Notion vs. Obsidian: Which Fits Your Business Notes and Knowledge Base?
Notion is a shared cloud workspace with AI on its Business plan; Obsidian keeps notes as files on your own device and is free, even for work.
Notion vs. Obsidian is really a question of where your knowledge lives. Notion stores pages in its cloud so a team can edit together, with AI agents on its Business plan. Obsidian saves notes as plain-text Markdown files in a folder on your own computer, which makes it private, portable and free to use, but more of a solo tool unless you pay for Sync.
We compared Notion with ClickUp for project management in an earlier piece. This one looks only at notes and knowledge bases. Prices are US dollars from each company's pricing page on the date checked. If your knowledge lives mostly in documents you already have, our guide on how to use NotebookLM shows another approach.
| At a glance | Notion | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | Free plan, 10 guests, 7-day page history | Free app, no limits, no sign-up |
| Paid pricing | Plus $10, Business $20 per member a month | Sync from $4 a user a month; Publish $8 a site |
| Where notes live | Notion's cloud, with offline mode | Local folder of plain-text Markdown files |
| Team collaboration | Teamspaces, permission groups, guests | Shared vaults through paid Sync |
| AI | Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes and Enterprise Search on Business | None built in per its site; community plugins |
| Use at work | Business and Enterprise plans | Free for work since February 2025; optional $50 a user a year commercial license |
| Publishing notes | notion.site domain (1 on Free) | Obsidian Publish, $8 a site a month billed annually |
| Cross-device sync | Included | Sync Standard: 1 vault, 1 GB; Sync Plus $8: 10 vaults, 10 GB |
Notion
- Real-time team editing with teamspaces and permissions
- Business plan adds Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes and Enterprise Search (beta)
- Verified pages surface in search and AI citations on Business
- Offline mode on all plans
- Free and Plus get only a limited trial of Notion AI
- Free plan caps uploads at 5MB per file and keeps 7 days of page history
- Your notes live in Notion's cloud rather than as files you hold
Obsidian
- Free without limits and no account needed
- Notes are plain-text Markdown files in a local folder you control
- Links, backlinks, graph view and canvas for connecting ideas
- Thousands of community plugins and themes
- No built-in AI listed on its site; AI depends on plugins
- Syncing across devices or with a team requires paid Sync
- Steeper learning curve for people used to apps like Notion
Pick Notion if your knowledge base is for a team: shared SOPs, onboarding docs and client wikis that several people edit, and you want AI that searches it, which means budgeting for Business at $20 a member. Pick Obsidian if the knowledge base is mostly yours: research, ideas and reference notes you want to keep private and readable as plain files for decades. Many owners use both, with Obsidian for thinking and Notion for the team. If your real bottleneck is time to do the work, see our list of the best AI calendar apps.
Prices and features checked October 20, 2026 from each company's own site. They change often, so confirm before you buy. We are not paid by either company.
- Notion pricing (Notion)
- Obsidian pricing (Obsidian)
- Obsidian Sync (Obsidian)
- How Obsidian stores data (Obsidian Help)
- Obsidian is now free for work (Obsidian)
- Obsidian (Obsidian)
Is AI recommending your business?
Our AI visibility audit checks what ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI say about you, and includes a 1:1 review of the results.
See the audits