Comparing Obsidian and DeepNotes
Obsidian is a note-taking application first released by Shida Li and Erica Xu in 2020 that works with Markdown files. It is similar to DeepNotes, especially after the introduction of Obsidian Canvas in 2022.
Both are designed for deep interlinking and nesting of notes. But, while Obsidian focuses on adaptability, DeepNotes is more opinionated in its approach.
Here is a detailed comparison of their features:
| Features | Obsidian | DeepNotes |
|---|---|---|
| Open source | ❌ Obsidian is not open source. | ✅ DeepNotes is fully open source. Its code is available here. |
| Extensibility | ✅ Obsidian has support for extensibility through plugins. | ❌ DeepNotes doesn't support extensions. |
| Canvas flexibility | ❌ Notes that can be colored and linked with arrows, but can't be nested or collapsed. (With plugins maybe?) | ✅ DeepNotes offers very flexible notes as a differentiator. Each note can have a head and a body, and can also be nested, collapsed, colored and linked with arrows. |
| Page navigation | ✴️ Obsidian allows to navigate through its pages using the file system, links between pages, or through file search. | ✴️ One of the differentiators of DeepNotes is its unique page navigation system, which keeps track of the last path taken to reach each page. This allows the user to automatically build their page hierarchy by simply creating and navigating through their pages. |
| WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) | ❌ Obsidian Canvas isn't WYSIWYG (With plugins maybe?). What you see during editing differs from the final visual product. Obsidian (non-canvas) is WYSIWYG though. | ✅ DeepNotes is WYSIWYG. What you see during editing is the final visual product. |
| Offline editing | ✅ Obsidian supports note editing while offline. | ❌ DeepNotes currently doesn't support note editing while offline. This is due to technical challenges regarding data synchronization. |
| Realtime collaboration | ❌ Obsidian doesn't support realtime collaboration. The closest thing available is file syncing, but you must be careful with conflicts and data loss. Syncing takes a few seconds to complete. | ✅ DeepNotes supports true realtime collaboration. Users editing the same page can see each other's names and what they're doing. |
| Text search | ✅ Obsidian offers high performance text search across all pages, possible thanks to its offline-first approach. | ❌ DeepNotes currently only offers text search within the current page. |
| Pricing | ✴️ Obsidian is free for the base product. It offers two paid add-ons: Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish, each separately costing $8/year or $10/month. | ✴️ DeepNotes offers 50 personal pages for free. It has a Pro plan, which costs $3.99/year or $4.99/month, and offers unlimited pages and collaborative groups. |
| Security | ✅ Obsidian offers end-to-end encryption through Obsidian Sync. | ✅ DeepNotes offers end-to-end encryption by default. |
| Publishing | ✅ Obsidian supports publishing through Obsidian Publish. | ✅ DeepNotes supports publishing through public groups, which are included in the Pro plan. |
| Graph view | ✅ Obsidian offers a graph view displaying all of its pages. | ❌ DeepNotes doesn't offer a graph view. |
| Themes | ✅ Obsidian supports light and dark themes by default. It also supports themes created by the community. | ❌ DeepNotes offers only a dark theme for now. |
Conclusion
Obsidian and DeepNotes are both great note-taking and personal knowledge management apps. Each is really good at what it does. Obsidian is great at managing and linking information utilizing Markdown files, canvases, and its plugin ecosystem, while DeepNotes has a canvas-first approach, and innovates with its page navigation system and extremely flexible notes.
Ultimately, the choice between Obsidian and DeepNotes boils down to personal preference and the specific features that align with your workflow and note-taking style.
If you're interested in exploring DeepNotes, you can try it for free.