careful management and configuration of the workspace. [0] https://anytype.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 22 days ago
  • Show HN: Sava OS – A desktop interface for you web browser
    This does remind me a bit of a personal knowledge management solution that has (fairly) recently gone out of beta, AnyType [0], as that too was sometimes refered to as an "operating system for the new internet" and received similarly skeptical reception. Seen them refine the concept into a more rounded project that has been rather successful in the PKM space, though their concept never fully fit my use cases. From... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Information flow - how I capture the notes
    Anytype - looks like a great Notion alternative, however too complex for me. I need a simple tool. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Show HN: I am building an open-source Confluence and Notion alternative
    Notion is excellent at collaboration, and works so so on mobile the last time I used it. Mostly if you didn't open all the pages you wante before taking off on a flight (imagine no wifi), things fall apart. On to the option -- currently been giving Anytype a pretty hard go on the colalboration side, as well as playing with Obsidian to see if it can feed into it. https://anytype.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Show HN: Anytype multi-player: local-first, P2P, encrypted collaboration
    WIth every architectural choice we aim to make fundamental digital freedoms unconditional. Here you can read more about why - cloud vs. Local first Internet [2]. [1] https://anytype.io/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
View more

Obsidian.md mentions (1492)

  • Level up your dev career with the T-shape strategy and why generalists don’t get XP boosts
    Obsidian.md Build your personal knowledge base while learning. - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • Why every dev needs a coding journal no, your memory isn’t enough
    Resource: Obsidian, jrnl CLI, Markdown Journal Templates on GitHub. - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • How I Built a Local AI Assistant for Obsidian — No Cloud, No API Keys
    Obsidian has become a go-to tool for developers, researchers, and writers who want to manage their knowledge in a flexible, local-first way. With Markdown-based storage, plugin extensibility, and full control over your data, it offers an ideal environment for serious note-taking and knowledge work. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • Why obsidian wins the second brain war and notion just can’t keep up
    Obsidian Website Download, docs, community, and roadmap. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • Using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to query Obsidian note taking
    You can find out about Obsidian on their site It's free to use and open source. - Source: dev.to / 13 days ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Anytype.io and Obsidian.md, you can also consider the following products

Notion - All-in-one workspace. One tool for your whole team. Write, plan, and get organized.

Logseq - Logseq is a local-first, non-linear, outliner notebook for organizing and sharing your personal knowledge base.

Joplin - Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor.

AFFiNE AI - Your AI partner helps you better write, draw and present

Roam Research - A note-taking tool for networked thought

AFFiNE - All in one KnowledgeOS, Open alternative to Notion&Miro.