Notea 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 | Notea | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 96 · Excellent |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,147 | ★ 21,797 |
| First released | 2021 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Notion, Evernote | Evernote, Notion, OneNote |
What are Notea and Obsidian?
Notea
Notea is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking application with a Notion-like editor that stores all data on S3-compatible object storage. It runs serverlessly and requires no traditional database.
- Notion-like editor
- Stores data on S3
- No database required
- Markdown support
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
Notea vs Obsidian: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Notea's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Obsidian is actively maintained. Notea is written in TypeScript, while Obsidian is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — MIT for Notea versus Proprietary for Obsidian. Obsidian has the considerably larger community, at 21,797 GitHub stars versus 2,147. Notea lists first-class Docker deployment; Obsidian does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Notea if…
- Simple storage model
- Clean editing experience
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Single-user focused
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 Notea or Obsidian better?
Obsidian is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Notea if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Notea and Obsidian free and open-source?
Yes. Notea is licensed under MIT and Obsidian under Proprietary. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Notea and Obsidian with Docker?
Notea: yes. Obsidian: check the project docs for container support.