Obsidian: The Most Secure Notion Alternative (not sponsored)
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- There is nothing quite like Obsidian in the productivity app space. It's free. It's secure. And it's incredibly powerful - made for power users who can make ample use of its customization features and backlinks. ⚡
I've been on the search for the perfect Notion Alternative for months - something that is more secure, faster, and more minimal. Obsidian checks all those boxes, but was it worth the switch? In today's video, I'm going to break down what Obsidian is, how I made it work for me, and whether it's worth trying out for yourself. ✨
〰️ relevant links 〰️
👾 Try Obsidian Out - obsidian.md/
🎨 Popular CSS Plugins -github.com/kmaasrud/awesome-o..., forum.obsidian.md/t/meta-post...
📝 Notion Transfer Instructions - github.com/connertennery/Noti...
🤖 GitHub Sync Instructions - github.com/denolehov/obsidian... or forum.obsidian.md/t/obsidian-...
🧠 Second Brain Demo with Thiago Forte - fortelabs.co/blog/basboverview/
〰️ timestamps 〰️
0:00 - Intro
0:54 - What is Obsidian?
3:22 - My Wishlist
4:49 - Switching from Notion (setup)
6:48 - Obsidian Pros and Cons
9:01 - Should you get it?
10:30 - Conclusion
11:01 - Bloopers
〰️ connect 〰️
📸 Instagram - / harshibar
💼 LinkedIn - / hyerramreddy
🐦 Twitter - / harshibar
🍳 Cooking RUclips - @souschefharshibar
〰️ links 〰️
📞 1:1 Mentorship to Grow your RUclips Channel - superpeer.com/harshibar
🖱️ Mouse - amzn.to/3dERRwR
💻 Laptop - amzn.to/3utGIFV
🎥 Camera -amzn.to/3dXDZhx
🎙️ Microphone - amzn.to/3wxTsgt
📱 Icon Pack - gum.co/icons-by-harshibar
⌨️ Keyboard - mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/...
〰️ music 〰️
🎧 Epidemic Sound - www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
〰️ disclosure 〰️
This video is not sponsored; all opinions shared are my own. Some of the above links are affiliate links. Using these links is the best way to support me and my everlasting desire to find that Indian parent approval 🙃
〰️ editing effects 〰️
Stock Video - www.pexels.com/
Friends Computer Clip - • FRIENDS EPS 8 SEASON 2...
Community Clip - • Community - Troy's Tim...
Mail Movie Teaser - • Mail Teaser | An aha O...
DDLJ GIF - tenor.com/view/aaya-aayi-serk... Friends GIF - • Unofficially Friends -... Bird GIF - tenor.com/view/hei-hei-moana-...
#harshibar #obsidian #notsponsored
i have never heard of this program… and to be honest, i wasn’t even looking for this. I was just searching for obsidian like the lava rocks lol. but i could really use this for my work (as a software engineer). I like making my daily notes on markdown files for things to work on, notes on the stuff i’m working on, source code snippets, design pattern usage. I’m really happy i found this video. thank you!
Is it weird that I am drawn to this app like I'm drawn to other "rocks" lol
Another fact: It takes 420 seconds to break obsidian with bare hands
Underrated!
:3
@@zahraraza8211 :3
Wait what do you mean with that?
@@calmnessounds7529 Minecraft reference
Obsidian was basically love at first sight to me. The Calendar plugin is brillant. I might get Obsidian Sync to support the project.
I love how Akshay Kumar is suing obsidian 0:32
😂😂😂😂😂
Right? 🤣
harshibar, you have one of the nicest communities. The people here always have warm, friendly, and encouraging comments. It’s a breath of fresh air.
Thank you for bringing the positivity to this channel!
I love your work. No nonsense. Informative. Engaging. Yet not boring or overly concerned with production quality. Thanks
I love it! Easy, no frills and can use offline, it’s all locally saved. Notion was such an over-organize rabbit hole and the needing to be online was limiting it for me. Obsidian has better workflow for me and nice preview of your markdown
Awesome!
