Obsidian
Obsidian is a private and flexible writing app that adapts to your way of thinking. It is local-first, markdown-based, and 100% user-supported.
At a Glance
- Students and researchers
- Knowledge workers
- Software engineers
- Writers and designers
AI Tools by Obsidian
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Obsidian
Local First Markdown Notes App
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Latest News
Obsidian Desktop and Mobile v1.12.7 released with Obsidian CLI improvements.
Major performance and reliability updates to Obsidian Sync service.
Obsidian Mobile v1.11.0 introduces Capture shortcuts for rapid note-taking.
Obsidian launches official Web Clipper browser extension.
Products & Services
A powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.
End-to-end encrypted service to synchronize notes between devices with version history.
Service to turn notes into a functional website or digital garden with one click.
Official browser extension for capturing and highlighting web content directly into Obsidian.
Market Position
Obsidian differentiates itself by being local-first and avoiding VC funding, focusing on data ownership and long-term durability compared to cloud-based rivals like Notion or Roam Research.
Leadership
Founders
Erica Xu
Co-founder and COO. Graduated from the University of Waterloo. Previously co-founded Dynalist with Shida Li. Passionate about education and UX design.
Shida Li
Co-founder and CTO. Graduated from the University of Waterloo (Software Engineering). Previously interned as a Software Engineer at Dropbox and co-founded Dynalist.
Executive Team
Steph Ango
CEO
Joined as CEO in January 2023. Formerly a designer and writer known as @kepano; creator of the popular 'Minimal' theme for Obsidian.
Shida Li
Co-founder & CTO
Leads the technical development of the core app and underlying architecture.
Founding Story
Erica Xu and Shida Li started Obsidian in 2020 to create the perfect note-taking tool that follows principles of data durability, privacy, and malleability, free from outside investor influence.
Business Model
Revenue Model
Freemium for personal use with paid commercial licenses and subscription-based add-on services (Sync and Publish).
Pricing Tiers
For personal use. No sign-up required.
For professional use in organizations with 2 or more employees.
Billed annually ($5/mo monthly). E2E encryption and 100GB storage.
Billed annually per site ($10/mo monthly). Custom themes and graph view.
One-time payment for early access to beta versions and community badges.
Target Markets
- Students and researchers
- Knowledge workers
- Software engineers
- Writers and designers
- Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)
- Digital Gardening
- Zettelkasten
- Task Management
- Technical Writing
- Research and Organizing Ideas
- Individual knowledge enthusiasts
- Academic researchers
- Tech organizations