Notion VS Obsidian - Why I Use BOTH

Summary

This video script explores the differences between Notion and Obsidian, two popular note-taking and knowledge management tools. It delves into their structure, discoverability, flexibility, and privacy, highlighting how each tool excels in different scenarios. Notion is praised for its collaboration features and task management, while Obsidian is lauded for its personal knowledge management capabilities, speed, and future-proofing through local storage. The script concludes by emphasizing the importance of choosing the right tool for one's specific needs, rather than general popularity.

Takeaways

• 🔧 Notion and Obsidian are designed for different purposes and should be chosen based on specific needs.
• 📁 Notion uses a folder structure, which is mandatory for organization, while Obsidian offers flexibility with or without folders.
• 🔄 Obsidian supports a bottom-up approach with discoverability through tags, links, and graph views, enhancing note interconnectivity.
• 📈 Notion emphasizes a top-down approach with templates designed for visual data presentation, which can be restrictive for knowledge management.
• 🛠️ Both tools offer templates, but Obsidian focuses on automation and time-saving, while Notion's templates are more for elaborate page design.
• 🔍 Obsidian's graph view, especially the local graph, aids in the discovery and use of interconnected notes, which is crucial for personal knowledge management.
• 🔑 Flexibility is a key feature of Obsidian, allowing users to customize their vaults extensively with themes and plugins, including direct AI integration.
• 👥 Notion excels in collaboration, allowing multiple users to work in the same workspace with features like comments and third-party app support.
• 🔒 Obsidian offers greater privacy and future-proofing as notes are local markdown files, not tied to a company's servers or services.
• ⚡ Obsidian, being a local app, provides faster and more responsive performance compared to Notion, which relies on cloud services and internet connection.
• 🔄 Obsidian requires manual sync solutions for multi-device usage, while Notion's cloud-based approach ensures notes are always in sync.
• 📚 The choice between Notion and Obsidian should be based on the intended use case, with Obsidian better suited for personal knowledge management and Notion for project and task management.

Q & A

What are the key differences between Notion and Obsidian in terms of structure?

Notion embraces a folder-based structure, which is more top-down and prescriptive, while Obsidian allows for a more flexible, bottom-up approach with the option to use folders, links, tags, or a graph view for organization.

How does Notion's emphasis on templates differ from Obsidian's approach to the same feature?

Notion uses templates as elaborate pages for visual presentation of information, often sold by third parties, whereas Obsidian focuses on templates for automation and time-saving, with community-created plugins adding functionality.

What does the speaker find particularly useful about Obsidian's discoverability features?

The speaker finds Obsidian's local graph view especially useful for discovering and using notes, as it shows which links are connected to the current note, facilitating rediscovery and utilization of content.

How does the flexibility of Obsidian compare to Notion?

Obsidian is highly flexible, allowing users to customize their vault to be as complex or simple as they want, with various themes and community plugins, while Notion is more restrictive and streamlined.

What is the main advantage of using Obsidian for personal knowledge management?

Obsidian is better suited for personal knowledge management due to its superior discoverability, privacy, and future-proof nature, as it stores notes locally in a widely accepted format like Markdown.

Why is Notion considered better for project and task management?

Notion is better for project and task management because of its collaboration features, ease of use in a team setting, integration with third-party apps, and support for databases.

What are the implications of Notion's cloud-based nature on speed and responsiveness?

Notion's cloud-based nature means it relies on server performance and internet connection, which can affect speed and responsiveness, especially when compared to the local app experience of Obsidian.

How does the privacy aspect differ between Notion and Obsidian?

Obsidian stores notes locally, giving the user full ownership and privacy, while Notion's notes live on their servers, potentially limiting privacy and ownership.

What are the speaker's personal uses for both Notion and Obsidian?

The speaker uses Obsidian for personal knowledge management, note-taking, and journaling, while Notion is used for work, team collaboration, and project management.

What is the speaker's view on the growth and sustainability of Obsidian?

The speaker acknowledges Obsidian's exponential growth and its sustainable monetization model through paid options like sync features, publishing, team services, and support tiers, which allows the developers to continue development without external pressure.