Because of your review, I began to use Obsidian about a year ago. The secure and offline potential got my attention. Thus far I’ve transferred my coursework to my Obsidian vault. With a little TLC when moving information in - the graph view has offers invaluable insight into the interconnectedness of my coursework. Thank you for the excellent review!
I'm here after Notion went offline today and made me essentially have to take notes that probably won't be useful at all for all my classes today and have no idea of my todos for today... Needless to say, I'm ready for something new, thank you for the lovely video!!
Oof... these outrages make us realize just how much we depend on these apps. Hope this video could help!
Dang! I thought it was just my Notion setup acting up 😅
what can someone explain? is it permanently down or just temporary 😅
This is one of my favorite channels now! I love how well you put these videos together.
Im so glad your amazing thumbnails made me click and discover your channel. Loving your work and sense of humour! 🥰
Thank you! 😊
Notion databases has its own place but I have majorly transitioned to Obsidian as my knowledge management system of choice no regrets. you own your data and its simple markdown files which makes obsidian awesome. too many awesome things in obsidian like graph view , linking of files and third party plugin support and a great community above all.
Three years later, would you still recommend it?
@@user-ig7kf5gr4l still using it.
omg. it's so refreshing that some youtuber are still simple and straight to the point.
I've been using obsidian for months and I just learned 6 super valuable tips from this video. Can't thank you enough for sharing! Definitely subscribing.
I really love obsidian, I use it to take all my notes for uni. For law, it is amazing as can link all the common concepts and cases together. The main downsides for me are that it can become a mess if you don't keep constantly sorting stuff, it does not deal with images well and the possibility that devs abandon it. Plus no mobile app is annoying. But overall really saved my life with online open-book exams, it makes note-taking almost effortless and can find stuff super fast.
they do have an app now!
Images can be stored locally in a global folder or in current folder, your choice. You can even upload them to Imgur for free private use.
Even images uploaded to Notion are saved in their Amazon storage.
So it's better to save our images locally or in Imgur.
With local images, you can edit them anyhow or even rename them quickly with PowerToys and with regex. And you can even back them up in your choice of Cloud.
For images in Imgur, they are stored practically forever, are Free, are Private, and you can quickly download all your images from Imgur's settings.
In Notion, you simply don't know what all images are saved in which all pages.
But in Obsidian, with regex search, you can quickly know this.
And Obsidian even has basic OCR support with plugin.
Yeah, this is the use case I was considering for obsidian. Not really sure about using it to run my life/productivity, but I was considering it as a useful tool for learning.
How do you sort and categorize your pages? Obsidian seems like the perfect place for learning because of the links that we can do, but I haven't seen a hierarchical/organized method of classifying things, except for the web. And that can get really confusing.
First time I’ve heard the security of information being highlighted as an important consideration. Well done and thank you.
I just love how I got your video about an honest review of Notion to popped-up in my recommendations because I was about to use Notion to strategize and plan everything until I saw it. As for someone like me who truly values privacy, imma say no-no to Notion quickly and start using Obsidian instead. So, I'm really thankful that I got to watch this video, move on and resort to an alternate version of Notion which is Obsidian. Thank you so much for this vid! ^-^
I've only watched a few videos of yours but I love them because they aren't overwhelming long, and yet they are very informative and interesting, which for me is a big plus because I have a short attention span.
My favorite bit in this vid if the "don't try if/do try if" because I could instantly rule out obsidian for me as an application.
Thank you for your work! Looking forward to watching more videos from you!
thanks so much, you’re too kind!! so, did you decide to try obsidian? 😅
I believe that this is exactly what I've been seeking. I've just installed it and setup a vault, so we'll see. Thanks for posting!
Awesome! I hope it works out for you! ✌️
thanks a lot for bringing obsidian to my attention. Am a software developer myself and obsidian just blows my mind. Absolutely awesome!
Another other fact: A quartz, a ruby, a sapphire, an amethyst and a pearl make obsidian possible to exist.
