Obsidian vs Outline
Obsidian and Outline are both note-taking & docs tools. Obsidian is aimed at freelancers and developers, while Outline is aimed at developers and small businesses. Obsidian costs less, from $5/mo versus $10/mo for Outline. Both have a free plan.
| Pricing | Freemium · $5 | Freemium · $10 |
| Starting price | $5/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 30 days |
| Built for | Freelancers, Developers, Creators | Developers, Small businesses |
| Platforms | macos, windows, linux, ios, android | web |
| Country | CA · 2020 | US · 2017 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Obsidian if
Individuals, researchers and writers who want ownership, longevity and deep customization.
- You own your files; works offline forever
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Unmatched extensibility through plugins
Look elsewhere if: Teams needing shared, collaborative documents or users who want a zero-setup tool.
Choose Outline if
Engineering-led teams and companies wanting a fast wiki with predictable pricing or self-hosting.
- Flat per-workspace pricing by team size
- Open source and self-hostable
- Very fast and clean
Look elsewhere if: Teams wanting all-in-one workspaces or non-technical setups.
Obsidian vs Outline pricing
Obsidian
- Free$0Full app, personal and commercial use
- Sync$5/user/mo$4 billed annually; E2E encrypted sync
- Publish$10/site/mo$8 billed annually; publish notes to web
- Catalyst$25One-time supporter license, early access
- Commercial$50/user/yearOptional license for organizations
Outline
- Starter$10/moCloud, 1-10 team members; annual pricing available
- Team$79/moCloud, 11-100 team members
- Business$249/moCloud, 101-200 team members
- Community Edition$0Self-hosted, limited features, no support
- On-prem Business$4/user/moSelf-hosted, billed annually, 10 user minimum
Obsidian · Key features
- Local Markdown files with bidirectional links and backlinks panel
- Graph view and Canvas for visual thinking
- Bases: database-style views over notes (2025)
- 2,000+ community plugins and themes
- End-to-end encrypted Sync and one-click Publish
- Daily notes, templates, search with operators, mobile apps
Cons
- No real-time collaboration
- Plugin quality varies; setup can rabbit-hole
- Sync and Publish are paid add-ons
Outline · Key features
- Markdown editor with slash commands and real-time collaboration
- Collections with nested documents and permissions
- SSO via Slack, Google, Microsoft, Okta and OIDC
- Fast full-text search and AI question answering
- Public sharing and publishing of docs
- Self-hosted or hosted; REST API and webhooks
Cons
- Wiki only; no databases or tasks
- Small team; features ship slower than big players
- Self-hosting requires Postgres, Redis and S3
Obsidian vs Outline: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Obsidian or Outline?
Obsidian starts at $5/mo and Outline at $10/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Obsidian and Outline have a free plan?
Yes, both Obsidian and Outline have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, Obsidian or Outline?
Outline lists small businesses as a core audience, while Obsidian is aimed more at freelancers and developers.