AppFlowy vs Obsidian

AppFlowy

• Teams that want a docs and projects workspace on their own servers
• Organizations with data residency or air-gapped requirements
• Individuals who want a free workspace that works offline

Obsidian

• People who want their notes as plain Markdown files they control
• Building a linked personal knowledge base that works offline
• Users who like to customize an app with plugins and themes

AppFlowy

• The cloud Personal plan is for 1 workspace owner with 100 MB of storage, and has no guest editors, page publishing or dashboards.
• Self-hosted plans are billed annually only, and the free self-hosted tier covers 1 user seat and the web app, not the desktop or mobile apps.
• The self-hosted server is a closed-source distribution under a commercial license; AppFlowy describes the product as open core.
• Cloud Pro is charged per member in each workspace, so two Pro workspaces are billed separately.

Obsidian

• There is no web app; Obsidian runs as desktop and mobile apps only.
• Obsidian Sync is a paid add-on, from $4 per user / month billed annually.
• Sync Standard covers 1 vault with 1 GB of storage and a 5 MB file size limit; larger limits need Sync Plus.
• Publishing notes to the web is billed separately from Sync, at $8 per site / month on annual billing.

AppFlowy

Documents and wikis

A rich-text editor with more than 40 content types for docs and team knowledge bases, with real-time co-editing and comments.

Database views

A database can be shown as a grid, kanban board, calendar, gallery, list, feed or chart, with filters and relations between databases.

Self-hosting

Deploy on your own hardware, in your own cloud or in an air-gapped environment, and manage users and instance settings from an admin panel.

AI search and writing

Answers questions from workspace content with traceable sources, drafts text and auto-fills database columns. It can run on local or self-hosted models.

AI meeting notes

Captures meetings and writes up notes inside the workspace. The cloud Personal plan gets a limited trial and Pro includes it.

Sign-on and directory support

SAML and OIDC single sign-on, SCIM, LDAP, MCP and public APIs. On self-hosted plans SCIM and LDAP start at the Team tier.

Obsidian

Local Markdown files

Notes are saved on your device as plain-text Markdown files, so they stay readable in other editors and available offline.

Links and graph view

Notes link to one another, and a graph view draws the relationships between them so related ideas are easier to find.

Canvas

An infinite board for laying out notes, diagrams and research side by side while brainstorming.

Plugins and themes

Thousands of community plugins and themes, built on an open API, change how the app looks and behaves.

Sync (paid add-on)

End-to-end encrypted sync across devices with version history and shared vaults that update in real time for a team.

Publish and Web Clipper

Publish turns notes into a hosted site, priced per site. The Web Clipper extension saves web pages from Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.

AppFlowy

• Personal$0

  AppFlowy Cloud for one workspace owner: 100 MB of storage, 7 MB uploads, 7 days of version history and a limited trial of AI.

• Free (self-hosted)$0

  1 user seat per instance with the web app, up to 3 guest editors, version history and page publishing.

• One (self-hosted)$6

  per month, billed annually

  1 user seat with desktop and mobile apps, local and cloud AI, vault workspaces and up to 10 guest editors.

• Team (self-hosted)$10

  per seat / month, billed annually

  Up to 1,000 seats with workspace members, SCIM, LDAP, a security audit log and priority support.

• Pro$16

  per member / month, billed annually; $20 billed monthly

  AppFlowy Cloud for teams: unlimited members, guest editors and storage, dashboards, timelines, page publishing and 90 days of version history.

• Enterprise (self-hosted)Contact us

  Unlimited seats and guest editors, plus managed deployment, whitelabeling and a support contract.

Obsidian

• Obsidian app$0

  The full app with local Markdown notes, links, graph, canvas, plugins and themes. No account needed.

• Sync Standard$4

  per user / month, billed annually ($5 billed monthly)

  Encrypted sync for 1 vault with 1 GB of storage, a 5 MB maximum file size and 1 month of version history.

• Sync Plus$8

  per user / month, billed annually ($10 billed monthly)

  Sync for 10 vaults with 10 GB of storage (upgradable to 100 GB), 200 MB maximum file size and 12 months of version history.

• Publish$8

  per site / month, billed annually ($10 billed monthly)

  Publishes selected notes as a website with a custom domain, password protection, graph view and full-text search.

• Catalyst$25

  one-time payment

  Optional supporter license with early access to beta versions, community badges and exclusive channels.

• Commercial$50

  per user / year

  Optional license for organizations that want to support development. It is not required to use Obsidian at work.

AppFlowy

• Annual discount

  Save 20% on cloud Pro with yearly billing

  Pro on AppFlowy Cloud is $16 per member a month billed annually ($192 a year) or $20 billed monthly.

Obsidian

• Annual discount

  20% lower price with annual billing

  Sync is $4 per user / month billed annually versus $5 billed monthly, and Publish is $8 per site versus $10: a 20% saving on each.

• Education

  40% off Sync and Publish for students and faculty

  Students and faculty members of schools and universities can apply for 40% off Obsidian Sync and Publish from their account dashboard, using a school email.

• Nonprofit

  40% off Sync and Publish for nonprofits

  People who run or work at a nonprofit organization can apply for 40% off Obsidian Sync and Publish, using their organization email.