Thank you for your review, I've watched several of your other videos, and they are very very helpful. Much appreciated!
Thank you so much! 🙏
This is basically everything I look for in a review. Thank you!
woww, just gonna say i love the quality of this video and how informative this is 💜
I just filmed a Notion set up video, and you've come out with a video that makes me want to try something new!!! AHHH!! Not sure if I can let me love affair with notion go yet (I just love how clean it looks) but after watching this, I definitely will be playing around with Obsidian!
I use both Akta! Happy to help you out :)
@@DanielCanosa How you used it both?
Notion ain’t secured btw. Just for your privacy I wanted you to know that, I had motion and after I knew this stuff I deleted it sadly it took 3 hours to set up with all the detail and stuff but yeah
Great review. I appreciate the perspective of someone who didn't keep using it in the end but gave it an honest try. I especially love the IRL outro.
thanks!!
Great video, thank you so much for the quality content you make! 😊 I'm more interested in Obsidian now, it escaped my attention that it's free for presonal use. Although local storage seems more tempting (at least for me) than storing your data in a cloud without end-to-end encryption, I think I'll learn more about other apps as well until I choose the one to use. I'm not in a hurry in this case and privacy is quite important for me
I'm looking forward to your video about Standard Notes and maybe that other one, which I haven't heard of, but I'll gladly know more about secure note-taking apps :)
(Also, English is not my native language, so sorry for any mistakes)
Thanks so much for this video! Notion went down today when I really needed it and I went looking for some offline options.
Glad you found this! I'm locked out of my Notion notes as we speak haha
I found Notion first, and after a steep learning curve really like it. I then found Obsidian and decided to use it to track all of my contacts and their degrees of separation. As I got better with Obsidian, I realized I could import exported Notion pages giving me an off-line backup, an opportunity to polish my notes at the time of import, and the graph capability. Plus, the Random Note capability is great for productive distraction. I am just scratching the surface with Obsidian, resisting the temptation to go down a rathole. At this point, I am still torn between the two. As I learn Obsidian I may decide to go "all-in" but still replicating between the two and since I need to polish my notes anyway, I might as well. Thanks for the review and the great resource links.
Hey I was wondering if you explain how you're exporting from Notion into Obsidian. I'm having some trouble but also plan to use it when offline or when outages (like this morning) occur for Notion. Thanks!
@@Benjamin-nq1gl Sure. I click on the ... in the upper right corner and select Export from the drop-down. For Obsidian imports I select Markdown and usually include subpage(s). This creates a ZIP file in the desired location. When I open the ZIP file there is an MD file that I can drag into a note in Obsidian. This creates an attachment which I usually rename to something meaningful. I usually have to clean up some links, or import other pages to complete the note, but when done I have it in both places. This was really handy when Notion was down today due to a DNS issue. Does that help?
@@markreynolds5299 Yep that helped a lot! Thanks I really appreciate it.
Thanks for such a good detailed review! Now I'm obsessed by Obsidian. )))
This was so tastefully made and informative. Thanks for such a great video here!
Video quality 🔥🔥
Its like professional one
I thought you have 1 mil subs
Hope you reach thier soon🔥🔥
Thanks for saving my time searching for Notion alternatives!!
Seems like the perfect solution to privacy concerns or in my case the internet going out once or twice a week for a few hours.
Thank you. This really helped me not to opt for Obsidian, although it was tempting. I am a quite visual person, I need a great database and love creating N. templates. For typing on my computer I use Typora and for journaling, my Bullet journal.
Thanks for the great review. I think it is what I need and I am down loading it right now.
Also I wanted to say I love the cute "bloopers reel" at the end.
Best wishes.
I really wanted to like Notion and made quite an effort to use it as my main note taking app and PKM database, however after 6 months I realized that I was spending 80% of my time tinkering and making it look nice and pretty and only 20% on actually writing. With Obsidian once I was done with setting it up to my liking, which took a couple of days, it’s all about writing writing writing. I rarely mess around with the setup anymore. The recent developments and additions, app access and sync, made it the perfect app for me.
