Obsidian: The Most Secure Notion Alternative (not sponsored)

There is nothing quite like Obsidian in the productivity app space. It's free. It's secure. And it's incredibly powerful — made for power users who can make ample use of its customization features and backlinks. ⚡

I've been on the search for the perfect Notion Alternative for months — something that is more secure, faster, and more minimal. Obsidian checks all those boxes, but was it worth the switch? In today's video, I'm going to break down what Obsidian is, how I made it work for me, and whether it's worth trying out for yourself. ✨

〰️ my links 〰️

〰️ relevant links 〰️

〰️ timestamps 〰️
0:00 - Intro
0:54 - What is Obsidian?
3:22 - My Wishlist
4:49 - Switching from Notion (setup)
6:48 - Obsidian Pros and Cons
9:01 - Should you get it?
10:30 - Conclusion
11:01 - Bloopers

〰️ connect 〰️
🍳 Cooking YouTube - @souschefharshibar

〰️ music 〰️

〰️ disclosure 〰️
This video is not sponsored; all opinions shared are my own. Some of the above links are affiliate links. Using these links is the best way to support me and my everlasting desire to find that Indian parent approval 🙃

〰️ editing effects 〰️

#harshibar #obsidian #notsponsored

[tacoanime]

i have never heard of this program… and to be honest, i wasn’t even looking for this. I was just searching for obsidian like the lava rocks lol. but i could really use this for my work (as a software engineer). I like making my daily notes on markdown files for things to work on, notes on the stuff i’m working on, source code snippets, design pattern usage. I’m really happy i found this video. thank you!

[dbo]

Obsidian was basically love at first sight to me. The Calendar plugin is brillant. I might get Obsidian Sync to support the project.

[Xoranium]

Another fact: It takes 420 seconds to break obsidian with bare hands

[_HMCB_]

harshibar, you have one of the nicest communities. The people here always have warm, friendly, and encouraging comments. It’s a breath of fresh air.

[sanketss]

Notion databases has its own place but I have majorly transitioned to Obsidian as my knowledge management system of choice no regrets. you own your data and its simple markdown files which makes obsidian awesome. too many awesome things in obsidian like graph view, linking of files and third party plugin support and a great community above all.

[sunnyskies]

I love it! Easy, no frills and can use offline, it’s all locally saved. Notion was such an over-organize rabbit hole and the needing to be online was limiting it for me. Obsidian has better workflow for me and nice preview of your markdown

[nathansmith]

I really love obsidian, I use it to take all my notes for uni. For law, it is amazing as can link all the common concepts and cases together. The main downsides for me are that it can become a mess if you don't keep constantly sorting stuff, it does not deal with images well and the possibility that devs abandon it. Plus no mobile app is annoying. But overall really saved my life with online open-book exams, it makes note-taking almost effortless and can find stuff super fast.

[knittingsofi]

I'm here after Notion went offline today and made me essentially have to take notes that probably won't be useful at all for all my classes today and have no idea of my todos for today... Needless to say, I'm ready for something new, thank you for the lovely video!!

[funkybkool]

Because of your review, I began to use Obsidian about a year ago. The secure and offline potential got my attention. Thus far I’ve transferred my coursework to my Obsidian vault. With a little TLC when moving information in — the graph view has offers invaluable insight into the interconnectedness of my coursework. Thank you for the excellent review!

[breathingwalker-relaxingam]

I love how Akshay Kumar is suing obsidian 0:32

[nicolette]

I just love how I got your video about an honest review of Notion to popped-up in my recommendations because I was about to use Notion to strategize and plan everything until I saw it. As for someone like me who truly values privacy, imma say no-no to Notion quickly and start using Obsidian instead. So, I'm really thankful that I got to watch this video, move on and resort to an alternate version of Notion which is Obsidian. Thank you so much for this vid! ^-^ <3

[sarthakmishra]

I love your work. No nonsense. Informative. Engaging. Yet not boring or overly concerned with production quality. Thanks

[markreynolds]

I found Notion first, and after a steep learning curve really like it. I then found Obsidian and decided to use it to track all of my contacts and their degrees of separation. As I got better with Obsidian, I realized I could import exported Notion pages giving me an off-line backup, an opportunity to polish my notes at the time of import, and the graph capability. Plus, the Random Note capability is great for productive distraction. I am just scratching the surface with Obsidian, resisting the temptation to go down a rathole. At this point, I am still torn between the two. As I learn Obsidian I may decide to go "all-in" but still replicating between the two and since I need to polish my notes anyway, I might as well. Thanks for the review and the great resource links.

[capraruandrei]

I really wanted to like Notion and made quite an effort to use it as my main note taking app and PKM database, however after 6 months I realized that I was spending 80% of my time tinkering and making it look nice and pretty and only 20% on actually writing. With Obsidian once I was done with setting it up to my liking, which took a couple of days, it’s all about writing writing writing. I rarely mess around with the setup anymore. The recent developments and additions, app access and sync, made it the perfect app for me.

[negatron]

omg. it's so refreshing that some youtuber are still simple and straight to the point.

[fabianabrandaoalvessilva]

It was the most honest review I've watched about Obsidian. I am Notion friendly user, but I have a few concerns. However, for me, Notion works much better to organize my classes, tables of requirements, and to do reminders. The Obsidian it is amazing when you see, but is not friendly to initially users, or who doesn't know much about Markdown. My next it will Walling, just for organize todo list.

[DonaldOfEarth]

I believe that this is exactly what I've been seeking. I've just installed it and setup a vault, so we'll see. Thanks for posting!

[damonpthomas]

I've been using Obsidian for around six months and it's completely revolutionised my work. I would recommend it highly for anyone needing to write assignments, journal articles, book chapters, etc. There are a million and one ways you could set it up to work with your own use case, and the community is super helpful anytime you get stuck or need advice. It's quite different to notion; notion is more like a super-powered Microsoft Excel while Obsidian is more like a super-powered Microsoft Word. If you spend more time in Word than Excel, it would be worth giving Obsidian a look. It's free too which is the most mindblowing part. Cheers

[shadykid]

i think *notion* as a *management hub* and *obsidian* as *research* and documents is good. that's what i do. I like *databases* of notion but i like the *formatting* of obsidian .

the reason i would use obsidian to put my notes is because the documents are more *sensitive* therefore locally run is better whereas a management system isn't as much and can be *replaced* with another app that allows you to *manage* your work and/or life

[mcgreevs]

I've been using obsidian for months and I just learned 6 super valuable tips from this video. Can't thank you enough for sharing! Definitely subscribing.