I like and use Obsidian practically daily. No more honest recommendation than that. 🙂
Writing this in Obsidian to copy-paste to my Wordpress site when ready (and see how that turns out 🙂 ).
While this is a review, I also wrote about how to install and configure Obsidian and sync your notes.
Independence Disclosure:
In March 2026, the Obsidian team initially declined my Sync subscription discount renewal, claiming they “found there to be nothing” regarding my community involvement – despite five detailed reviews and multiple forum contributions. While they later corrected this mistake, my position remains the same: I write for the community and for my own reminder/reference, not for corporate metrics.
My advocacy is genuine and not for sale. I will continue to provide this “nothing” and keep it up-to-date for as long as the software remains useful (I use it daily at the time of writing, it is awesome). I also plan to keep my Sync subscription – with or without any discount, because it is reliable and saves me more time & energy than it costs.
For my full review policy and testing approach, see:
BikeGremlin Review Policy
The good
- .md files (open standard) it uses are universal, so you are not 100% platform locked (though the internal linking is its major strength and AFAIK there is no such alternative at the time of writing).
- Software is 100% free. Not subscription based (for now at least). Revenue model is probably the fairest I’ve seen: you pay if you want convenient Sync and file versioning (workaround free sync options and downsides) across devices – but the software is 100% fully functional if you pay nothing.
The paid Sync works great on Windows, Linux and IOS (I use it daily on several different computers and my phone). - It actually lets me pick my native, Serbocroatian, for spell-checking (along with English) and it works very well. All the other software I ever saw, apart from YouTube, insist on the nonsense artificial nationalist divisions to Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, etc. Awesome – kudos! 🙂
- Internal search is fast and powerful.
- Internal linking is fast and intuitive – which helps a lot for building a note taking and knowledge-base system.
- UI/UX is top class (despite the flaws noted in this article).
Tips ‘n’ tricks
You can drag and drop a “chapter” (heading) into a note.
Reddit thread showing an animation for it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1jub205/internal_note_links_how_did_i_never_know_this/
Example for this, linking the “References” heading of this note (this part doesn’t transfer to Wordpress, of course, so just a “preview”):
[[#References]]
Linking the main title heading:
[[#Obsidian.md software review]]
CTRL + hover shows the text from the internal link.
I hope this screenshot explains it better:
Human stupidity
Apparently, filename sanitisation was discontinued after user requests. If you need more proof about human stupidity and how “capitalist competition” usually makes things worse for the human race and the environment – this is a prime example. 🙂
See my chapter about file and directory naming:
https://io.bikegremlin.com/31771/backups-101-explained/#9
Multi-user “multiplayer”
Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1jvi715/are_you_exciting_for_the_new_updates/
If they don’t fix filename sanitisation, the multiplayer feature might bite us all – both users and devs – in the rear, IMO.
I’m excited too, but one thing that still worries me is filename sanitisation – or the lack of it.
Right now, Obsidian allows characters in filenames that aren’t supported on all platforms (e.g, Windows vs macOS vs Linux). That hasn’t been a huge deal when you’re working solo and careful, but once multiplayer editing is involved… that’s a whole new ball game.
Imagine two people editing the same note, but one of them is on Windows and the other is on a platform that allows characters Windows won’t tolerate. If filename conflicts, sync errors, or even silent overwrites start creeping in, it’s going to be painful – not just for users but also for devs having to troubleshoot support nightmares.
I really hope the team makes filename sanitisation a priority before multiplayer goes mainstream. It feels like a small detail, but it’s one of those things that could snowball into serious problems once real-world usage ramps up.
Technical Issues
The mobile app has a very small icon for enabling the case-sensitive search, so it can easily be turned on by mistake when you are trying to click on the small “x” to delete the previously entered search term. Likewise, the only info for the case sensitive search status is the colour of the “Aa” letter, very small, and not noticeable enough (should have some shiny circle/background when enabled).
No software for old men! 🙂
Obsidian as a Zettelkasten tool
Obsidian doesn’t let you set a visible unique identifier for each note. It uses the title as an identifier (the title is used like a filename).
Obsidian won’t let you work with a strict Zettelkasten system – you can’t set unique identifier for each note, that is independent of the note’s title. Your system ends up depending on the software.
Obsidian’s Main Downside
There’s no dedicated field or system-level support for separating IDs from titles!
Related to this, a big downside is that Obsidian doesn’t sanitize filenames (e.g. all low-cap, all transcribed to English alphabet, hyphens instead of blank space in filenames etc.). This could create problems when syncing between different platforms and file systems.
Upside
The upside is that it can auto-update titles and show a graphical knowledge map. So I would argue it to be a net-positive, even if it’s not strictly Zettelkasten.
You must still actively place backlinks yourself!
Conclusion
I’m using Obsidian daily – despite the here-listed flaws, it’s still the least bad note-taking software (when all the pros and cons are considered and weighed against the existing alternatives).
I’m even paying for the Sync option – so that I can seamlessly transit between my Windows and Linux desktops and laptops – and my smartphone.
Thanks to the good people who’ve built it and are maintaining it. I understand it’s their job, but they could have done a lot worse or been greedier. Yes, I would prefer to have the code be open source, in case the Obsidian company gets bought out by some VC fund, but for as long as it stays what it is, things are good – and in case of any strange policy changes, I still have my notes offline in the standard, open .md format, so not all is lost.
References, sources, and related links
- 10 Problems with Obsidian You’ll Realize When It’s Too Late:
An interesting text about what to look out for
https://medium.com/@theo-james/10-problems-with-obsidian-youll-realize-when-it-s-too-late-17e903886847
Most of the problems listed in the above-linked article are solved by using directories and common sense – see my Deathnote system. - My forum post about filename sanitisation and Multiuser editing planned feature:
https://www.bikegremlin.net/threads/obsidian-updates.480/ - My Obsidian forum post about filename sanitisation:
https://forum.obsidian.md/t/handle-filename-casing-illegal-characters-consistently-across-os-es/22543/15 - My article about Obsidian installation and configuration (to use as a Zettelkasten tool):
https://io.bikegremlin.com/35681/obsidian-installation-and-configuration/ - My “Deathnote” Zettelkasten system implemented via Obsidian:
https://io.bikegremlin.com/35989/bikegremlin-deathnotes-my-zettelkasten-system/ - Article I created in Obsidian (and later published on my website as the reference below shows):
https://io.bikegremlin.com/35847/zettelkasten-deathnotes-atomic-notes/
Obsidian file link – just as a show-case:
[[600-main/km-systems/b-zettelkasten-explained|b-zettelkasten-explained]] - Obsidian forum discussion about Zettelkasten in general:
https://forum.obsidian.md/t/zettelkasten-is-complex-obscure-and-not-for-you/94498/2 - How to sync Obsidian using GitHub – so that it works on mobile:
https://meganesulli.com/blog/sync-obsidian-vault-iphone-ipad/
It is not perfect, but it can work. - Obsidian: The King of Learning Tools (FULL GUIDE + SETUP):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSTy_BInQs8
First basic Obsidian introduction and tutorial video.
Explains basics of note taking and Obsidian use. Links, tags (made using empty notes) and indexes (made using tag notes with headings and other info added).
I have already implemented this to my Obsidian setup article. - Effective Note-Taking to Remember More + Create New Ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t9R1AnB7ho - How to become an expert with Obsidian (FULL GUIDE):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMfz9E7g-Hk
It shows some details of how the author uses Obsidian to implement his version of Zettelkasten.
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