Notion vs Obsidian: team knowledge base

Obsidian doesn’t host your data at all — and when it finally does, only one of four servers is American

Obsidian is a local application with no hosting by default: notes live on the device, and nothing syncs while the app is closed. Its optional Sync add-on runs on four server regions, and only one of them, San Francisco, sits in the United States; the product carries no SOC 2, no HIPAA agreement, no FedRAMP, StateRAMP, or GovCloud status, citing only third-party audits on its own behalf. Notion, by contrast, names a single US region, US-West-2 in Oregon, and holds its own SOC 2 Type II and ISO certifications, with a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement included at no extra cost on Enterprise. Scope compared, criterion by criterion. Checked 7 September 2026.

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Obsidian vs Notion: scope compared, criterion by criterion — checked September 7, 2026
Obsidian	Notion
What the tool answers
What it measures or produces
Produces plain-text Markdown files stored locally in a folder called a vault, connected by internal links, a graph view and a canvas. It measures nothing.	Block-based pages and relational databases, capped at 250,000 rows and 500 properties, shown as tables, timelines, galleries or charts
The job it equips
Markdown editor and personal knowledge base: notes, journaling, knowledge bases, project management. A writing and thinking tool, not a reporting or BI tool.	The team lead who writes the documentation and tracks progress in one place: the vendor frames project and task databases as the way to follow a team
What it cannot tell you
Nothing syncs while the app is closed: there is no background sync. So no reliable server-side state, no team dashboard, no real-time view of activity.	Who changed what beyond the plan's history window — seven, thirty or ninety days. The audit log, kept for a year, is Enterprise only
Write, organize, find again
Document model
A vault is a plain filesystem folder holding notes, attachments and the .obsidian configuration folder; subfolders nest freely, exactly as in the file explorer.	Everything is a block: a page accepts nested subpages with no published maximum depth, and a database sits inline inside a page or takes a full page
Databases and views
Native since version 1.9: Bases is an official core plugin creating database-like views over your notes, with sorting, filtering and property editing.	Typed properties, relations, rollups and formulas. Documentation caps each database at 250,000 rows and 500 properties, and a two-way relation at 10,000 references
Offline use
Core argument: notes are saved locally on the device and accessible even offline, with no account and no telemetry. Syncing is an add-on, not a precondition.	Partial in the desktop and mobile apps, absent from the browser. A downloaded database brings only its first fifty rows; the rest is fetched by hand
Search
Operators file:, path:, content:, tag:, line:, block:, section:, task:, match-case:, ignore-case:, combinable with AND/OR/NOT and parentheses. Local, instant search across the whole vault.	Page search is open to everyone. Semantic search, which reads uploaded PDFs and connected apps, requires Business or Enterprise
AI features
No native AI feature: absent from the list of 30 core plugins published at obsidian.md/help/plugins on 2026-09-02. Third-party community plugins exist, outside the product, cost not published.	Business and Enterprise only, with an included allowance whose size is not published. Past it, credits cost $10 per thousand per month, $13 on annual
Sharing and publishing
Obsidian Publish: 8 USD per site per month billed annually, 10 USD monthly, 4 GB hosting, customizable theme and domain, multiple site-wide passwords.	Six access levels, two of them Business and Enterprise only, and expiring public links. Password protection on a published page does not exist: the vendor writes not at the moment
Export and reversibility
Maximum reversibility: you take the folder with you. Open file formats, no proprietary lock-in; notes stay editable in any text editor.	PDF, HTML, Markdown and CSV. A whole-workspace export can take up to thirty hours, its link expires, and a Form view cannot be exported at all
What comes out of it
Export formats
There is no export step: the files are already non-proprietary plain-text .md files on your disk, readable by any editor. No official “export” page published as of today.	Markdown, CSV, HTML and per-page PDF on every plan. Whole-workspace PDF export and the include-subpages option require Business or Enterprise
Shareable reports
No reporting feature. Sharing goes through a paid Obsidian Publish site, an embedded Bases view inside a note, or simply sending the Markdown file itself.	Web publishing through Notion Sites, one notion.site domain on Free and five on paid. Removing Notion branding and attaching a domain costs $10 per month per domain
API access
