Obsidian vs Roam Research

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

Roam Research

• People who work from daily notes and want every block to be linkable
• Researchers who reference and reuse individual blocks across notes
• Groups sharing a graph who do not want to pay per collaborator

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.

Roam Research

• There is no free plan; after the 31-day trial a paid subscription is required.
• The lowest monthly-equivalent price, the Believer plan, is a single $500 payment covering 5 years.
• The local API used by the official MCP server and CLI works only in the desktop app, not the web version.

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.

Roam Research

Bidirectional links and block references

Pages link to each other in both directions, and individual blocks can be referenced from other notes.

Daily notes

Writing starts in a dated daily note, and links from there connect entries to the rest of the graph.

Hosted, offline and encrypted graphs

A graph can be hosted in Roam's cloud or kept offline as a local-only graph, and graphs can be encrypted. Paid plans allow unlimited private or public graphs.

Shared graphs

Plans include unlimited collaborators with no per-seat charge, and a graph can be edited on mobile and in the web app at the same time.

Roam Depot extensions

A marketplace of community-built extensions, which developers submit through GitHub pull requests.

MCP server, CLI and SDKs

An official MCP server and command-line tool connect Claude, Cursor and other AI assistants to a graph to read, write, search and query it.

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.

Roam Research

• Pro$15

  per month, or $165 per year

  Unlimited private or public graphs, unlimited collaborators, and API access and apps.

• Believer$500

  one payment for 5 years ($8.33 a month)

  Everything in Pro, plus first access to new features, community calls with the team and priority support.

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.

Roam Research

No public discounts listed.