Obsidian vs VNote
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
VNote
Markdown note-taking application built for programmers
| Feature | Obsidian | VNote |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | Proprietary | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary | bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 20,632 | ★ 12,885 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Evernote, Notion, OneNote | Evernote, OneNote |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Obsidian or VNote better?
Neither is universally better. Obsidian has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Obsidian and VNote free and open-source?
Yes. Obsidian is licensed under Proprietary and VNote under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Obsidian and VNote with Docker?
Obsidian: check the project docs for container support. VNote: check the project docs for container support.