> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://notionsolutions.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Notion vs Obsidian: Shared Client Workspace or Private Notes - URL: https://notionsolutions.net/notion-vs-obsidian/ - Published: 2026-10-25T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-02T14:11:28.000Z - Description: Notion fits shared client work: guests, page-level and row-level access, databases and forms. Obsidian fits private notes that stay fast, offline and readable as plain Markdown files. Published timings, costs, offline limits and where to draw the line if you run both. - Author: Kevin Turner - Tags: comparison, client-work **Choose Notion when other people need to work in the same pages and databases: clients, contractors, a small team. Choose Obsidian when the notes are mainly yours and you want them fast, available offline and stored as plain Markdown files on your own disk.** For a freelancer who shares project pages with clients, I'd start in Notion; for a consultant whose research, call notes and drafts stay on one laptop, I'd start in Obsidian. If you have both kinds of notes, run both with a deliberate boundary. Most cases come down to where the data lives and who can open it. A Notion workspace sits online, and access is set page by page, down to individual database rows on Business. An Obsidian vault is a folder of files on your device; sharing it means a paid Sync add-on in which every collaborator gets the same rights as the owner. ## The quick choice by requirement __Which tool fits each common requirement for freelancers and small teams__ | Your requirement | Notion | Obsidian | | ---------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | A client or contractor needs to see or edit specific pages | My first choice. Invite them as a guest on the pages they need; guests aren't billed. | Every collaborator needs their own Sync subscription and gets owner-level rights in the shared vault. | | Two people edit the same document at once | Built for it: avatars at the top of a page show who is on it right now. | No live co-editing on one file; the other person's changes appear after Sync runs. | | Work without a connection | Desktop and mobile apps only, on pages you downloaded on that device beforehand. | My first choice. Notes are local files, so they open offline by default. | | Thousands of private notes with fast local search | Offline copies of a database cover only its first 50 rows. | My first choice. A published 10,000-note test reached a fully indexed vault in 4.32 seconds from a cold start. | | Client records with relations, rollups and intake forms | My first choice: relations, rollups, forms and record-level access rules on Business. | Bases adds table, list, cards, map and Kanban views over note properties; access stays at vault level. | | Publish pages to the web | Publish pages on a notion.site domain; a custom domain costs extra on paid plans. | Obsidian Publish is a paid add-on per site; plugin-rendered blocks such as Dataview don't render by default. | | Keep files readable without the app | Export to HTML, Markdown and CSV; databases become CSV plus Markdown pages. | My first choice: plain Markdown notes and canvases in the open JSON Canvas format. | | Cost for one person | Free plan at $0. | Free for all purposes, including commercial use. | For one person, price doesn't decide anything: both start at $0\. Client access, offline work and the size of your private archive usually settle it. ## Where your notes live sets the rules Obsidian's [guide to syncing notes across devices](https://obsidian.md/help/sync-notes?ref=notionsolutions.net) starts from one fact: it "stores notes locally on your device so you always have access to them, even offline." The [Obsidian pricing page](https://obsidian.md/pricing?ref=notionsolutions.net) adds that its apps don't collect telemetry and that locally stored data is inaccessible to the company. Each note is a Markdown file, and [Obsidian saves canvases](https://obsidian.md/help/plugins/canvas?ref=notionsolutions.net) as `.canvas` files in the open JSON Canvas format. Some comparisons still say Obsidian needs a paid license for work. It doesn't. The [Obsidian license overview](https://obsidian.md/license?ref=notionsolutions.net) says the app is "free for all purposes, including personal, commercial, and non-profit use." The Commercial license, $50 per user per year, is an optional way to support development. Notion runs the other way around. The workspace lives in Notion's cloud, and the apps cache records on your device. In the write-up of [how Notion built offline mode](https://www.notion.com/blog/how-we-made-notion-available-offline?ref=notionsolutions.net), its engineers describe turning a SQLite cache on the device into persistent offline storage and moving offline pages to a CRDT data model for conflict resolution. They say they want to make Notion "more and more local-first." That's the stated direction. In practice, offline Notion covers the pages you downloaded or recently opened, not the whole workspace. On the AI side, the pricing page says Notion AI won't use your data for training unless you opt in, and Enterprise workspaces get zero data retention with its AI providers. Local storage