Notion vs Obsidian: Which Note-Taking App Fits You In 2027

Notion vs Obsidian compared for 2027: cloud teamwork vs local Markdown files, offline use, privacy, plugins, AI and current Sync, Publish and plan pricing.

If you are picking a home for your notes, docs and knowledge base in 2027, Notion and Obsidian are probably both on your shortlist. Founders, product teams, consultants, researchers, writers and students all end up comparing them, usually after outgrowing a basic notes app or getting frustrated with the one they have.

The one-sentence difference: Notion is a cloud workspace built for teams to write, plan and share together in real time, while Obsidian is a local-first app that keeps your notes as plain Markdown files on your own device and lets you add sync, publishing and collaboration on top.

That split drives almost everything else in this comparison: pricing, offline behavior, privacy, how databases work and what the AI story looks like. All prices and limits below were checked on each vendor’s own pricing and help pages in November 2026.

Notion vs Obsidian At A Glance

Factor	Notion	Obsidian
Core model	Cloud workspace with pages, databases and real-time collaboration	Local-first app that stores notes as plain Markdown files on your device
Free plan	Yes. Unlimited blocks for one person, limited blocks for workspaces with 2+ members, 5 MB file uploads, 7-day page history	Yes. The full app is free for personal and commercial use, with no sign-up required
Paid pricing	Plus $10 and Business $20 per member per month (monthly billing); Enterprise is custom	Sync Standard $4 or $5, Sync Plus $8 or $10 per user per month; Publish $8 or $10 per site per month (annual or monthly billing)
Best for	Teams that share docs, wikis, projects and databases	Individuals and small groups who want ownership of their files and deep customization
Collaboration	Real-time co-editing, comments, permissions and guests	Shared vaults through Sync (up to 20 collaborators, each with a subscription); no live co-editing of the same file
Offline use	Desktop and mobile apps only; pages must be downloaded; databases download the first 50 rows of the first view	Fully offline by design, since the files live on your device
Privacy and encryption	Encrypted in transit and at rest; SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits; data residency on Enterprise only	Notes stay on your device; Sync uses end-to-end AES-256 encryption
Databases	Native databases with many views, a core part of the product	Bases core plugin with table, list, cards, kanban and map views over note properties
AI	Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes, Custom Agents and Enterprise Search on Business and above; Free and Plus get a trial	No built-in AI assistant; AI comes from community plugins
Extensibility	Integrations gallery, public API and connectors to apps like Slack, GitHub and Google Drive	Thousands of community plugins and themes, plus a CLI and URI commands

The Core Difference: Shared Cloud Workspace vs Files You Own

Notion stores everything on its servers. You log in, your workspace loads, and every page, database and comment lives in Notion’s cloud. That is what makes real-time collaboration easy: ten people can edit the same project tracker at once, mention each other, and share a page with a client through a link. The tradeoff is that your content lives in Notion’s format, you need the internet for most of what you do, and your notes depend on your account.

Obsidian starts from the opposite end. Its homepage says it “stores notes privately on your device” and that it “uses open file formats, so you’re never locked in.” A vault is just a folder of Markdown files. You can open those files in any text editor, back them up with any tool, and keep using them if you ever stop using Obsidian. Sync, Publish and shared vaults are optional paid services you add when you need them.

So the real question is not which app has more features. It is whether your notes are mainly a shared team resource (Notion’s strength) or a personal knowledge base you want to control for years (Obsidian’s strength). Many people end up using both: Notion for team work, Obsidian for private thinking.

Pricing Compared

The two pricing models are built differently. Notion charges per member for the workspace. Obsidian is free and charges only for the cloud services you choose to add.

