I wish to love Obsidian, I actually do. The issue with Obsidian is Obsidian itself, and, after making an attempt it out once more, I see why so many individuals select to make use of Notion as a substitute.
Every part in Obsidian requires a plugin
And so many plugins find yourself deserted
Credit score: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Whereas there are lots of markdown editors on the market, Obsidian is arguably one of many largest round. The problem is, Obsidian ships as a reasonably barebones expertise. The Obsidian crew is fairly small, comprising of lower than a dozen folks, which signifies that their core focus is on the core expertise of Obsidian.
That is really an issue although. Primarily, if there’s one thing you wish to do in Obsidian, the possibilities are it requires a third-party plugin and isn’t a local characteristic. In actual fact, in the event you have a look at Kepano’s X account, he really tells folks to search for plugins at principally each flip.
Due to this philosophy, lots of Obsidian’s greatest options find yourself changing into abandonware as a result of it’s based mostly on a plugin that was maintained by one one that ultimately received too busy to maintain sustaining it. I bumped into this downside after downloading Obsidian to attempt to get it arrange how I needed it.
I reside and breathe kanban boards for my writing workflow. Every article I write goes by means of a number of phases, from preliminary ideation, to outlining, pending approval, writing, and extra. I exploit Notion for writing presently, and the kanban system works nice there.
I had heard that Obsidian had a good kanban plugin, and I used to be excited to make use of it—till I noticed it hadn’t been up to date in months and the developer had marked it as archived, however nonetheless out there. Then, I discovered one other kanban plugin, solely to see that it was marked as searching for a brand new maintainer. The issue is, neither labored all that effectively with the newer Obsidian model I used to be operating.
I did discover one other kanban plugin, and that labored okay, but it surely wasn’t the expertise I used to be searching for. I thought of constructing my very own plugin, however that will be suffering from the identical points as utilizing an out-of-date plugin. I actually don’t have the time or vitality to take care of a plugin to verify it really works with future variations, in order that performed a serious function in my resolution of whether or not to proceed utilizing Obsidian or not.
Obsidian presents an amazing writing expertise suffering from a not nice sync expertise
Except you give Obsidian cash or spend a ton of time establishing your individual sync server
I completely love the writing expertise that Obsidian presents. I’m not an enormous fan of block-based writing, which is what Notion presently makes use of. Obsidian simply has a a lot smoother expertise and I like the way it appears to be like. The issue is, appears to be like can’t overcome ache factors with ease of use.
Obsidian is designed to be local-first, which is unbelievable in comparison with Notion’s cloud-first method. The issue comes from the sync expertise with Obsidian. Obsidian helps syncing with iCloud Drive or Google Drive simply high-quality, however the sync is linked to iCloud Drive or Google Drive, which is not instantaneous.
The one different official sync methodology supplied by Obsidian is paying for his or her month-to-month Obsidian Sync service, which is principally instantaneous. I paid for it for just a few months however ended up cancelling it as a result of I simply couldn’t convey myself to proceed to pay for it.
I finally discovered the open supply Obsidian LiveSync plugin, which lets you self-host your individual sync platform. I attempted this, and it largely works, however it’s a main ache to arrange and maintain going. I’ve received in depth expertise with Docker, self-hosting, and Linux server upkeep. Operating Obsidian LiveSync is unquestionably doable, but it surely’s not a fast setup. There’s additionally the Obsidian Git plugin, which is fairly highly effective in its personal rights, but it surely’s nonetheless a plugin and the lone developer might drop help for it at any time.
The syncing expertise alone with Obsidian was sufficient to drive me away from it. It’s simply an excessive amount of work, and Obsidian might completely have achieved a greater job with it. The Obsidian LiveSync plugin isn’t even a first-party instrument, it’s a third-party characteristic that somebody in the neighborhood constructed, which suggests it’s suffering from the identical factor that each one the opposite plugins are—the potential for abandonment.
Notion is just extra succesful than Obsidian
I actually wish to love Obsidian, but it surely’s lacking core performance that it ought to have
Credit score: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Whereas Obsidian does have an absolute ton of plugins, there are just a few core issues that basically aren’t all that attainable with it. Databases are a lot more durable to construct in Obsidian, totally different view kinds aren’t simple to design, and varied varieties of frontmatter, like customized tags or fields, additionally aren’t all that intuitive.
Obsidian actually is simply designed to be a barebones writing program, and that’s fully high-quality, but it surely simply doesn’t actually work for me. I would like extra capabilities than that for my writing software program. In Notion, for instance, I monitor all kinds of fields which might be technically attainable in Obsidian however they’re not utilized in almost the identical manner.
When I’ve an article due date or scheduled date, I put that right into a discipline in Notion that’s utilized in sorting. I even have varied different fields, from classes to file attachments and extra. Whereas Obsidian does have help for many of this, the implementation is sort of poor.
Once more, with quite a few plugins, I might in all probability repair that, however at that time, I’m spending extra time constructing the answer then really writing, and that turns into an issue. A writing answer ought to simply give you the results you want, and Obsidian makes you’re employed for it.
Obsidian has such nice bones, however the execution leaves quite a bit to be desired
I need to like Obsidian, I actually do. The issue is, Obsidian simply doesn’t do what I would like it to, and I believe that’s the overall consensus of different customers too. Whereas Obsidian undoubtedly has a cult following, it actually solely has about a million customers worldwide. Evaluate that to the 100 million customers that Notion has, and it begins to make extra sense.
A million customers is nothing in need of superb for a reasonably indie stage undertaking, but it surely undoubtedly reveals. I want Obsidian one of the best, and I’ll in all probability proceed to check out Obsidian from time to time to see what’s modified, however, for now, Notion wins out on my day by day writing instrument, regardless that I actually want it didn’t.