has one consequence people miss. [Obsidian's Sync security page](https://obsidian.md/help/sync/security?ref=notionsolutions.net) says remote vaults are end-to-end encrypted by default, but "Obsidian doesn't encrypt your local vault." Disk encryption and backups on your laptop are your job. If you lose the Sync encryption password, Obsidian can't recover the password or the encrypted data. ## Client access: page-level sharing vs a shared vault This is where the two tools differ most for client work. Notion decides access page by page and, on Business, record by record. Obsidian decides it once for the whole vault. ### Notion: access per page and per record Notion's [sharing and permissions guide](https://www.notion.com/help/sharing-and-permissions?ref=notionsolutions.net) defines guests as people outside your workspace, such as "a contractor or a client you're working with." A guest needs their own Notion account and sees only the pages you invite them to. The [Notion pricing page](https://www.notion.com/pricing?ref=notionsolutions.net) says guests are free of charge; the Free plan allows 10 guests, and Plus and above allow unlimited guests. Each invite carries a level: Full access, Can edit, Can comment or Can view, plus two levels that exist only on databases. Can edit content lets someone add and edit records without touching the database's properties, views, sorts or filters. Can create, on Business and Enterprise, lets a person add new records without seeing existing ones they weren't given. On those same plans, database page-level access opens only the rows where a person or created-by property names that person. Two rules decide what a client can reach beyond the page you shared. Notion respects the broadest access a person has, and a subpage inherits its parent's permissions. I'd check the portal with a test guest before sending the real link. The [guest vs member guide](https://notionsolutions.net/notion-guest-vs-member/) covers who gets billed, and the [client portal permissions walkthrough](https://notionsolutions.net/notion-client-portal-permissions/) builds the record-level rules step by step. ### Obsidian: one permission level for the whole vault Obsidian shares through Sync, and its [shared vault documentation](https://obsidian.md/help/sync/collaborate?ref=notionsolutions.net) sets four limits that matter for client work: - All collaborators must have an active Sync subscription. - "Fine-grained permissions are not supported yet." Everyone gets the owner's permissions, except that only the owner can invite. - There's no live editing on the same file. You won't see the other person's cursor, their edits appear once changes sync, and simultaneous edits are merged during syncing. - A shared vault holds at most 20 collaborators. The invite lives under Settings → Sync → Manage (next to Remote vault) → Manage sharing. That works for two partners who trust each other with every file. For a client, it means asking them to buy Sync and then giving them the same rights as you over everything in the vault. I wouldn't build a client portal that way. Keep client-facing material in Notion, or send the client an export. [![Diagram comparing Notion, where a client guest reaches only invited pages and assigned database rows, with an Obsidian shared vault where every collaborator holds the owner's permissions](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5c/30/5c30c46b-86a3-4d20-984f-4f6ae8ad1ed2/content/images/2026/10/notion-vs-obsidian-access-models.webp)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5c/30/5c30c46b-86a3-4d20-984f-4f6ae8ad1ed2/content/images/2026/10/notion-vs-obsidian-access-models.webp?ref=notionsolutions.net) Notion sets access per page and, on Business, per database row; an Obsidian shared vault gives every collaborator the owner's rights. ## Offline work: always local vs downloaded in advance Obsidian needs no setup to work offline, because the vault already sits on your disk. The common trouble spot is a cloud drive syncing that folder. The same [Obsidian sync guide](https://obsidian.md/help/sync-notes?ref=notionsolutions.net) tells OneDrive users to mark the vault folder Always keep on this device, warns that iCloud Drive on Windows may duplicate or corrupt files, and says to avoid syncing one vault through two services at once. Notion does have an offline mode, whatever older comparisons say. Notion's help article on [using pages offline](https://www.notion.com/help/use-pages-offline?ref=notionsolutions.net) sets these conditions: - It works on all plans, in the desktop and mobile apps only. Web browsers don't get it. - You turn it on per page with ••• → Available offline. On Plus, Business and Enterprise, Notion also downloads your recently visited and favorite pages; Settings → Offline lists them. - Subpages don't download with their parent. A database brings only the first 50 rows of its first view. - Downloads belong to one device. Pages saved on your phone aren't on your laptop. - Embeds, AI blocks, forms and buttons need a connection, and you can't share a page or change its permissions offline. - Notion tries to resolve text conflicts automatically. Non-text edits are riskier: if two people change the same select property offline, only one change is saved. Notion's