Notion Pricing

Notion’s pricing page lists four plans, priced in USD per member:

• Free: $0. Unlimited blocks for solo use, a limited number of blocks once a workspace has two or more members (Notion does not publish the exact number), 5 MB per file upload, 7-day page history, one notion.site domain and a trial of Notion AI.
• Plus: $10 per member per month. 5 GB per file upload, 30-day page history, five notion.site domains and a limited trial of Notion AI. Plus for a single member is free for students and educators.
• Business: $20 per member per month. Adds SAML SSO, private teamspaces, 90-day page history, advanced analytics, premium connections and the full AI set: Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes, Enterprise Search (beta) and access to Custom Agents.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing. Adds SCIM provisioning, audit log, workspace analytics, custom page history, zero data retention with AI model providers, and Enterprise-only options such as data residency and a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement.

The $10 and $20 figures are the monthly-billing prices shown on the plan cards. Notion says you can “save up to 20% with yearly” billing, but its pricing page does not list the exact annual per-member price, so check checkout before you commit.

What drives the bill up: seat count first, then AI usage. Business includes monthly per-person AI credits (Notion’s AI page lists 1,500 Standard credits and 500 Select credits per seat per month). Custom Agents that run beyond those allowances draw on Notion credits, priced at $10 per 1,000, and those can only be bought on Business and Enterprise. A custom domain for a published site costs $8 per month per domain paid annually or $10 paid monthly.

Obsidian Pricing

The Obsidian app itself is free, which its pricing page describes as “free without limits.” You pay only for the add-ons you want, all priced in USD:

• Sync Standard: $4 per user per month billed annually, or $5 billed monthly. 1 synced vault, 1 GB total storage, 5 MB maximum file size and 1 month of version history.
• Sync Plus: $8 per user per month billed annually, or $10 billed monthly. 10 synced vaults, 10 GB storage (upgradable to 100 GB; Obsidian does not list the price of that upgrade on its Sync page), 200 MB maximum file size and 12 months of version history.
• Publish: $8 per site per month billed annually, or $10 billed monthly. Includes hosting up to 4 GB, custom domain support, password protection and priority email support.
• Commercial license: $50 per user per year, and optional. Obsidian’s license states that it “is free for all purposes, including personal, commercial, and non-profit use,” and that commercial licenses are optional and help keep the company user-supported.
• Catalyst: a one-time $25 supporter license that unlocks early beta access and community perks.

Students, faculty and nonprofit employees get 40% off Sync and Publish. Sync and Publish can be refunded within 7 days; Catalyst and Commercial licenses cannot. What drives the cost up: moving to Sync Plus for more vaults and storage, adding a Publish site, and the fact that every collaborator on a shared vault needs their own Sync subscription.

What You Actually Pay

A solo professional. Notion Free covers a single user well. If you want the larger upload limit and 30-day history, Plus is $120 a year on monthly billing (less with the yearly discount). In Obsidian, the app is free; if you want your notes on phone and laptop through the official service, Sync Standard is $48 a year on annual billing, or $96 a year for Sync Plus. You can also skip Sync entirely and use your own cloud folder, which costs nothing extra.

A five-person team that wants a shared knowledge base. On Notion Business, five members cost $100 a month, or $1,200 a year on monthly billing, and that includes the AI features. On Notion Plus the same team pays $600 a year, without the full AI set. In Obsidian, five people on Sync Standard (annual billing) pay $240 a year in total. If the company also buys the optional commercial license for each person, add $250, for $490 a year. Add a Publish site for a public handbook and that rises to $586. Obsidian is cheaper, but you get synced files rather than live co-editing, permissions and AI, so the two figures do not buy the same thing.

Collaboration And Team Features

This is where the gap is widest, and it is the factor that decides most team purchases.

Notion

Notion was built for shared work. Multiple people can edit a page at once, leave comments, assign tasks in databases and mention teammates. Guests are free and can access only the pages they are invited to. Business adds private teamspaces and SAML SSO, and Enterprise adds SCIM, audit logs and admin controls such as the ability to disable exports. For a company wiki, project tracker or client portal, Notion does the job with almost no setup. Teams comparing Notion with dedicated work-management tools can also look at our roundup of the top project management tools for team productivity.

Obsidian

Obsidian’s collaboration runs through shared vaults in Sync. According to Obsidian’s help docs, a shared vault can have up to 20 collaborators, all collaborators need an active Sync subscription, and every collaborator gets the same permissions as the owner, except that only the owner can invite people. The docs are also clear that “Obsidian does not yet support collaborative live editing on the same file.” Edits appear after they sync, and if two people change the same file at once, changes are merged during syncing, with version history available to roll back.

