Notable 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.
Obsidian
Local-first knowledge base on a folder of Markdown files
| Feature | Notable | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 28 · At risk | 96 · Excellent |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 23,496 | ★ 21,797 |
| First released | 2018 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Evernote, Notion | Evernote, Notion, OneNote |
What are Notable and Obsidian?
Notable
Notable is a note-taking application that stores notes as plain Markdown files on disk. It offers a clean editor, tags, and full-text search while keeping all data in portable files.
- Plain Markdown file storage
- Tag-based organization
- Full-text search
- Clean editor
Obsidian
Obsidian is a powerful personal knowledge base that works on a local folder of plain Markdown files. While the app is proprietary, your notes remain fully local and portable, and self-hosted sync is possible via plugins.
- Plain Markdown file storage
- Bidirectional links and graph view
- Large community plugin ecosystem
- Local-first and private
Notable vs Obsidian: key differences
Notable is written in TypeScript, while Obsidian is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Notable versus Proprietary for Obsidian. Notable is the more established project (first released 2018), while Obsidian arrived in 2020.
Why pick each one
Choose Notable if…
- Notes stay as portable files
- Simple and focused
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Desktop only
Choose Obsidian if…
- Notes stay portable and local
- Highly extensible
Watch out for
- Core app is closed source
- Official sync is a paid service
Frequently asked questions
Is Notable or Obsidian better?
Neither is universally better. Notable has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Notable and Obsidian free and open-source?
Yes. Notable is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Obsidian under Proprietary. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Notable and Obsidian with Docker?
Notable: check the project docs for container support. Obsidian: check the project docs for container support.