Khoj vs Obsidian
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Khoj
Self-hostable AI assistant over your personal notes
VS
Obsidian
Local-first knowledge base on a folder of Markdown files
| Feature | Khoj | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
| Language | Python | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 36,386 | ★ 20,632 |
| First released | 2021 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Notion AI, Evernote | Evernote, Notion, OneNote |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Khoj or Obsidian better?
Neither is universally better. Khoj has the larger community, while Obsidian is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Khoj and Obsidian free and open-source?
Yes. Khoj is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Obsidian under Proprietary. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Khoj and Obsidian with Docker?
Khoj: yes. Obsidian: check the project docs for container support.