Sadly, cannot compare. Notesnook is a decent product but Obsidian does everything better except for syncing. However, there's the Obsidian Git extension that completely solves the issue.

Obsidian all the way.

When I start working with images (screenshots) then I start dreading Obsidian - I wish they would just become references on the documents, and would show in a little galery etc.

Logseq is similar to Obsidian but open source. It also can sync through a Git plugin/extension.

To this day, “logseq data loss ${year}” returns a scary number of horror stories. I wanted to love it, but that’s kind of a dealbreaker.

I imagine periodically making backups and/or using Git could prevent this, no? I understand with some syncing methods, such as Syncthing, conflicts can be more common.

Sure, but then it's not my "trusted system". I have note and to-do apps so that I can get things out of my head and be confident that they're stored somewhere I'll be able to retrieve them later. If I have to think about it whatsoever, then my brain will hold onto those thoughts because it's worried they'll be lost forever.

I completely agree. However, I don’t believe there is a foolproof product. The only reason I use Logseq over Obsidian is due to its FOSS nature. If Obsidian was open source, I would switch. I used to use Notion, but moved to Logseq after searching for an open source alternative.

I can't fault you for that. For me, Obsidian feels like it's in an uncanny valley: it looks like both FOSS (free to download, use, whatever) and proprietary (you don't have the code), and I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop ("now that we're out of beta, that'll be $300 per year"). That'll probably never happen, and they've been a pretty good group so far, but it could.

I'm going for a different approach. All my docs are stored as Markdown in iCloud, and I use iA Writer to edit them. It's a proprietary app, but one with an exception track record of "buy once, use forever". It's a native app, too, unlike a lot of the alternatives. And if iA Writer ever explodes, all my files are right there in glorious plaintext. I could do, and have done, the same with Obsidian, but I just like using Writer more.

The only database-backed app I've ever completely trusted is Drafts. Yes, my data is stored in its proprietary system. However, it exports the data regularly to a JSON backup file that's trivially easy to parse. It's also never, not once, ever, lost a single byte I've put in it. That little app's bulletproof.

That’s completely fair. I think that the fact that all files are in plain-text significantly reduces the negatives of Obsidian being proprietary. Earlier today I was thinking of switching to Obsidian. However, I don’t see the benefit over Logseq, which I’m somewhat accustomed to. For me, the only reason I don’t love Logseq is its lack of a web app or PWA.

Logseq is also faster to load on Android and you can copy/share clipboard info to it with the app in the background. With Obsidian it opens in the foreground, which is annoying.

Does the git plugin flow work on iOS? I looked a year or two ago but it was a major hassle to get working

Honestly I never gave it a try because I don’t really take notes on my phone. PC all the time for me.

Unfortunately, no. However, there are alternatives to sync. I love Logseq, but dislike the lack of a sync server. I have not not tried either of the following methods as I just recently switched to iOS and just used Syncthing on my Pixel. The guide on ish also has a comment on encryption if you scroll enough.

Working Copy (paid, free for students): https://github.com/CharlesChiuGit/Logseq-Git-Sync-101/wiki/F...

ish (free): https://forum.obsidian.md/t/mobile-sync-with-git-on-ios-for-...

Other than being open source, and having cross-device sync at the free tier, I think Obsidian is superior. In fact, I simply put my Obsidian vault in a dropbox folder, and it effectively cross-device syncs quite well for me.

I think Notesnook and Obsidian are on a pretty different focus. Notesnook specifically focuses on end-to-end encryption synchronization.

So this is targeted at people who don't want to set up syncthing? What I like about Obsidian is it's literally just a bunch of markdown files, you can use them anywhere. With Notesnook, do I have to lock my data into their proprietary format? It looks like you can't even export anything other than .txt without paying. https://notesnook.com/pricing/ Seems like they're trying to lock you in.

Use it for free. Don't want to stick with it? Pay for a month and export. Not really a lock.

They work with different paradigms. Notesnook is an Evernote clone with some twists.

It understands Markdown formatting cues, with some more flair (color, tables, etc.), however it needs a different way of thinking.

I used them for a brief period of time while I got weary of bugs in Evernote's publicly shared notes' formatting. However, I love Evernote for what it is.

At the end, my technical notes, and digital garden is moving to Obsidian, but all the private notes are staying in Evernote. Why? 1) I collaborate there. 2) ENEX is a very nice XML format which you can convert to anything. 3) GPS tagged notes are nice when combined with collaboration for me.

So they're different tools, and work differently. They do not fill each-other's places, either. Evernote is more of a note-based mobile and connected office. Obsidian is a documentation and knowledge management powerhouse.