Worth it Stage 1
Obsidian stores notes as plain Markdown files on your own machine—no proprietary format, no lock-in, no cloud dependency by default. Bootstrapped by two developers (Dynalist), it has never taken VC money. Sync and Publish are optional paid services that keep the company running without plastering ads or tracking users. Commercial licenses are a flat fee. The product earns its stage 1 rating because the value it delivers cannot be revoked by a pricing change—your files are yours regardless.
- Since
- 2020
- Category
- Productivity
- VC-backed
- No
- Public
- No
- Website
- obsidian.md
- X
- @obsdmd
The promise
Its first promise, and how much is kept · Scoring
100% kept
“A second brain, for you, forever. Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.”
Why it’s rated 1
The criteria it meets, with sources · Method
- Alignment 2 of 3
-
- A1 Paid for without surveillance
- A3 Open and portable
- Lock-in 0 of 4
- None
- Extraction 0 of 7
- None
- Decline 0 of 3
- None
Result An alignment criterion, no lock-in, and at most one extraction criterion, so stage 1.
News signals
Sourced reporting, tagged by strategy