A TypeScript plugin API that runs locally inside the app. No public REST/HTTP API is documented: absent from docs.obsidian.md/Home as checked on 2026-09-02.	A public REST API with no tier requirement, created by workspace owners. Three requests per second on average per integration, payloads capped at a thousand blocks or 500KB
What it connects to
Native integrations
30 official core plugins (Bases, Canvas, Sync, Publish, Search…). Community plugins are third-party code, not a product feature: Obsidian warns they may do harm.	No total is announced on the Connections page as of 2 September 2026. The three featured ones are Slack, Google Drive and GitHub, sorted into fifteen categories
Google tools it connects to
No native Google integration. Google Drive is only a third-party sync folder, not officially supported on iOS; Google Keep exists only as a one-way import.	Drive, Calendar and Gmail connectors, but limited to Business and Enterprise. Google Sheets is absent from the connector list published on 2 September 2026
Bringing your existing data across
Official Importer plugin: Notion, Evernote, OneNote, Apple Notes, Google Keep, Roam, Logseq, Bear, Craft, HTML, CSV, Markdown, Textbundle. Existing .md files are just dropped into the folder.	Direct import from Confluence, Asana, Evernote and Trello, with field mapping onto an existing database's properties. Ten Trello boards per import at most
Getting started, and the fine print
Support
Email support@obsidian.md is limited to commercial licenses, account, payment, Sync and Publish. Everything else goes to the community Discord and forum. No hours or SLA published.	On Free and Plus the only channel is the in-app help button. Round-the-clock support and Customer Success Managers arrive on Business and Enterprise, with no published hours or languages
Where the data is hosted
Notes live on your device first. For Sync, four server regions: Europe (Frankfurt, Germany), North America (San Francisco), Asia (Singapore), Oceania (Sydney), plus Automatic.	On AWS, but two official pages describe two different perimeters: the security page names only two US zones, the residency page adds Frankfurt, Tokyo and Seoul, on Enterprise
What happens if you leave
Local files stay intact on your devices. The Sync remote vault, version history included, is kept for one month after the subscription expires, then deleted.	A refund within three days of a monthly invoice, thirty days of an annual one. Trash is kept thirty days; deleting a workspace is permanent
Minimum seats billed
No minimum: the software is free, so no seat purchase is required. A shared remote vault accepts up to 20 people; 25 licenses unlock the Enterprise page.	No minimum published on the pricing page. But a free workspace with two or more owners is capped at a thousand blocks, which forces the upgrade
Data residency and regulated cloud
Obsidian is a local app with no hosting by default. For Sync, only one of four DigitalOcean locations is American (San Francisco). No SOC 2, HIPAA BAA, FedRAMP, StateRAMP, or GovCloud; only third-party audits are cited.	Notion names “US-West-2 (Oregon)”; migration is Enterprise-only. Certs: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27017/27018/27701, BSI C5; physical security = AWS. HIPAA BAA at Enterprise, no extra cost. FedRAMP, StateRAMP, GovCloud absent.
What it costs
The entry price and what it includes
Entry price: 0 USD, no limits, no account. Optional commercial license 50 USD per user per year, with no functional benefit. Sync 4 USD/user/month billed annually. Publish 8 USD/site/month billed annually.	Plus is listed at $10 per member per month, with thirty days of page history. AI and third-party connectors force Business at $20; the page does not state the billing period
What pushes the bill up
Storage and file volume: the Standard Sync plan caps at 1 GB, 1 vault, 5 MB per file, one month of history. Moving to Plus lifts those caps.	Credits, sold at $10 per thousand and not carried over, and the proration asymmetry: adding a member is billed retroactively, removing one never is
Sales tax and nexus
Obsidian's tax page says it collects sales tax by country and postal code (licenses, Sync, Publish, not Credit/Catalyst); the Terms instead put all taxes on the customer. The entity isn't American (Dynalist Inc., Ontario law).	Notion charges US sales tax in 27 jurisdictions (24 states plus DC, Puerto Rico, Chicago), based on customer address. Exemption on a valid certificate from the customer. Nexus and per-state/local calc for own sales absent.
Procurement and invoicing
The only path is self-service via Stripe, PayPal, WeChat, or AliPay (PayPal in CAD). No invoice, purchase order, net-30, ACH, or W-9. The commercial license ($50/user/year, optional) grants no benefit or Sync/Publish access.	Self-service Notion takes card and Apple Pay, with no in-app payment on Android. Invoicing is Enterprise-only, above 100 employees; below that, card only. Net-30, purchase orders, ACH and W-9 are published nowhere.