How does the speaker address the issue of syncing notes across multiple devices in Obsidian?

The speaker mentions that users need to use their own sync solutions for Obsidian, such as iCloud or Google Drive, as it does not offer a built-in sync feature like Notion.

Outlines

00:00

🛠 Tool Comparison: Notion vs. Obsidian

The script begins by emphasizing the importance of using the right tool for the right job, comparing two popular note-taking and knowledge management tools: Notion and Obsidian. It discusses the structural differences, with Notion favoring a folder-based system and Obsidian allowing for a more flexible, link-based approach. The speaker shares their personal preference for using folders in Notion and a more freeform structure in Obsidian, tailored to different tasks. The script also touches on the use of templates in Notion for visual presentation versus Obsidian's focus on automation and time-saving. The importance of discoverability in notes is highlighted, with Obsidian's graph view being a standout feature for the speaker, allowing for easy rediscovery and use of notes. The paragraph concludes with a discussion on flexibility, customization, and the power of community plugins in Obsidian, including direct integration with open AI APIs for a cost-effective AI experience.

05:01

🤝 Collaboration and Knowledge Management

This paragraph delves into the strengths of Notion in terms of collaboration, ease of sharing, and its cloud-based nature, which ensures notes are always in sync across devices. It contrasts this with Obsidian's local storage, which requires manual syncing solutions for multi-device access but offers greater privacy and control over file versioning and backups. The speaker argues that while Notion excels in project and task management, Obsidian is better suited for personal knowledge management due to its privacy, future-proofing, and powerful discovery features. The script also addresses the growth of Obsidian, its independence from venture capital, and its sustainable monetization model through optional paid features, positioning it as a strong alternative to Notion despite its smaller user base.

10:01

👋 Conclusion and Personal Usage

The final paragraph wraps up the video script with the speaker's personal use case for both Notion and Obsidian. They have been using Obsidian for over two years as their primary tool for personal knowledge management, journaling, and thinking, while Notion is used for work-related tasks and team collaboration. The speaker acknowledges the bias towards Obsidian but asserts that both tools are solid options, provided their different purposes are understood. The script ends with a reminder that the choice between the two should be based on individual use cases and needs.

Keywords

💡Notion

Notion is a productivity tool that integrates various functionalities such as note-taking, task management, and database creation into a single workspace. In the video, it is compared with Obsidian for its structured approach to organization, use of templates, and strong emphasis on collaboration. The script mentions that Notion embraces folders and encourages a top-down approach to structuring information, which is suitable for project management and team collaboration.

💡Obsidian

Obsidian is a note-taking and knowledge management tool that emphasizes flexibility and the ability to create a personal 'second brain'. It allows users to link notes bidirectionally and discover relationships between them through a graph view. The script highlights Obsidian's bottom-up approach, where users can create a structure that suits their needs without being forced into a specific folder system, and its community-driven plugins that enhance functionality.

💡Structure

In the context of the video, 'structure' refers to the organizational system used by both Notion and Obsidian. Notion is described as having a more rigid structure with an emphasis on folders and templates for a top-down approach, while Obsidian offers a flexible structure that allows for a bottom-up approach with less emphasis on folders and more on linking and tagging notes.

💡Discoverability

Discoverability in the video is related to how easily users can find and navigate through their notes within the tools. Obsidian is praised for its multiple discoverability features, including tags, links, and the graph view, which helps in rediscovering and using notes. In contrast, Notion's discoverability is not the main focus, as it is more suited for project management where the structure is predefined.

💡Flexibility

Flexibility is a key concept in the video, highlighting the adaptability of Obsidian to the user's preferences. Obsidian allows for a personalized experience, from the complexity of the vault to the choice of themes and plugins. The script contrasts this with Notion, which is seen as less flexible due to its more structured and predefined approach to organization.

💡Community Plugins

Community plugins in Obsidian refer to the additional functionalities provided by third-party developers within the Obsidian community. These plugins enhance the tool's capabilities, such as direct interaction with open AI APIs without intermediaries, which is an example given in the script. This contrasts with Notion, which may require additional costs for similar features.

