Heptabase vs Obsidian
Heptabase
heptabase.com
Obsidian
obsidian.mdSide by side
| Figure | Heptabase | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.99/mo | $4.17/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 9 | 6 |
| Spec score · Personal Knowledge Management Software | 8.9 (#3) | 9.1 (#2) |
| Spec score · Note-taking apps | 8.8 (#30) | 9.5 (#3) |
| Spec score · Note And Writing Apps | 8.7 (#8) | 8.9 (#7) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | The site shows Readwise and Zotero integrations; its help center says Zotero sync is one-way, manually initiated, and skips attachments over 100 MB. | Notion,Airtable,Microsoft OneNote,Evernote,Apple Notes,Apple Journal,Google Keep,Bear,Craft,Roam Research,Logseq,Tomboy,Gnote |
| Note sharing | Yes | Yes |
| Offline access | Yes | Yes |
| Supported platforms | web,windows,macos,linux,ios,android,chrome_extension | Windows,macOS,Linux,iOS,Android,Chrome extension |
| Real-time collaboration | Yes | Yes |
| Paid from | 8.99 | 4 |
Plans
Heptabase
- Pro$11.99 a month
- Pro$107.88 a year
- Premium$23.99 a month
- Premium$215.88 a year
- Premium+$71.99 a month
- Premium+$647.88 a year
- Pro$8.99 a month
- Premium$17.99 a month
- Premium+$53.99 a month
Obsidian
- Sync Standard$5 a month
- Sync Plus$10 a month
- Publish$10 a month
- Catalyst$25, paid once
- Commercial$50 a year
- FreeFree
In their own words
Heptabase
Heptabase is a visual knowledge base for students, researchers, and lifelong learners. Whiteboards and cards support visual thinking, while a block-based editor, bidirectional links, PDF annotation, daily journals, and a web clipper help organize material. Its AI can explain sources, take notes, and organize a knowledge base from PDFs, YouTube, notes, and journals. Heptabase supports web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and a Chrome extension, and lists integrations with Readwise and Zotero. The free plan is available through collaboration, allowing edits to shared whiteboards and cards but excluding personal libraries, journals, tag databases, tasks, highlights, and AI features. The desktop app stores data locally, and notes and files are accessible offline. For AWS cloud storage, the company describes encryption in transit and at rest, but not end-to-end encryption. After a subscription or trial ends, users can access and export content indefinitely; creating or editing notes requires renewal. Paid plans start at $8.99/user/mo (annual), with a 7-day trial.
Obsidian
Obsidian is a note-taking app for keeping notes and building a personal knowledge workspace. Its core app is free, has no sign-up requirement, and stores notes on the user's device so they remain available offline. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and as a Chrome extension. Canvas provides an open workspace for research, brainstorming, diagrams, and ideas; thousands of plugins and an open API allow workflow customization. Shared vaults support team work with real-time updates. Sync adds synchronization and version history: Standard costs $5 per user per month billed annually, with one vault, 1 GB of storage, a 5 MB maximum file size, and one month of history. Plus costs $10 per user per month billed annually, with 10 vaults, 10 GB, a 200 MB maximum file size, and 12 months of history. Publish is $10 per site per month billed annually and includes up to 4 GB hosting per site. It offers themes, custom domains, password protection, and SEO optimization.