Logseq vs Obsidian - Which to Choose?

In today's video, I give my two cents about a topic that has come up frequently in the comments - which should you choose? Obsidian or Logseq?

Spoiler Alert - they're both pretty great!

#logseq #personalknowledge #pkm #notes #obsidian

[new-lviv]

Logseq is completely open source. It means that if maintenance is dropped by the current people, other may fork it and my data will still be usable. For personal usage, this is what I need.

[torspedia]

I actually use both. Logseq is my go-to app for my fleeting notes, planning and when I'm in research mode. When I'm ready to put those notes into my own words, that's when I switch to Obsidian... I also use Obsidian for my long-form writing.

[tansybradshaw]

I used obsidian for ages and it worked well.... but never really felt seamless. I am a writer by occupation so I need short and long form writing. I tried moving my longform to Obsidian but the cost was a big factor. Finally settled my zettelkasten in Logseq after realising that I am a outliner note-taker by trade.

Also - as I am neurodivergent while some plugins are nice, having unlimited customisation made me more focused on customising than note taking. It became overwhelming.

I am also someone that uses emojis and colours. Logseq has an easier way to also handle metadata, querying and ways of displaying files. By that I mean even showing the folders at the side was annoying to scroll instead of just a basic search - without showing you all the files.

I know features are still in Beta but as someone who primarily takes their laptop with them when they are 'doing writing' I know it serves my purpose.

I outline in Logseq but when I am doing my actual article writing - I use Scrivener which is much easier to manage, store and add metadata that is there but not in your face and has so many buttons and whistles that it is distracting.

[phillix]

I tried to use Obsidian, adding outliner and journaling plugins but it didn work because Obsidian doesn't work well with block units.
In my Logseq's journal, I start a paragraph(a.k.a. block) for each client/team meeting during the day and write the name of the client/meeting on it (it automatically recognize the name and links it to my client's page), then I write indented bullets bellow for each comment or task.
Latter on, I can go to the backlinks section in each client's page where I can see not only the journal's paragraphs lines with the links, but also all the child indented comments and tasks, and I can actually edit them there (This is called transclusion, i think). So i have an automated report by client, project, team or whatever just by looking at the backlinks.
Obsidian doesn't inherit the paragraphs indented rows and you cannot edite them right there in the backlinks. That's a deal breaker for me.
I wish Logseq had the beautiful UI of Obsidian or Roam or Capacities.

[OliverScanlan-sb]

As a complete beginner to PKM software, this was absolutely blistering content. Super helpful, and in a tight sub-ten video. Great work!

[Thorned_Rose]

I was almost converted to Logseq by the fact that it can do queries and annotate PDFs out of the box. And then I discovered that it doesn't adhere to Markdown standards as much as Obsidian does. That alone was unfortunately a deal breaker for me. Part of the whole point of using a markdown based system was that it's future proof and should Obsidian ever stop being developed, I can move my data to a different app. Even with Logseq having the advantage of being opensource, if the devs stop working on it and no one else picks it up, having non-standard markdown beneath it all is going to screw users over.

[kirso]

The most underrated feature is that you don't need to think where to put notes given the underlying calendar date, blocks and backlinking there is a record and that's really powerful. Don't make me think philosophy just works.

[CJ-jehd]

Absolutely fantastic video! Really helped me decided which I wanted to use, thank you!

[Kristina-okth]

Really glad that this video was in my recs. Please keep making videos, you're truly good at this!

I've just recently switched from notion to obsidian and I'm still getting used to it. I read about logseq but never tried it, maybe I should

[НеЛупа]

Thx for your video. Its really useful. I really like your pronunciation. I'm learning English, and your pronunciation is the most understandable of all

[zfadli]

I tried Obsidian but I always come back to Logseq. I gravitate towards the time-stamping style of Logseq

[joshuamarcano]

You're never going to find the perfect tool. You're going to use what's hot today and switch to what's hotter tomorrow. My biggest problem with content praising these tools is that the channels are 100% dedicated to them.

[jonchines]

LogSeq for meeting and daily notes - pen and paper “replacement”. Obsidian for long form. For anyone else that cares, vi-mode/bindings in Obsidian are far better.

Edit: I guess I could’ve actually watched the video before posting as we’ve redundantly said the same thing…

[themichaelferrari]

Thanks for the recap Alan!
As an OG of both apps, I agree.

LogSeq's strongest feature is its daily journal. And it fits to write and let the app do the organizing for you.
And for those who like to organize everything manually using tags and folders, Obsidian is best for you.

What tips the scale for me is friction.

There's too much friction to write in Obsidian's daily journal. And for me no matter how awesome Obsidian is (I, do, think it's awesome), I just don't write on it.
And when I don't write, I can't organize anything on it 🤷🏻‍♂

I'd love to give Obsidian a second chance. I think it has the potential to be an awesome app for personal project managing app, if it has less friction.

I'd like to know for Obsidian power-users (especially project managers) out there. How do you write on its daily journal everyday?

[oakld]

I had Obsidian for some time and struggled to even use it. It was just another note taking app with benefit of markdown. When I learned about LogSeq, I took off like a rocket from day one and it became among the most used and useful application I've ever used. With little bit of exaggeration I wonder, how could I had lived and work without it before 😊

[TomCarlson]

Thanks for this. Interestingly, it convinced me that I’m best off sticking with Obsidian, which underscores your balanced comparison.

[pinklemonade]

I’ve never heard of either of these things im not sure why I clicked on the video but you have such a calming voice I just ended up staying the whole way through!😭😭

[JonBrookes]

I like your frank candid and balance summary of these 2 popular solutions

logseq is open source, there for for me is the win but like you say, some folks might just prefer obsidian but it is not free for commercial use, so that is a deal breaker for me as I use it for integration into other systems, like CMS for web site and app creation

the block edit with 'bullets' for everything took me by surprise when using logseq however I found you can highlight and export blocks as long prose very easily then it all fell into place

using blocks like in this 'outliner' pattern starts to make prose like objects you can move about, which finally made it click for me and then use the plugin 'bullet threading' makes this a joy

the lack of plugins for me is actually a win over obsidian as I keep these to a bare minimum as privacy and security is key for me

[AndrewWooldridge]

Thanks for this thoughtful video. I have been an Obsidian user for a while, but I dislike that it is closed source. Learning how Logseq is focused on outlining and is open source are two very compelling features for me.

[CaptZenPetabyte]

If pages and long-form content was easier in logseq, I would love logseq more for my uni work ... the graph really doesnt work for me making notes for uni and trying to organise pages is hard because there are no folders or places to put them (and putting them in 'favourites' is not what thats for) and yeah, theres the 'content' fold out menu but it gets in the way ... Id go to obsidian because it can do the bullet points the same way but I prefer the way logseq has all its PDF stuff seamlessly built in. Its getting to the point I may just return to doing text files or set up a personall wiki on my server?!?!