Key takeaways

No hosting is the default here, not a missing feature

Obsidian is a local Markdown application: notes are saved on the device, no account is required, and nothing syncs while the app is closed. There is no server-side state to certify in the first place, which puts every regulated-cloud question this comparison usually asks on a different footing than for any other tool in this set.

One American server among four, and only if you pay for it

Obsidian’s optional Sync add-on offers four server regions: Europe in Frankfurt, Germany; North America in San Francisco; Asia in Singapore; and Oceania in Sydney, plus an automatic option. Of those four named regions, one sits in the United States, and Sync itself is a paid add-on rather than part of the free application.

No SOC 2, no HIPAA agreement, no government-cloud status — only outside audits it cites itself

Obsidian carries no SOC 2 certification, no HIPAA Business Associate Agreement, and no FedRAMP, StateRAMP, or GovCloud status; what it cites instead are third-party audits, not a certification held in its own name. Notion, on the same ground, holds its own SOC 2 Type II and the ISO 27001 family of certifications, crediting AWS only for physical security, with a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement included at no extra cost on Enterprise; FedRAMP, StateRAMP, and GovCloud are absent from Notion’s list too.

A vault that leaves when you do, and a remote copy that does not outlast the month

Obsidian’s local files stay intact on the device indefinitely, with or without a subscription; the Sync remote vault, version history included, is kept for one month after the subscription lapses, then deleted. Notion’s own retention runs differently: a refund within three days of a monthly invoice or thirty days of an annual one, trash kept for thirty days, and a deleted workspace gone for good.

A Canadian entity collecting a tax it still assigns to the customer

Obsidian’s own tax page states it collects sales tax by country and postal code, on licenses, Sync, and Publish, though not on Credit or Catalyst, yet its Terms place all taxes on the customer regardless. The entity behind Obsidian, Dynalist Inc., is not American and operates under Ontario law. Notion’s own sales tax, by comparison, spans twenty-seven US jurisdictions, twenty-four states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Chicago, based on customer address.

Four payment methods, and not one invoice among them

Obsidian’s only payment path is self-service, through Stripe, PayPal, WeChat, or AliPay, with PayPal billed in Canadian dollars; there is no invoice, no purchase order, no net-30 term, no ACH option, and no W-9 anywhere. Even its optional commercial license, fifty dollars per user per year, grants no functional benefit and no access to Sync or Publish.

Frequently asked questions

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How many of Obsidian Sync’s server regions are in the US?

Only one: of Obsidian Sync’s four DigitalOcean regions — Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania — the sole American location is San Francisco, and Obsidian itself is a local app with no hosting by default, holding no SOC 2, HIPAA BAA, FedRAMP, StateRAMP or GovCloud, only third-party audits. Notion names US-West-2 (Oregon) as its region, with SOC 2 Type II and a HIPAA BAA included at Enterprise, though it too lacks FedRAMP, StateRAMP and GovCloud.

Is Obsidian’s vendor a US company for tax purposes?

No: Obsidian’s tax page says it collects sales tax by country and postal code on licenses, Sync and Publish (not Credit or Catalyst), yet its Terms instead put all taxes on the customer — the two contradict each other — and the entity behind it, Dynalist Inc., is Canadian, under Ontario law. Notion, by contrast, is itself the collector, charging US sales tax in 27 named jurisdictions based on customer address.

How much does Obsidian Publish cost per site, billed annually?

Obsidian Publish costs 8 US dollars per site per month billed annually, or 10 dollars billed monthly, for 4 GB of hosting, a customizable theme and domain, and multiple site-wide passwords. Notion instead offers six access levels, two of them Business and Enterprise only, plus expiring public links, but no password protection on a published page at all — the vendor states plainly that it does not exist yet.