Obsidian vs Trilium Notes
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?
Obsidian
Local-first knowledge base on a folder of Markdown files
VS
Trilium Notes
Hierarchical note-taking for building knowledge bases
| Feature | Obsidian | Trilium Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | Proprietary | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 20,632 | ★ 37,298 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Evernote, Notion, OneNote | Evernote, Notion |
Why pick each one
Choose Trilium Notes if…
- Powerful for big knowledge bases
- Flexible structure
- Scriptable
Frequently asked questions
Is Obsidian or Trilium Notes better?
Neither is universally better. Trilium Notes has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Obsidian and Trilium Notes free and open-source?
Yes. Obsidian is licensed under Proprietary and Trilium Notes under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Obsidian and Trilium Notes with Docker?
Obsidian: check the project docs for container support. Trilium Notes: yes.