Obsidian is now free for work (opens in new tab)

Thanks for noting this. They sold at least one more license because of it. I've been a casual user for the last couple years so they've earned it in my book.

You are good salesman, you've made them at least $50 now. Definitely money well spent.

I'm so fed up with subscriptions that I didn't realize it was a one-time payment. Time to get my license :)

If you want to try out multiplayer in Obsidian today, there are a few plugins like Relay (disclaimer: I'm a dev), Peerdraft, and Screengarden. I'm not sure exactly what the Obsidian team has planned but hopefully we can make them interoperable.

Our plugin stores yjs CRDTs in indexeddb today, but I'd love to create some kind of file-over-app CRDT persistence standard that could go alongside markdown files to make markdown collaboration and edit history vendor agnostic.

If anyone would be interested in that type of thing, let me know! (email in bio)

Obsidian makes money from its add-on services Sync and Publish. Commercial license is joining the Catalyst license as an optional ways to support Obsidian.

The problem with the Commercial license is that it wasn't clear. Many organizations were out of compliance without any way for Obsidian to enforce it, since the app is local and doesn't require sign up.

The data is local, obsidian is just a markdown viewer at it's core. They have sync but that's a paid for product.

Their model is selling to large companies and sync users. Not data sales.

> I like a clear business model otherwise I assume that I am the product being sold

I guess you don't like using Linux neither?

Even if you pay you are the product.

You can use iCloud but it's quite slow.

There are different solutions really, some people use Git and treat the whole vault as a repo. Though I find it quite annoying to manage, also cause not every platform supports git.

That's also why I started writing a plugin to sync with any GitHub repo, it uses the GH REST APIs so it can be used on any platform. https://github.com/silvanocerza/obsidian-github-sync

I'm still actively developing it but the core features work nicely.

I have multiple vaults in my OneDrive, and use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.on... (OneSync) on Android to have them available there as well. It's been working great.

If I was making edits more often, I might run into sync conflicts. But I mostly edit on my PC, then might make small edits to recipes while I'm working in the kitchen.

I synced using Google Drive on the desktop, and a third party app to pull and sync a local directory on my phone for mobile. Took a little bit of setup but it worked mostly fine. Now I run the paid sync subscription, and the main difference to me is that there's basically zero wait between replication across copies (unless your computer has been off for a while and it has to fetch a bunch at once). Eliminating merge issues and having everything "just work" was worth it to me.

Git works well, but you don't get realtime/live sync.

For my setup, I use the obsidian-livesync [1] plugin with a self-hosted CouchDB instance which has worked well for me.

I periodically do commit things to a git repo as a backup if the live sync breaks somehow.

[1]: https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync

I’m using github to sync 3 instances (iPhone, desktop and one web-based instance). It needs some upfront set up and configuration, and I had to buy a git client app for my iPhone (one time purchase), but it’s been working with near 0 maintenance for 3+ years now. I have versioning, and full auto sync (automatic commit, push and pulls).

Yes, but I ended up going with Obsidian Sync for file history and "it just works."

I tried Obsidian Git for automatic pulls, but frequently had file conflicts even if I wasn't working on files at the same time. Is there another sync tool designed for text that has file version history?

Yes, it works great.

I actually combine that, Git and Syncthing for different needs.

Details here: https://www.dsebastien.net/how-i-synchronize-and-backup-my-o...

I use iCloud, had no problems so far - it's just markdown files anyways

Works okay with iCloud but follow their iCloud setup though; it’s important for a sync related issue.

I use syncthing. Works flawlessly and took just a few minutes to setup.

you can use onedrive to sync the files, and there's also community-made plugins for onedrive and git

yep it's just text files anyway

I use Sync

I have to imagine they ran the numbers and found that that wouldn't be an issue. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of enterprise use was completely unlicensed before this.

based on the vibes I've seen on the forums, the team is very passionate about keeping Obsidian free, but averse to making it open-source

You can always publish on GitHub Pages using a suitable tool, like https://emanote.srid.ca/

Disclaimer: I'm the author of Emanote

I run my life through Obsidian checklists. Sync is worth it for me and I bought a gift subscription for my partner as well.

How are you differentiating from the other current leaders[1][2]?

1. https://github.com/Vinzent03/obsidian-git

2. https://github.com/kevinmkchin/Obsidian-GitHub-Sync

I've been using plain git with a git server to sync several machines even though I have to execute a script to do it in each machine. If you see the vault is just the workspace plus markdown files. I didn't know you could add plugins to obsidian. This is interesting. I do wonder if this can be added to mobile - Android/iOS.

How is this different from the widely used https://github.com/Vinzent03/obsidian-git?

Also for enterprises, being able to point to a different plugins source through config would be great. At work we're mirroring many things using JFrog Artifactory, giving us control and oversight

Zotero is a file manager with support for research-related tasks like indexing and bibliography generation, Obsidian is a programmable notebook. They can both be used "for research" but they're fundamentally different products.

There's an official web clipper now: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-clipper

You can use it on a phone as well via Firefox / Safari.

Try the Obsidian Web Clipper: https://www.dsebastien.net/supercharge-your-knowledge-captur...

I do this already. I use FF on Android and the desktop and the Obsidian Clipper works phenomenally for this.

There are no "tiers" with Obsidian. The app is free without limits. You don't even need to sign up. You own your data locally. You can pay for the add-ons like Sync and Publish if you want, but there's also third-party alternatives to those.

At its core, it’s just a text editor. You don’t need any subscription. It’s Local-first, uses Markdown, and if you want to sync or publish, there’s plenty of other tools for that purpose that don’t require an account, like Syncthing or Github Pages.

What does it matter if the data is portable?

https://help.obsidian.md/import

Promises aren't ironclad anyhow.

It might honestly be too cheap to deal with the pain of the bureaucracy. Small purchases still have to go though all of the compliance, legal, whatever nonsense required to send money.

The difference between free and $0.01 is enormous.