That works for a small research group or a couple sharing a vault. It is not a replacement for a team wiki with granular permissions, guests and live co-editing.

Offline Use, Privacy And Data Ownership

Notion

Notion now supports offline pages on all plans, but with limits. Its help center says offline use needs the desktop or mobile apps and is not available in web browsers. You toggle “Available offline” page by page, and subpages do not download automatically. Plus, Business and Enterprise also auto-download recently visited and favorited pages. When you download a database, only “the first 50 rows of the first view” come along, and blocks that need a connection (embeds, AI blocks, forms and buttons) do not work offline. Downloads are per device, so a page saved on your phone is not available on your laptop.

On security, Notion says data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2 or higher) and at rest (AES-256), and it lists annual audits including SOC 2 and ISO 27001. It does not offer end-to-end encryption. Data residency and a HIPAA BAA are available to Enterprise customers only. For exports, you can save pages as PDF, HTML or Markdown and CSV, with bulk PDF export of subpages limited to Business and Enterprise. Callout blocks export as HTML because Markdown has no equivalent.

Obsidian

Offline is the default in Obsidian because the files live on your device. There is nothing to download ahead of a flight or a patchy connection. On privacy, Obsidian’s homepage says of your notes: “No one else can read them, not even us.” If you use Sync, Obsidian says the data is protected with end-to-end AES-256 encryption, and collaborators on an encrypted shared vault must enter the encryption password to join it.

The flip side of local-first is responsibility. If you skip Sync and do not set up your own backup, a lost laptop can mean lost notes. Obsidian also publishes no compliance certifications on the pages we reviewed, which matters if your security team needs a vendor audit trail. For most individuals that tradeoff is a good one; for regulated teams, Notion’s paperwork may be easier to approve.

Databases, Plugins And Customization

Notion

Databases are Notion’s signature feature. You can build a content calendar, CRM, task board or reading list as a database, view it as a table, board or calendar, and link records across databases. Most users never need to touch settings or install anything. Notion’s integrations gallery covers tools such as Slack, Google Drive, GitHub and Figma, and many connections are built on its public API. Business adds premium connections and Notion AI Connectors for apps like Jira, Linear and Microsoft Teams.

The limit is that you customize within Notion’s rules. You cannot change how the editor behaves, add your own themes or run local scripts against your notes.

Obsidian

Obsidian closed much of the database gap with Bases, a core plugin that creates “database-like views” of your notes. According to its help docs, a base can show table, list, cards, kanban and map views, and “all the data in Obsidian Bases is stored in your local Markdown files and their properties.” The view definitions save as a .base file or sit in a code block inside a note. Recent releases added the kanban view, a Group menu and reorderable filters.

Customization is where Obsidian pulls ahead. Its homepage points to “thousands of plugins” and themes, with community favorites such as Dataview, Tasks, Kanban, Calendar and Outliner. Core features include Canvas, which Obsidian describes as “an infinite space to research, brainstorm, diagram, and lay out your ideas,” plus backlinks and a graph view. The latest desktop release also added CLI and URI commands for appending content under a heading, useful for automation. The cost is setup time: a powerful Obsidian vault is something you build, and community plugins vary in quality and upkeep.

AI Features

Notion

Notion has invested heavily in AI, and the full set sits on the Business plan and above. Notion Agent can complete “complex, multi-step tasks using context from Notion, your connected apps, and the web,” including creating and editing pages and databases. Custom Agents run recurring work on a trigger or schedule. AI Meeting Notes transcribes and summarizes meetings “no bot needed,” and Enterprise Search (beta) searches connected apps such as Slack and GitHub. Notion also lets you switch workflows between models and providers. Free and Plus get only a limited trial, and Enterprise adds zero data retention with model providers.