💡Collaboration

Collaboration is a feature that Notion excels in, according to the video. It allows multiple users to work together in the same workspace, leave comments, and share documents easily. The script points out that while this is a strength for Notion, it comes with the trade-off of requiring an account and storing notes on Notion's servers, which affects privacy and future-proofing.

💡Future Proofness

Future proofness in the video refers to the longevity and independence of the user's notes. Obsidian's notes are local markdown files, making them future proof as they are not tied to any specific company or tool. The script contrasts this with Notion, where notes are stored on their servers, and exporting them can be a cumbersome process, affecting their future proofness.

💡Speed and Responsiveness

Speed and responsiveness are discussed in the context of the user experience with both tools. The video mentions that Notion, being a cloud-based application, may suffer from slower speeds and responsiveness due to reliance on internet connections and server performance. In contrast, Obsidian, as a local application, offers faster and more responsive use, especially with large vaults.

💡Privacy

Privacy is an important aspect discussed in the video, where Obsidian's local storage of notes is seen as a more private option since the notes are truly owned by the user. Notion, on the other hand, stores notes on its servers, which may raise privacy concerns. The script suggests that privacy is a significant factor, especially for personal knowledge management.

💡Versioning and Backups

Versioning and backups are discussed in terms of how each tool handles the history and safety of notes. Notion offers file versioning for a limited time depending on the user's plan, while Obsidian allows for unlimited versioning based on the user's storage capacity and setup. The script emphasizes the importance of having control over backups and versioning for long-term note management.

Highlights

The importance of using the right tool for the right job, comparing Notion and Obsidian based on their unique features and intended uses.

Notion's embrace of folders and structured approach versus Obsidian's flexibility with or without folders.

Obsidian's bottom-up approach and lack of forced structure, allowing for dynamic linking and tagging.

Notion's emphasis on templates for visual data presentation and Obsidian's focus on automation and time-saving.

Obsidian's discoverability features including folders, search, tags, links, and the graph view.

The local graph view in Obsidian for immediate visualization of note connections.

Flexibility in Obsidian allowing for customization of the vault's complexity and appearance.

Community plugins in Obsidian that add functionality, including direct interaction with open AI APIs.

Notion's strengths in collaboration and ease of sharing documents with others.

The drawbacks of Notion's cloud-based nature affecting future proofness and requiring an account for use.

Obsidian's local note storage in markdown format ensuring future proofness and independence from the app.

Speed and responsiveness of Obsidian as a local app compared to Notion's cloud dependency.

Privacy concerns with Notion's server-based storage versus Obsidian's local note ownership.

Obsidian's reliance on user-managed sync solutions for multi-device access.

Notion's built-in sync and versioning features contrasted with Obsidian's customizable versioning and backups.

Obsidian's suitability for personal knowledge management due to its privacy, future proofness, and discoverability.

Notion's ideal use for project and task management, especially in collaborative environments.

Personal use case of both tools for different tasks, emphasizing understanding their distinct purposes.

Obsidian's growth and independence from venture capital, allowing adherence to core principles.

The sustainable monetization model of Obsidian supporting continued development without external pressures.

