Why I Chose Obsidian for Long-Term Note‑Taking: Local‑First, Bidirectional Links, and the New v1.13.0

Local‑First, Not Just "Offline Support"

Obsidian stores every note as plain .md files on the local disk, making the cloud sync an optional add‑on rather than a core feature. This design lets users open notes with VS Code, search with grep, or process them with custom Python scripts, ensuring full control over data without vendor lock‑in.

The author notes that when needing to migrate three years of API docs, troubleshooting logs, or architecture decisions, this local‑first model is the only feasible solution because proprietary formats often cripple export.

On May 13, 2026, Obsidian published an independent security audit of its optional Sync service (conducted by Cure53 and Trail of Bits), but the core product itself never required an audit because data never leaves the user’s machine.

Bidirectional Links and Knowledge Graphs

Obsidian’s [[link]] syntax creates forward links, while the system automatically tracks reverse links—showing which notes reference the current one.

Example: a note gRPC-troubleshooting.md documenting a timeout issue later helped resolve a separate bug in load-balancer-config.md when the reverse‑link panel revealed the connection.

The Graph View visualizes notes as nodes and links as edges; a teammate discovered three "orphan" notes that were never referenced, deleted two, and later one rescued a performance‑optimization insight.

The author contrasts this with Notion’s keyword search, which can miss relevant notes if different terminology was used, forcing manual folder browsing.

Dataview: Turning Notes into a Queryable Database

The Dataview plugin enables SQL‑like queries over Markdown files. By adding YAML front‑matter such as:

---
date: 2026-06-05
project: user-auth-v2
participants: [Alice, Bob]
status: pending
---

users can write a query on a project overview page to list all notes with project: user-auth-v2, sorted by date and filtered by status: pending.

This approach remains portable because the data stays in standard Markdown and YAML, unlike proprietary formats.

People have used Dataview for project management, time tracking, and personal CRMs, achieving similar outcomes to Notion but with full data ownership.

Practical Updates in v1.13.0

Released on May 28, 2026 for both desktop and mobile, v1.13.0 adds:

iOS Share Sheet support for multiple vaults —share directly to a chosen work or personal vault.

Keyboard‑selectable images in the editor —images can be navigated and deleted with the Delete key, enabling full Vim‑style editing.

Bases table view column‑width dragging —adjust columns in the built‑in lightweight database view.

Obsidian CLI —open a vault, create notes, or search from the terminal, facilitating scripted workflows.

The update focuses on polishing core experience rather than adding AI summarization or recommendation features, reflecting a disciplined product strategy.

On February 20, 2025, Obsidian made its core editor free for commercial use, keeping Sync and Publish as paid services while allowing companies to use the editor without a license.

Who It’s Not Suitable For

Obsidian lacks real‑time collaborative editing; Sync only synchronizes changes after they are saved, unlike Google Docs.

Rich‑text layout capabilities are limited to what themes provide; complex tables, custom fonts, or per‑paragraph styling are unavailable.

Heavy Notion‑style databases with relations are only partially replicable with Dataview and Bases, and reproducing them can be cumbersome.

The learning curve is steeper than Notion’s because users must understand vaults, Markdown files, and plugin installation.

It is best suited for programmers or engineers comfortable with file systems and Markdown, users who value long‑term data control, keyboard‑centric workflows, and are willing to tinker with plugins and scripts.

Migration Cost and Plugin Ecosystem

The biggest hurdle when moving from Notion or other tools is converting existing notes to Markdown.

Notion’s export produces a messy file structure; community scripts like notion-to-obsidian on GitHub can preserve hierarchy, internal links, and database fields. The author migrated over 2,000 notes, spending half an hour on the script and two days on manual adjustments (image paths, database fields).

Evernote or OneNote can be exported to HTML/PDF and then batch‑converted with Pandoc, though complex documents may need manual cleanup.

Obsidian’s plugin ecosystem is a core strength. On May 12, 2026, a new community site and developer dashboard were launched, providing download statistics and compatibility data.

Key plugins used by the author’s team include:

Templater —automates daily note templates with date, weekday, and weather.

Excalidraw —draws architecture diagrams directly inside notes.

Tasks —aggregates TODO items, sends reminders, and provides statistics.

Calendar —offers a calendar view for creating and reviewing daily notes.

All plugins are open‑source on GitHub, allowing users to audit code and confirming that they run locally without external server communication.

Two Years Later, I’m Still Using It

Since adopting Obsidian at the end of 2024, the author has kept it for almost two years, despite occasional plugin conflicts and theme glitches.

The lasting value comes from data ownership: three‑year‑old research notes are still searchable with grep, five‑year‑old meeting minutes can be batch‑extracted with Python, and entire project documentation can be packaged and shared regardless of the recipient’s tool.

Even if Obsidian were to shut down, the Markdown files could be migrated to Logseq, Foam, or any other editor, preserving the knowledge base.

Final recommendation: for a note‑taking tool that can last decades, try Obsidian; for a polished, out‑of‑the‑box experience, Notion may be a better fit.