Same here! Glad to know that I'm not alone in this situation. Organising the notes have always been a big part of note taking platforms, and Notion is so slow. I felt overwhelmed while using Notion for aesthetics. It has its goods, but I don't think I can go back anymore after using Obsidian, it's just so much more comfortable to use.
I’m a new fan! I am loving your videos and your down to earth persona! Could you please do a step by step lesson or series of lessons of how to set up Obsidian to be like Notion? I am not an engineer and it takes me forever to learn how to set up a new program. I downloaded Obsidian to try it but I have NO clue how to start! I used Notion for a while and that took several months. I think a lot of people like me would love to see you teach us how to use Obsidian and customize it in different ways. Thank you so much and keep going!
LOL - the crickets at the dark-theme reveal was hilarious!!! Subscribed! :))
Wow I had no idea it launched so recently! makes Obsidian all the more impressive!! I just started using it last night and its been amazing.
I didn't want to rely on notion anymore that's how I found Obsidian. And I love it already 🤸♀️ always wanted to give markdown a go anyways, now's the perfect time for me.
Thank you for this video. It's funny how I didn't see this video before I decided to find alternatives but I still learned more useful things to apply now :)
You are a rock star. Wow, what a great break-down on personal knowledge management. Thx!
Very informative. I've been looking into Notion, but didn't want to invest much time into it due to security and data portability concerns. Obsidian looks like it checks a lot of boxes. Thanks for the overview.
Just discovered your channel and I have to say it is truly so professional! Your privacy video on Notion was so informative I immediately subscribed! Definitely gonna watch more of your content. And your editing is so smooth, your videos are almost short documentaries! I love it!
Thanks for the video, that was super interesting! I got Notion a few months ago and I love it, both for the visual and the powerful linked databases! I just don't keep any sensitive information since, as you said, it is not very secure. Without installing a fully new environment, Typora can be a good alternative for just writing without distractions. It supports Markdown, code, HTML and Latex (I wish notion would have inline math with the dollars shortcut!!) but it doesn't give you an arborescence structure as in Obsidian.
Nice job. You really helped save me time by covering the good and not so good of Obsidian. Well done! Thank you!
Glad this helped!
Omg that knowledge graph is so freaking cool!
Finally and as always thanks for the bloopers btw 😀😀
I really enjoyed watching this review! Keep such content coming 👍🏽
This was super useful! I just downloaded obsidian and your video really helped me figuring out if it was a right fit for me. I think it is but I feel like I'm gonna be using it as Notion complementary note taking tool.
That’s how a lot of people use it, especially since it has a lot of different, yet complimentary benefits to Notion. Glad this video was helpful!
Your videos are always great and informative, and it's nice to see the growth in your film making style (especially in your latest digital minimalism video!) Was curious if you've ever used ClickUp or would ever consider doing a video on it? Notion and Obsidian while definitely feature-rich are a little too overwhelming for me to use with the set-up required. I'm also trying to move away from Asana which is a bit too clunky and lightweight so I'm looking for a more middle-ground platform. ClickUp has come up a few times so that's what I'm leaning towards but still doing my research on it. I'd definitely be curious if you had an opinion on it though.
Keep doing what you do!
I'd love a comparison between obsidian and remnote
I've left some things in Notion but most of my note taking happens in Obsidian. So figure out what needs a db type structure and lave the rest in Obsidian. Nice, honest view
thanks to your reviews I am using bear notes ... much appreciate your content! Keep up the great work..
It was the most honest review I've watched about Obsidian. I am Notion friendly user, but I have a few concerns. However, for me, Notion works much better to organize my classes, tables of requirements, and to do reminders. The Obsidian it is amazing when you see, but is not friendly to initially users, or who doesn't know much about Markdown. My next it will Walling, just for organize todo list.
Yes, but Notion is terrible on android devices. Outright terrible.