Obsidian

Obsidian ships no built-in AI assistant, and its homepage makes no AI claims. AI comes through the community: the plugin directory has an AI category with more than a thousand listings, covering chat with your notes, summarization and connections to model providers. That gives you choice, including the option to run local models so your notes never leave your machine, but you pick, configure and pay for the AI yourself, and quality depends on the plugin you choose.

If AI built into the workspace is a must and you want it supported by the vendor, Notion is the simpler choice. If you prefer to keep AI optional and under your control, Obsidian fits better.

Ease Of Use And Platforms

Notion works in the browser and has desktop and mobile apps. New users can start from templates and be productive in an afternoon, which is part of why it spreads so easily inside companies. The block-based editor is approachable, and nontechnical teammates rarely need training.

Obsidian runs on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux, and there is a Web Clipper browser extension, but no full web app for editing your vault. The editor is fast and the Markdown is clean, yet the blank vault and the plugin choices can feel like homework for people who just want to take notes. Recent mobile releases have smoothed this out, with Quick Capture from the iOS Lock Screen, voice capture with transcription and PDF export.

Which Should You Choose

Choose Notion If…

• Your notes are mainly a shared team resource: wikis, project docs, meeting notes and client pages.
• You need real-time co-editing, comments, guest access and permissions.
• You want structured databases ready to use with no setup.
• You want vendor-supported AI agents and meeting notes and are willing to pay for Business seats.
• Your security team needs SOC 2, ISO 27001, SSO and, at Enterprise level, data residency.

Choose Obsidian If…

• You want to own your notes as plain Markdown files that will outlast any single app.
• You work offline often or want instant performance on large personal vaults.
• Privacy matters most, and end-to-end encrypted sync is a requirement.
• You enjoy customizing your tools with plugins, themes and automation.
• You want a powerful free tool and only pay for sync or publishing if you need them.

If neither feels quite right, our guide to the best Notion alternatives covers other options, and teams leaning toward task management can compare the best Asana alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Obsidian Free For Commercial Use?

Yes. Obsidian’s license says the app “is free for all purposes, including personal, commercial, and non-profit use.” The Commercial license, at $50 per user per year, is optional and exists to support development. Sync and Publish are paid separately.

Does Notion Work Offline?

Partly. On all plans, you can mark pages “Available offline” in the desktop and mobile apps, and paid plans auto-download recent and favorite pages. Offline does not work in the browser, subpages need separate downloads, and databases bring only the first 50 rows of the first view.

Can I Move My Notes From Notion To Obsidian?

Yes. Notion exports pages as Markdown and databases as CSV, and Obsidian reads Markdown files directly. Expect some cleanup, since Notion exports callout blocks as HTML and database relations do not map one to one onto Obsidian properties and Bases.

Can Teams Collaborate In Obsidian?

Yes, through shared vaults in Obsidian Sync, with up to 20 collaborators who each need a Sync subscription. Changes sync between members, but there is no live co-editing of the same file and no granular permissions, since all collaborators get the owner’s permissions.

Does Obsidian Have AI Like Notion AI?

Not built in. Obsidian relies on community plugins for AI, and its plugin directory has a large AI category. Notion’s AI features, including Notion Agent, Custom Agents and AI Meeting Notes, are built in but require the Business plan or higher beyond a limited trial.

Which Is Better For Students?

Both are student-friendly. Notion’s Plus plan for a single member is free for students and educators, and Obsidian is free, with 40% off Sync and Publish for students and faculty. Choose Notion for group projects and Obsidian for long-term personal study notes.

Conclusion

Notion vs Obsidian comes down to where your notes live and who they are for. Notion is the stronger choice for teams: real-time collaboration, databases out of the box, admin and compliance controls, and the most complete AI in this pairing if you pay for Business seats. It costs more per person, and you trade some control and offline freedom for that convenience.

Obsidian is the stronger choice for individuals and small groups who value ownership, privacy and customization. The app is free, your notes are plain Markdown files on your device, and you add encrypted Sync or Publish only when you need them. If you mostly think, write and research on your own, start with Obsidian. If your notes need to be shared, edited and managed by a team, start with Notion.