Craft vs Obsidian
Designed shared documents vs a vault of files you shape
Craft and Obsidian both hold notes, docs, and wikis, but they disagree about where those live and who they're for. Craft makes polished documents meant to be shared, with real-time collaboration, in its own cloud. Obsidian keeps plain Markdown files in a local vault that you extend with plugins.
The short version: if your notes are read by other people and should look designed, Craft fits. If your notes are for you, and files you can open with anything matter more than layouts, Obsidian fits. The table below is compiled from both apps' own pages, linked at the bottom.
The third option
If you want the files without the assembly — plain Markdown you own, working offline everywhere, with backlinks, a graph, and Views over your notes built in rather than installed — neither Craft nor Obsidian gives you that. Octarine does, on macOS, Windows, and Linux, with Git or folder sync at no extra cost, publishing with reader comments, and a one-time Pro price instead of subscriptions.
What Octarine doesn't give you: Craft's document design, real-time co-editing, web and Android apps, or Obsidian's plugin ecosystem. If any of those is the reason you're choosing, the table above says which app to pick. See the full tables at Octarine vs Craft and Octarine vs Obsidian.
Sources · Checked Nov 9, 2026
Compiled from both apps' own pricing pages, help centers, and platform lists — the same sources as our Octarine-vs-each comparisons, last verified November 4, 2026. Facts were re-checked against those sources when this page was compiled.
- Craft platforms
- Craft plans and pricing
- Craft External Locations
- Craft pricing (features)
- Obsidian pricing
- How Obsidian stores data
- Obsidian community plugins
Product names and logos belong to their owners; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.
Something wrong or out of date, including if you work on Craft or Obsidian? Suggest a correction