@@KeenestObserver Well, I disagree with, at least I don't have any problem in use Notion in my Samsung galaxy s10e. But, perhaps in IOS it works better, I don't know.
@@fabianabrandaoalvessilva2936 it's terribly slow on mobile
It's good if it's just to look at it
Great personal overview. Tried Joplin for security, but always return to a Keep + OneNote combo. Can Obsidian provide the endless canvas feature in Onenote (or at least adjacent notes; Visual post it style previews like n Keep?
Loved finding this gem via your video!
Thank you for this great video!
This convinced me to try both. I've been using Notion for a while and was mostly happy but I found some parts of it to be too chaotic for me. I do research and I feel like project planning might be easier for me in Notion, while references and their links could benefit from obsidian's features.
i think *notion* as a *management hub* and *obsidian* as *research* and documents is good. that's what i do. I like *databases* of notion but i like the *formatting* of obsidian .
the reason i would use obsidian to put my notes is because the documents are more *sensitive* therefore locally run is better whereas a management system isn't as much and can be *replaced* with another app that allows you to *manage* your work and/or life
that's a great way to think about it!
Thanks to your video, I finally chose obsidian over the other option. :)
I've wanted something just like this for the longest time. Thanks for doing a quick rundown!
glad it helped!
I've been using Obsidian for around six months and it's completely revolutionised my work. I would recommend it highly for anyone needing to write assignments, journal articles, book chapters, etc. There are a million and one ways you could set it up to work with your own use case, and the community is super helpful anytime you get stuck or need advice. It's quite different to notion; notion is more like a super-powered Microsoft Excel while Obsidian is more like a super-powered Microsoft Word. If you spend more time in Word than Excel, it would be worth giving Obsidian a look. It's free too which is the most mindblowing part. Cheers
That is a great analogy! If I did just writing, I think Obsidian would be great, since the writing experience is so no-fuss and simple.
It is funny because actually i was really interested in the databases of notion but for some reason it just didn't work for me, however interesting and useful i thought the concept was. These obsidian graphs/zettelkasten system however, seems to be the perfect match for me! It feels really natural for me to use and its fascinating to see my brain actually being displayed in a logical way, it really matches the way i think. So thank you for introducing this to me, i'm definitely going to use this!!
Really useful video. I was considering Obsidian but I think I'll stick with Notion. Thanks for reviewing :)
Oh I also use Joplin. But in my opinion it's more like a replacement for Evernote. I use the web clipping on my browser so I can save pages I find online as markdown notes. It helps me a lot when I'm collecting information and inspiration for future art series.
I use Joplin. An offline note taking alternative to Notion.
I personally prefer notion since backlinking works just fine and the graph view is more optical than functional imo. I know a lot of people dont like the cloud but for me I think it will always be safer. If only notion had shorter loading times...
I trust storage in the cloud locked with a password more than I trust storage on my computer
Very nice overview of the pros and cons
Great video, well spoken - thank you!
Great video. Any suggestions for database-based solutions similar to Notion?
This is interesting... any takes on whether the switch is worthwhile for a non-power user? Specifically a writer who uses notion to replace a thousand notebooks, do some light writing (still use mostly google docs for the heavy lifting), organise daily tasks, and plan pretty variable projects across clients (could be a single newsletter, could be 6 weeks of content branding sessions for fashion designers). I need a few specialised features, but not many, and don't have the time to get stuck in and play with building them myself (community templates and formulas have been super helpful). Speaking only to use, not security; you've already explained that pretty clearly.
Hi, is it possible to do the same thing in "obsidian" as we do in "notion"? Thanks for share!
My setup for work with pdf files:
- ms academic for finding the research papers
- zotero for adding papers to collections
- ms edge canary beta or XODO pdf reader for browsing the pdf files (ms edge has the read-aloud option in the pdf browser and it really helps me focus)
1. Add the paper to zotero
2. Highlight and note it in the pdf browser
3. Export the highlights and notes with zotfile
4. Batch export (reference to your pdf file, notes, and highlights) to markdown files with zotero-mdnotes to obsidian vault directory
5. Open notes in obsidian
Thank you. That was useful.