longer [guide to working offline](https://www.notion.com/help/guides/working-offline-in-notion-everything-you-need-to-know?ref=notionsolutions.net) lists automatic downloads under Business and Enterprise only, while the help article and the pricing table include Plus. On Plus, open Settings → Offline to see which pages your workspace downloads. My rule is simple. If you work without a connection every week, on flights or at sites with no guest Wi-Fi, keep the working notes in Obsidian. For [an occasional trip](https://notionsolutions.net/notion-travel-itinerary/), Notion is enough once you download the exact pages and subpages on the device you'll carry. ## Published timings: how fast each app opens and searches None of the timings below put both apps on one machine with the same notes, so read them per app rather than as a head-to-head. Obsidian has independent desktop measurements. Notion publishes relative speed-ups of its own. __Published Obsidian and Notion speed figures with their test conditions__ | What was timed | Result | Conditions | Who measured | | -------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | Obsidian first index of a new vault | 27.15 s, 22,133 links resolved | 10,000 generated notes, 21,933 wikilinks, 200 PNGs, 42 MB; Obsidian 1.13.7 on Ubuntu 26.04, 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM VM | ComputingForGeeks, independent | | Obsidian cold start to a ready window | 2.64 s, median of 3 runs | Same vault and VM; page cache dropped before each run | ComputingForGeeks | | Obsidian cold start to a fully indexed vault | 4.32 s, median of 3 runs | Same vault and VM; ready when Obsidian's metadata cache finished and links resolved | ComputingForGeeks | | Obsidian full-text search | 3,215 ms for a common word (9,408 hits); 197 ms for a rare term | Same vault and VM; warm, 3 runs per query, timed until the search view finished rendering | ComputingForGeeks | | Obsidian total startup, about 1,000 files | 2,016 ms on a normal day; 10,317 ms on a slow day | Obsidian 1.12.7, Windows 11 Pro, 8 to 9 community plugins, vault in a OneDrive-synced folder | One user's report on the Obsidian forum | | Obsidian mobile startup | Under 500 ms for almost all vaults, including one of more than 17,000 notes | No device or method published | Obsidian's own figure | | Notion page loading | 15% faster (3.1); Windows 27% and Mac 11% faster (3.2); initial render 28% faster (3.4) | Relative to earlier versions; no baseline time or hardware published | Notion's own figures | The core desktop numbers come from [ComputingForGeeks' 10,000-note test of Obsidian, Logseq and Trilium](https://computingforgeeks.com/obsidian-vs-logseq-vs-trilium/?ref=notionsolutions.net), which timed launch to a "ready" check polled every 50 ms. Two independent sources publish Obsidian desktop startup times, and together they span 2.0 to 10.3 seconds. The second is a [thread on Obsidian performance with large vaults](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/performance-on-large-vaults/114864?ref=notionsolutions.net), where one user posted Obsidian's own startup breakdown. The two measure different end points, so I don't average them; the only median here is ComputingForGeeks' own across three runs. A third, older independent benchmark points the same way without start times in its text. Alexander Rink's [interim results for five note apps](https://www.goedel.io/p/tft-performance-interim-results?ref=notionsolutions.net) used 2,000-, 5,000- and 10,000-file sets and found that Obsidian "ranked first in almost every category." On the 10,000-page set, Obsidian loaded a page's backlinks in about 5 seconds against 2 minutes 44 seconds for Roam Research. The mobile figure also comes from the company. Obsidian CEO Steph Ango wrote in a [Threads post about mobile startup](https://www.threads.com/@kepano/post/DSq3zxXETy7/obsidian-has-always-been-performance-focused-but-one-problem-area-was-startup?ref=notionsolutions.net) that it's "down under 500ms for almost all vaults," including his personal vault of over 17,000 notes. For Notion, the public figures are relative. Its release notes report pages loading 15% faster in [Notion 3.1](https://www.notion.com/releases/2025-11-17?ref=notionsolutions.net), pages opening 27% faster on Windows and 11% faster on Mac desktop in [Notion 3.2](https://www.notion.com/releases/2026-01-20?ref=notionsolutions.net), and a 28% faster initial page render in [Notion 3.4](https://www.notion.com/releases/2026-04-14?ref=notionsolutions.net). They show the direction of Notion's work. They don't tell you how many seconds a page takes on your laptop. ### What the numbers mean at 1,000 and 10,000 notes - **About 1,000 notes:** note count isn't the bottleneck. In the forum report, the vault itself loaded in 233 ms on a normal day. On the slow day, community plugins took 4,247 ms and the vault scan 3,806 ms, with the vault inside a OneDrive-synced folder. That's one user's machine, but it tells you where to look first: plugins and the sync folder, not the number of notes. - **About 10,000 notes:** expect a one-time index when you first open the folder, 27 seconds in the published test, then a cold start of roughly 2.6 seconds to a usable window and 4.3 seconds to a fully indexed vault on