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Edmund vs Obsidian

Obsidian is a deep, flexible home for knowledge. Edmund is the quick front door for a thought that needs sorting and sending somewhere else. Here’s where each one earns its place.

Obsidian is superb at being a place to think. Your notes are local files, links and backlinks turn them into a body of knowledge, and Graph view, Canvas, Daily Notes and plugins let you shape that body around the way your mind works. If your daily note is where thoughts land, that is a strong system. Edmund is for a different moment: catch something before it vanishes, let it work out the project and type, then route it out to the tool where the work will happen.

Side by side

The same job, two ways.

Edmund
Obsidian
The job it owns
Capture, triage and routing for thoughts that need action
A durable, linked knowledge base for notes and ideas
Quick capture
Type, dictate or use Siri without naming or filing anything first
Quick notes on desktop or mobile; Daily Notes gives them a dated home
Works out where it belongs
On-device AI suggests the project and type
You organise with files, folders, links, tags and whichever plugins suit you
Connections between ideas
Related notes, projects and tags, kept deliberately simple
Links, backlinks, unlinked mentions, Graph view and a visual Canvas
Long-form writing and research
Built for short notes, not documents
Markdown notes, attachments and canvases built to hold work for years
Sends work to trackers
Built in for Linear, GitHub, Jira and more
Not a core job; community plugins can add workflows you choose and maintain
Platforms
iPhone, iPad and Mac
Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android
Where the notes live
On your device and in your own iCloud
As local files in your vault; you choose whether and how to sync them
Price
Free tier; Pro £29.99/year
The app is free; Sync and Publish are optional paid services
An honest steer

Neither one’s wrong. It depends on you.

Reach for Obsidian when
  • You are building a knowledge base you expect to keep, link, revisit and grow for years.
  • You want to write and research in Markdown, then see the connections through backlinks, Graph view or Canvas.
  • You want a tool you can reshape with plugins and use across Windows, Linux, Android and Apple devices.
Reach for Edmund when
  • The thought needs catching now, and choosing its permanent home would break your flow.
  • You want the project and type suggested for you instead of maintaining a capture system inside your vault.
  • The thought needs to become an issue or task elsewhere, with its completion linked back to the note.

Try the one that files itself.

Free to start, on the iPhone, iPad and Mac you already own. No account, and your notes are never sent to an AI provider.

Coming to the App Store

Obsidian details were verified on 9 September 2026 against Obsidian’s official Pricing, Mobile, Core plugins, Sync and Canvas pages. Those sources describe the free app, optional paid Sync and Publish services, local vault files, desktop and mobile platforms, links and backlinks, Daily Notes, Graph view, Canvas, and community plugins. Obsidian owns those features and can change them.