Transcripts

I believe in using the right tool for

the right job and both notion and

obsidian Excel are what they do but

they're completely different while you

can use notion-like features in obsidian

and vice versa it doesn't mean you

always should as they're built for

different things and it all depends on

what you want to get out of it I'm going

to compare notion and obsidian in these

categories and I'm going to finish up

with what I think each software is best

at and why I use both and let's start

off with structure notion Embraces

folders it's not a question of whether

you want something to go in the folder

but rather which folder in obsidian you

could just start typing and think about

it later and you don't have to use a

folder you can just link it to another

note or tag it you can also do a

hierarchical folder system if you so

choose but obsidian doesn't force you

into it you can have as many or as

little folders as you'd like but there's

nothing wrong with having folders it all

depends on what you want to use notion

for if you want to use it for tasks

where you know exactly where everything

should go then folders are great but if

you're using it as a Knowledge

Management System you'll soon find

folders to be very limiting and

restrictive I enjoy having folders in

notion and as little for the is this

possible in obsidian because I use both

tools for different tasks and I'm going

to get to that in the later parts of

this video while on the topic of

structure unlike obsidian notion

encourages you to use it in their way

this can actually be seen as either a

plus or a negative depending on the user

as a lot of people like restrictive and

streamlined options notion also

encourages you to place a lot of thought

on how you're going to structure and

Visually present your data it's more of

a top-down approach whereas obsidian is

more of a bottom-up approach notion also

puts a big emphasis on using templates

but these templates aren't so much a

time saving automation tool but rather

elaborate pages to visually display

information these are so popular in fact

that many people make templates of all

sorts and sell them obsidian also has

many ways of using templates but their

focus is more on Automation and time

saving but now let's go over

discoverability obsidian has multiple

ways in which you can discover your

notes it has folders and system-wide

search just like notion but also has

tags links and most importantly for me

the graph View and I don't just mean the

worldwide graph view that everyone on

obsidian subreddit is so obsessed about

but rather the local graph view this is

a small localized graph based on what

note you're in so you can immediately

see which links are coming into and out

of that note I can't tell you how many

notes I find myself rediscovering and

most importantly using because of Simply

Having the local graph view on at all

times and this goes back to the

importance of what you use it for

because if you're using notion to manage

a project either alone or with a team

having a graph view tags and

bi-directional linking is probably not

your biggest concern but if you're

managing your knowledge it makes a big

difference another important factor is

flexibility and very few apps are as

flexible as obsidian you can make your

obsidian vault as complex or as simple

as you want it to be you don't have to

make use of anything not even folders

not only that but there's hundreds of

different Vault themes as well so you

can have it just the way you like it and

perhaps the best thing about obsidian is

the community plugins the community is

constantly coming up with amazing

plugins that add a ton of functionality

to your Vault for instance as you know

AI is a Hot Topic right now and many

apps are releasing their own flavor of

AI implementation but not many apps

provide you with a way to interact

straight with open AI with no middlemen

involved if you want to use AI in notion

you're looking at adding 10 a month to

your plan but with obsidian you can

interact directly with open AIS API with

no middlemen involved which not only

gets you the latest features and full

control over the API but at a fraction

of the cost I've been using GPT 3.5 in

My Vault and I make around 30 requests a

day and it's costing me less than a

dollar a month and this is just one of

the hundreds of useful plugins in

obsidian alright let's not talk about

collaboration and notion takes the win

here without a doubt it's really easy to

work with multiple people in the same

workspace other users can leave comments

and there's a lot of features that make

it a joy to use and the same goes for

sharing if I want to share a document in

obsidian there's no easy way to do that

whereas with notion you just type

someone's email and they can immediately

see it but being this good at

collaboration is a double-edged sword

because it comes with drawbacks for

starters the software can only be this

good at collaboration if the notes are

not local you need to make an account

with notion to use it because your

notion notes are not on your computer

they're in their servers and this has

some major disadvantages and the first

is future proofness your obsidian notes

are just markdown files that live in

your system this means that your notes

are not tied to obsidian they're not

held hostage by another company if one

day you choose to not use obsidian the

notes are already in your possession in

a widely accepted format and while yes

you can always export your notes from

notion you'll quickly find that it's not

an easy process and this also means that

you can't just have a backup task of

your notion files as you need to

manually go into the settings and

request an export of your notes if you

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sponsoring this video another key