a 4-vCPU, 8 GB machine. Searching a common word across 9,408 hits took about 3.2 seconds; a rare term with 7 hits came back in a fifth of a second. - **Offline at any size:** Obsidian opens everything with no connection. Notion opens what you downloaded on that device, and a downloaded database brings its first 50 rows. A 10,000-record client database is mostly online-only. ## Databases: Notion relations vs Obsidian Bases For client work, Notion's databases carry most of the weight. A Projects database relates to Clients, a rollup totals what each client has open, and a form feeds new inquiries into the same source database. The [relations and rollups guide](https://notionsolutions.net/notion-relations-and-rollups/) builds that client-project model, and the [database views guide](https://notionsolutions.net/notion-database-views-for-client-work/) shows how to give each question its own view. Obsidian now has a fair answer for personal structure. [Obsidian Bases](https://obsidian.md/help/bases?ref=notionsolutions.net) is a core plugin that creates "database-like views of your notes." The data stays in your Markdown files and their properties, and each view is saved in a `.base` file or embedded in a note. [Bases views](https://obsidian.md/help/bases/views?ref=notionsolutions.net) come in table, list, cards, map (with the Maps plugin) and Kanban layouts, with filters, sorting, grouping and formulas. In the [Kanban view](https://obsidian.md/help/bases/views/kanban?ref=notionsolutions.net), dragging a card to another column updates the grouped property in that note. Kanban needs Obsidian 1.14 or later, so check your version before you plan a board around it. Bases is enough for a reading list, a content pipeline or your own project tracker. What it can't change is the access model: anyone in a shared vault can edit every note behind the view. For client records that someone else will update, I'd keep the database in Notion. Intake follows the same logic. Notion forms are basic on Free, custom on Plus and add conditional logic on Business, and the [client intake forms guide](https://notionsolutions.net/notion-forms-client-intake/) turns a response into an owned next action. Obsidian's [core plugins list](https://obsidian.md/help/plugins?ref=notionsolutions.net) has no form tool. ## Publishing pages to clients or the web Both tools can put pages on the web, and neither turns a reader into a collaborator. Notion publishes pages as Sites: the pricing page lists one notion.site domain on Free and five on paid plans, plus a custom domain at $8 per domain per month paid annually, or $10 paid monthly. [Obsidian Publish](https://obsidian.md/help/publish?ref=notionsolutions.net) hosts selected notes at publish.obsidian.md/your-site or on your own domain. It costs $8 per site per month billed annually, or $10 billed monthly. The [Publish limitations page](https://obsidian.md/help/publish/limitations?ref=notionsolutions.net) says plugins that need a code block to render, such as Dataview, won't work by default. If your vault leans on Dataview tables, plan to rewrite those pages before publishing them. ## What each setup costs Obsidian's app is free. The paid parts are services: Sync starts at $4 per user per month billed annually, or $5 monthly, and Publish is priced per site. Notion's plans are priced per member: Free at $0, Plus at $10 and Business at $20 per member per month, billed annually. Notion's Free plan has unlimited pages and blocks for one person, but blocks are limited once a workspace has two or more members. __Monthly cost of common setups at annual billing__ | Setup | Notion | Obsidian | | ------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | One person on one computer | $0 on Free | $0 | | One person on a laptop and a phone | $0 on Free; offline pages are downloaded per device | $0 with iCloud between a Mac and an iPhone, or Sync from $4 | | Three members and two client contacts | Plus: 3 × $10 = $30; clients join free as guests on their pages | Sync for each member from 3 × $4 = $12; each client would also need Sync and would get owner-level rights | | A public site on your own domain | A paid plan plus $8 per domain | Publish at $8 per site, which supports a custom domain | Sync's two tiers differ in limits as well as price. According to the [Sync plans comparison](https://obsidian.md/help/sync/plans?ref=notionsolutions.net), Standard covers 1 synced vault, 5 MB per file, 1 GB of storage and one month of version history. Plus, listed on the [Obsidian Sync page](https://obsidian.md/sync?ref=notionsolutions.net) at $8 per user per month billed annually, covers 10 vaults, 200 MB per file, 10 GB of storage upgradable to 100 GB, and 12 months of history. Both include shared vaults and unlimited devices. ### Syncing Obsidian without paying for Sync You don't need Sync to use Obsidian on several devices. Obsidian's sync guide also covers iCloud between a Mac and an iPhone or iPad, OneDrive, Google Drive, Syncthing and Git, each with caveats: Google Drive isn't officially supported for vaults on iOS, Git syncing isn't automatic because you push and pull changes by hand, and one vault should never run through two sync services. Sync is the officially supported route, and it's the one that includes