Apple Notes vs Obsidian: Which One Should You Use?

Apple Notes vs Obsidian mostly comes down to two things: where your notes live, and whether you will pay for sync.

Pick Apple Notes if you want a free notes app that is already on your Mac and syncs through iCloud. It handles checklists, scans, attachments and audio recordings with nothing to install.

Pick Obsidian if you want your notes kept as Markdown in a local vault, and you're fine with its Sync service being a paid add-on.

Apple Notes only has apps for Apple's platforms (Mac, iPhone, iPad). If you work on a Windows PC, read our guide to Apple Notes on Windows, and check obsidian.md for Obsidian's current platform list.

We make Gubb, a small scratchpad app. It is neither of these, and we mention it near the end where it fits, so weigh our view accordingly. We've tried to be fair to both apps. All facts about Apple Notes and Obsidian are as of November 2026.

Apple Notes vs Obsidian at a glance

Storage and sync

Apple Notes syncs your notes through iCloud across your Mac, iPhone and iPad. You can lock individual notes and share notes with other people to work on them together.

The trade-off is that your notes live inside Apple's app and Apple's sync. That suits you if every device you use is an Apple device. It suits you less if you also work on a Windows PC.

Obsidian keeps notes as Markdown in a local vault. Markdown is plain text with simple formatting marks, so the text stays readable outside the app. If Markdown is new to you, our plain-English guide to Markdown explains it in a few minutes.

To get a vault onto other devices with Obsidian's own service, you pay for Obsidian Sync. It adds end-to-end encryption, version history and shared vaults. As of November 2026, third-party pricing pages list it at $4 per user per month billed annually, or $5 billed monthly.

So Apple Notes gives you free sync but keeps you on Apple hardware. Obsidian gives you local Markdown and leaves sync as a paid option.

Linking and organizing notes in each app

Apple Notes has links between notes, tags and Smart Folders, according to reviews. That covers jobs like linking a meeting note to a project note, or collecting everything with a client's tag in one place.

Obsidian stores everything as Markdown in one vault. Version 1.14 added a kanban view for Bases, support for opening individual Markdown files, and highlight colors. The material we checked for this comparison doesn't describe Obsidian's note-linking in enough detail to compare it fairly, so we won't summarize it secondhand. Check obsidian.md for how it works today.

The core app is free, so testing it costs nothing. Put 20 of your real notes into a test vault, organize them the way you would for real, and see whether you find things faster a week later. If you don't, Apple Notes' links and tags are probably enough.

If you want a board view specifically, Obsidian's Bases has a kanban view. We found no board view in Apple Notes. Our guide to personal Kanban board apps for Mac covers other options.

Ease of use

Apple Notes is already on your Mac, so there is nothing to install. It covers many everyday jobs directly:

• Checklists you can tick off.
• Attachments such as PDFs, photos, maps and links.
• A document scanner.
• Audio recorded straight into a note and transcribed.
• Quick sums: typing something like 5 * 3 = shows the answer inline.

Its Apple Intelligence features need newer hardware: an M-series Mac, or an iPhone 15 Pro or newer.

Obsidian asks more of you at the start. You install it, set up a vault, and write in Markdown. If you already type # for headings and - for lists, you'll feel at home. If not, expect a short learning period, and keep our Markdown cheat sheet open while you learn.

Obsidian is updated often. As of November 2026, the changelog shows Desktop 1.14.4 on October 5, 2026 and Mobile 1.15.1 on November 12, 2026.

Cost

The Obsidian figures come from third-party pricing pages as of November 2026, so check obsidian.md before you pay. Sources disagree on whether an optional paid commercial license still exists. They agree you don't need one to use Obsidian for work.

For one person on Apple devices, Apple Notes costs nothing extra. Obsidian also costs nothing if you only use it on one device. Once you want Obsidian Sync, it becomes a subscription: $48 a year at the annual rate.