difference and this one is often

overlooked is speed and responsiveness

the web is full of users complaining

about this for notion notion is in the

cloud so you're never going to have the

speed and responsiveness of a local app

this is because you're dependent both on

their servers and your internet

connection and because obsidian runs

locally neither of those are a concern

My Vault has multiple thousands of notes

roughly 30 gigs worth of media and it's

still as fast as it was over two years

ago when I started using obsidian of

course the better your Hardware the

better it will likely run but that's

really only a concern for enormous

faults and then we have the topic of

privacy with obsidian your notes are

truly yours when you use notion you

don't own those notes they live in

notion servers and although I care a

whole lot more about the private see if

my personal thoughts and Knowledge

Management than the stuff I use notion

for I don't think anyone dislikes

privacy and in a world where we're

heading towards the proverbal you'll own

nothing and be happy it's certainly

something to keep in mind there is one

catch with your notes being local as

they are with obsidian if you want to

sync them across multiple devices you

have to use your own sync solution such

as iCloud Google drive or others

obsidian does offer it as a service but

it's a little overpriced this is not a

concern with notion as your notes live

in notion servers so they're always in

sync all you got to do is log in with

your notion account but while this may

seem like a disadvantage it gives you

every bit of control over file

versioning and backups let's start with

versioning notion gives you file

versioning for 7 30 or 90 days depending

on your plan if you want unlimited file

versioning you have to have an

Enterprise plan with obsidian that's a

completely different story My Vault

lives on my Nas which means I get to set

the rules based on my storage capacity

and because most subsidian vaults are so

light and storage is so cheap it's very

easy to have your own unlimited file

versioning system in place and this has

saved me more times than I can count and

the same can be said for backups you can

have as robust of a backup system as you

want My Vault gets automatically backed

up to my Nas with every single change I

make and my Nas gets backed up every

single night to different locations you

don't need to have this robust of a

backup system and I explored much

simpler options in my backups video but

the point here is that you can if you

want whereas notion backs up your notes

to the cloud and if you want those notes

in your possession you need to request

an export for them in the format that

you want there are options to have

automatic backups to the API but they're

far from ideal alright so what is

Obsidian best for in my opinion it's

better suited for personal Knowledge

Management or second brain as people

like to call it it has better

discoverability with bi-directional

linking tags Etc as well as features

like the graph view it's infinitely more

private than notion and it says future

proof as it gets which is really

important for this use case your

personal knowledge is not a project with

a deadline you likely want it to go on

and expand forever and knowing that your

hard work is as future proof as it can

be is really important and as the name

implies personal Knowledge Management is

personal so the collaboration features

that obsidian lacks aren't that big of a

problem on the other hand I think notion

is best for project and task management

as well as collaboration of any kind

notion lets you have multiple people

collaborating in one workspace with

awesome features like leaving comments

and third-party app support it

integrates seamlessly with slack and

Google Drive which makes it great for

small teams and even if I look at it

from a personal perspective I would

still rather use notion for managing

projects especially if those projects

rely heavily on databases so let's go

over why I use both I've been using

obsidian for over two years now and it's

my personal Knowledge Management app

it's where I take my notes where I

Journal it's a place where I think

whereas notion is a place where I work I

work with the team in my job and we use

notion to collaborate as much as I love

obsidian it's nowhere near notion in the

team space and right now this channel

just consists of me and my editor but if

one day we expand the team notion is

definitely where we'll be expanding to

lastly I just want to say that while

notion is a larger and more established

company obsidian currently has been

growing exponentially and has around a

million users and while that's

considerably less than notion's 30

million users obsidian can no longer be

considered a super Niche product not

just that but obsidian has no venture

capitalist to answer to there's no

outside pressure to reach x amount of

users or certain Revenue targets which

means that they can stay true to their

core principles which is something not a

lot of companies can say normally this

comes with a catch which is that if

there's no sustainable monetization

model the developers are less likely to

continue developing but that's simply

not the case with obsidian obsidian is

free but it does have paid options it

has the sync feature which although a

bit pricey is a nice quality of life

Improvement for the users and a way to

help the team there's also obsidian

publish and obsidian for teams as well

as a support tier so it's like it's a

GitHub project strap for cash which is

great because as the users we obviously

want the product to continue to succeed

overall I think the choice should be

based on what your use case is rather

than the app itself am I biased yeah

probably but they're both solid options

so long as you understand that they

serve different purposes if you do

decide that you want to use obsidian I

have an extensive playlist taking you

from the very Basics to Advanced thanks

for watching guys and I'll see the next

one bye