I spent a few weeks running all three of these as my primary notes app, one at a time, and the thing that became obvious is that they’re barely the same category. Calling Obsidian, Notion and Apple Notes “note-taking apps” is like calling a workshop, a filing cabinet and a sticky note “places to write things down” — technically true, useless for deciding. That’s why we marked this divisive instead of crowning one: the room in r/productivity isn’t disagreeing about quality, it’s answering different questions and not realizing it.
There’s a caution that runs under every one of these threads and it’s worth saying before the comparison: the people who get the most out of note apps are usually the ones who stopped building the system and started using it. The biggest failure mode in this category isn’t a missing feature — it’s spending three weekends perfecting a setup you then abandon. Keep that in mind as you read, because it quietly decides more than any feature does.
The short version
| App | What it’s genuinely best at | Pricing shape | The complaint that keeps coming up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obsidian | Durable, local, linked knowledge base; you own the files | Free; optional sync ~$5/mo | The plugin rabbit hole; easy to spend more time configuring than writing |
| Notion | Structured databases, wikis, team workspaces | Free tier; paid from ~$10/mo per seat | Needs internet; can feel heavy and slow; over-engineering simple notes |
| Apple Notes | Instant, frictionless capture; zero setup | Free (Apple devices) | Apple-only; weak organization once you have a lot; no real linking |
Obsidian: the one you own
Obsidian’s core promise is durability and control. Your notes are plain Markdown files in a folder on your own disk — no proprietary format, no cloud dependency, readable in any text editor in twenty years. On top of that it does bidirectional linking and a graph view, which is why the r/ObsidianMD crowd talks about it as a “second brain” rather than a notebook. For people building a knowledge base they intend to keep for a decade, the file ownership alone is the whole argument.
The complaint that comes up constantly — and that I felt myself within days — is the plugin rabbit hole. The community plugin ecosystem is enormous, and it’s genuinely easy to spend an evening installing Dataview, tweaking themes, and watching graph-view videos instead of writing a single useful note. The recurring “I spent more time configuring than using it” confessions in r/ObsidianMD are the community policing its own worst tendency. Sync across devices also isn’t free unless you self-host or use a third-party option, which is a small ongoing cost or a small chore.
Who it’s not for: people who want to open an app and just write without decisions, anyone who’ll fall down the customization hole and never climb out, and casual note-takers who don’t have a knowledge base to build. If you don’t feel the pull of “owning my files,” you’re paying the configuration tax for a benefit you don’t need.
Notion: the one that’s really a database
Notion isn’t a notes app that grew databases; it’s a database tool that can hold notes. Its real strength is structure — relational tables, linked databases, wikis, project trackers, and shared team workspaces that replace a pile of separate tools. The people recommending it in r/productivity are usually doing something structured: a content calendar, a CRM-lite, a team knowledge hub. For that, nothing on this list competes.
Two honest caveats. It’s cloud-first — there’s no meaningful offline mode, so when your connection drops, so does access to your notes, which is a real liability if you take notes on planes or in dead zones. And it can feel heavy: launching Notion to jot a quick thought is using a forklift to move a coffee cup, and the recurring “Notion is overkill for simple notes” sentiment is fair. It rewards structure and punishes people who just want to type fast.
Who it’s not for: quick-capture users, anyone who needs offline access, and people who don’t actually have a database-shaped problem. If your “system” is three lists and some meeting notes, Notion will make you build scaffolding you don’t need.
Apple Notes: the one you actually use
Apple Notes is the quiet winner of a category nobody admits matters most: capture. It’s already on your phone, it opens instantly, you can swipe to it from the lock screen, and it syncs across your Apple devices without a single decision. The r/productivity threads that praise it are almost embarrassed about it — “I tried Obsidian and Notion and went back to Apple Notes” is a recurring arc — but the reason is sound: the best capture tool is the one with zero friction, and friction is where notes go to die.
The honest limits are real. It’s Apple-only — useless if you live on Windows or Android. Organization is weak once you have hundreds of notes; folders and tags exist but there’s no real linking or database structure, so it scales badly for a serious knowledge base. And search, while improved, isn’t going to substitute for actual information architecture.
Who it’s not for: anyone outside the Apple ecosystem, anyone building a large interconnected knowledge base, and people who need structured databases or cross-references. It’s a brilliant notebook and a poor filing system, and pretending otherwise leads to a mess at scale.
Where the room is genuinely split
The disagreement isn’t really Obsidian-vs-Notion. It’s three different jobs that all got the same label:
- Building a durable, linked body of knowledge you’ll own forever → Obsidian.
- Running structured databases, wikis, or a team workspace → Notion.
- Capturing thoughts instantly with zero setup → Apple Notes.
And there’s a sensible faction that points out a plain text file or even paper still wins for a lot of people — no lock-in, no sync, no temptation to tinker. If that’s you, you already know it, and none of these will convert you.
So what should you actually use?
- Want files you own and a knowledge base for the long haul? Obsidian — but resist the plugins.
- Need databases, wikis, or a shared team space? Notion.
- Just want to capture fast on Apple devices and never think about it? Apple Notes.
- Already happy in plain text or a notebook? Stay there; you’re not the customer.
That’s not a coronation, and the category doesn’t have one. The closest thing to universal agreement in the threads is the part everyone learns the hard way — the system you actually keep using beats the elegant one you abandon — which is why “what are you really doing with notes” decides this more than any feature comparison.
Consensus as of late 2023. Pricing is summarized from each app’s official pages and changes over time; check the source before you subscribe. The Test Desk takes no affiliate commission and accepts no sponsorship — this is a synthesis of public discussion and hands-on use, weighted toward long-term-use sentiment, with the usual caveat that loud subreddits are not a representative sample of all users.