Obsidian's shared vaults. ## Version history, backup and recovery Notion keeps deleted pages in Trash for 30 days. Its [delete and restore guide](https://www.notion.com/help/duplicate-delete-and-restore-content?ref=notionsolutions.net) sets page version history at 7 days on Free, 30 on Plus, 90 on Business and unlimited on Enterprise, with a new version recorded every 10 minutes while someone edits. You need at least Can edit access to open it. For a full copy, [Notion's export](https://www.notion.com/help/export-your-content?ref=notionsolutions.net) produces PDF, HTML or Markdown pages, and full-page databases become CSV files with a Markdown file for each subpage. A database's Form view can't be exported. The [client project backup guide](https://notionsolutions.net/notion-client-project-backup/) separates an export from a real restore. Obsidian has two layers. [Sync's version history](https://obsidian.md/help/sync/version-history?ref=notionsolutions.net) keeps one month of note versions on Standard and 12 months on Plus. Separately, the File recovery core plugin keeps a local version history on each device that isn't part of Sync, and Obsidian's [Sync introduction](https://obsidian.md/help/sync?ref=notionsolutions.net) links a guide to backing up your vault with third-party tools. Without Sync, I'd turn on File recovery and keep a second copy of the vault folder somewhere else, because snapshots on one laptop disappear with that laptop. ## Moving between Notion and Obsidian From Notion to Obsidian, [Obsidian's Notion import guide](https://obsidian.md/help/import/notion?ref=notionsolutions.net) offers two routes through the Importer plugin. The recommended account connection preserves databases and formulas by converting them to Bases, but it needs a Notion integration token and an internet connection. The file route uses Notion's .zip export, works offline and drops databases. Use Notion's HTML export for that route, since Obsidian says the Markdown export omits important data. Expect gaps: only the primary view of each database comes across, linked data sources don't, and rate limits slow large workspaces. Exporting a whole workspace needs admin access. From Obsidian to Notion, [Notion's import guide](https://www.notion.com/help/import-data-into-notion?ref=notionsolutions.net) handles standard Markdown headings, lists and code, but says anchor links and nonstandard Markdown extensions may not import cleanly. The limits matter for big vaults: about 120 file imports every 12 hours, ZIP files up to 5 GB, and 10,000+ files "likely to fail or partially import." I'd move one client folder first, check its links, and only then plan the rest in batches. ## Running both: where the handoff boundary sits Running both works when each note has one home and the rule for moving it is written down. I'd draw the line at other people. Obsidian holds what only you read: research, call notes, reading notes, drafts and thinking in progress. Notion holds anything another person must see, edit or act on: the client record, project status, deliverable pages, intake forms and the next action with its owner. A note crosses the boundary when it gets a reader or an owner other than you. At that point, write the decision or the client-ready version into the Notion page and leave the working notes in the vault. Copying whole notes back and forth creates two versions of the truth. Copying the status into both tools creates a reconciliation job someone has to own. [![Handoff diagram with research, reading notes, drafts and call notes in an Obsidian vault and project status, client record, deliverables, intake form and next action in Notion, joined by one arrow that carries only the decision](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5c/30/5c30c46b-86a3-4d20-984f-4f6ae8ad1ed2/content/images/2026/10/notion-vs-obsidian-note-handoff.webp)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5c/30/5c30c46b-86a3-4d20-984f-4f6ae8ad1ed2/content/images/2026/10/notion-vs-obsidian-note-handoff.webp?ref=notionsolutions.net) Keep working notes in the vault and move only the decision or client-ready version into Notion. Start with one handoff. Pick a single client project, keep its call notes in Obsidian and its project page in Notion, and after a week check whether every decision the client needed made it across. ## Make the choice from one real requirement I would choose Notion for a freelancer or small team whose work depends on other people opening, editing or submitting into shared pages. Guests are free and page-scoped, databases relate clients to projects, and record-level rules on Business keep each client inside their own rows. The [Notion for freelancers review](https://notionsolutions.net/notion-review-freelancers/) covers the setup that comes next. I would choose Obsidian for private notes that need to open fast, work offline every day and stay readable as plain files for years. The published timings put a 10,000-note vault at about four seconds to fully indexed on modest hardware, and the app costs nothing for commercial use. If one requirement decides it, let it be access. When a client needs to see the work, start in Notion. When nobody else does, start in Obsidian, and add Notion only for the pages that cross the boundary.