I'm deeply amused to watch this over a year later as I start down this road, and find that I think every lacking thing mentioned in the video has been added either in the core or via community plugins ;)
that’s amazing! happy to see the product
grow within a year
Security/privacy is such an important factor right now. So thank you for recommending this.
Hope you liked the video :)
I did!
This looks really cool it's like a mix between Notion and Visual Studio Code and I use both those softwares so it's nice to see Obsidian be like a combination of both, first time i'm hearing about this, been using Notion all this time, will look into this one too thanks!!!
Awesome! Hope you like it!
i actually like obsidian more that notion. yes, i spent forever making notion aesthetic and to my liking yet i found it a hassle to take notes on there and never really used the templates or tables on there. i also would get super annoyed when it wouldnt load due to my many internet problems (laptop disconnects from the wifi more times than i would ever want) and once i realised that the data wasn't exactly safe, i didn't want to trust it as i was using notion for personal things that i didnt want others to easily find. if notion was offline and data safe then i would use it yet i'm seeing that obsidian works better for me overall (mostly for the easier workflow of notes and linking notes together instead of having to create new pages and having that train of thought and pace interuppted)
if you're not a celebrity or president or a top company ceo, no one really wants your data/cares what you do. just don't plan illegal activities on Notion and no one will be looking over your shoulder
2 mins into the video and wow! Obsidian doesn't look anything like Notion with all those codes.
Thanks for reviewing though x
What a great find. And it supports Vim commands!
7:06 Kambalapally Kathalu - Mail is a beautiful & nostalgic movie
I was using Notion for my Uni work but have since switched to Obsidian, as I realised I'd be able to create a completely separate vault for it, so I'd be able to see how my learning is all connected!
Hey Toran does obsidian have tag feature ?
@@rushi9154 yes, it does.
So you went from having your data be visible to Notion to having it be visible to Github?
Thanks for the video, I didnt know of Obsidian just found out, gonna try it out for sure. I'm a notion user tho
Thanks for sharing this!
Even if there's no mobile app it is plaintext, so there are ways to work on your files on mobile; it would just lack features like the linking / map thing, which is cool.
your way of speaking is so clear + content wise, might consider transitioning from notion to obsidian now
thats sweet, exactly what i was looking for.
Does obsidian store files with names, and in a format, that is usable with other applications?
For example, if I create "myfile.md" will be stored on the file system as myfile.md, or will it have some hashed name? Would I be able to treat myfile.md like any other text file? Could I easily edit myfile.md with vim?
It’s just stored as myfile.md in your file browser! From what I understand, you can treat it like any other markdown file.
loving your channel
Great work! Entering Grad School for Clinical Counseling and looking for something that's HIPAA secure! I think I found it!
Obsidian makes my Google Keep Notes look like trash. Great video!
Thank you! 🙌🏽
Great video. I use both -- as you said, they have different use cases. This is the first video I've seen of yours. Will subscribe and check out more. THank you.
thanks!
Someone's comment that got featured in the video: "I'm _suing_ Obsidian, have you heard of it?" Emphasis mine. Lols mine. Etc. =D
Anyone after Notion down? :(
😩
@@harshibar It's really annoying. I can't access my Data Analytics notes. :(
wait what notion is down?
WhAt Do U Mean
Bear might be a happy medium between Notion and Obsidian. It would be great to see your thoughts on that app!
Yes! It’s going to be featured in an upcoming app review :)
VS code or Sublime text is not an IDE. They are text editors. Examples for IDEs are Android studio, Eclipse etc.
I'm enjoying this zettelkasten rabbit hole the algorithm has taken down.
AMAZING VIDEO!!!
I have bidirectional sync between laptop & phone working with syncthing and zerotier. Works like a dream.
There's also a kanban plugin now.
I use both Notion and Obsidian. Together works amazing.
Can we put images, gifs and videos in obsidian? Or to embed from online sources?