Moving notes from Apple Notes to Obsidian

Reviews list Markdown import and export in Apple Notes, and Obsidian works with Markdown files, so Markdown is the route to try. The exact menu steps can differ between macOS versions. Before you move a large library, export a few notes that include checklists, attachments and scans, then open them in Obsidian to see how they come through.

Verdict: Apple Notes or Obsidian

Pick Apple Notes if:

• All your devices are Apple devices and you want sync without paying for it.
• You capture more than text: scans, photos, PDFs, audio recordings.
• You want to lock individual notes or share a note with someone.
• You don't want to learn Markdown or set anything up.

Pick Obsidian if:

• You want your notes as Markdown in a local vault.
• You want a kanban view (Bases) inside your notes app.
• You're comfortable typing Markdown, or happy to learn.
• You're fine paying for Obsidian Sync, or you only need notes on one device.

Use both if you like Apple Notes for quick capture on your phone and want Obsidian as the long-term home for the notes worth keeping.

For more options, see our picks for the best notes app for Mac and our list of Apple Notes alternatives.

Pairing either one with a scratchpad

Apple Notes and Obsidian are both libraries, where notes go to be kept and found later. Much of what you jot down in a day isn't worth keeping: a phone number you need for the next 10 minutes, a quick sum, three things to do before lunch. Filing that into a library clutters it.

A single "Scratch" note in Apple Notes or a scratch file in your Obsidian vault handles this fine. A separate scratchpad helps if you want a small window that stays visible beside your work and has a few utilities built in.

That is what we built Gubb for. Here is what it does in that role:

• One small window you can pin on top. Move the pointer to the right edge of the note and click Pin window on top. On a Mac, left-clicking the menu bar icon shows or hides the window.
• Markdown-style typing. Type #, -, 1. or [ ] at the start of a line, then press Space. These become headings, bullets, numbered lists and checklists.
• Lists and boards inside a note. A line containing only gubb@todo becomes a to-do list with due dates, priorities and subtasks. A line containing only gubb@board becomes a Kanban board.
• Quick math. After you type gubb@math, any line ending in = gets its result. It handles basic arithmetic (+ - * / ^ and parentheses), not functions or percentages.
• Clipboard history. The Clipboard History panel keeps text you copy anywhere on your Mac, starting from the first time you open the panel in each session. You can paste any item back into a note. It stores copied text unencrypted, including anything copied from a password manager.
• Dictation into the note. Speech to Text transcribes on your Mac with a downloaded Whisper model and puts the text into the current Gubb note. It works in English only and transcribes the first 30 seconds of each recording.

When something in the scratchpad is worth keeping, press ⌘⇧C (Command-Shift-C). This copies the whole note as plain text, with list items as "• " lines and links as "text (url)". Then paste it into Apple Notes or Obsidian. Don't use Gubb's Markdown export to move notes into an Obsidian vault: in the current version, that export writes raw editor data, not readable Markdown.

Know the limits before you add it:

• Gubb has no global hotkey. On a Mac, you open it from the menu bar icon or the Dock.
• It has no sync and no iPhone app. Notes are stored in a local database on your computer, and you don't need an account.
• It runs on Mac and on Windows through the Microsoft Store.

The notes section of the Gubb help center covers the editor in detail. You can try the Mac version free for 7 days.

FAQ

Is Obsidian really free?
As of November 2026, third-party pricing pages list the core Obsidian app as free, and sources agree you don't need a license to use it for work. Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish are separate paid subscriptions.

Can I use Apple Notes on Windows?
Apple Notes has apps only for Apple's platforms (Mac, iPhone and iPad). Our guide to Apple Notes on Windows covers your options.

Which one has a Kanban board?
Obsidian added a kanban view for Bases in version 1.14. We found no Kanban view in Apple Notes.

Can Apple Notes do math?
Yes, for simple sums. Typing something like 5 * 3 = shows the answer inline.