Obsidian vs Reflect: pricing, features and which to choose

Obsidian is a desktop and mobile note-taking app made by Dynalist Inc., a small independent company founded by Shida Li and Erica Xu, and first released in 2020. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. Notes live in a vault, which is a folder of plain Markdown files on your device, so they open in any text editor and outlast the app. Obsidian takes no venture capital and calls itself 100 percent user-supported. In February 2025 it made the commercial license optional, and the company says people at more than 10,000 organizations, including Amazon and Google, use it for work. Version 1.15 shipped in October 2026.

Writing happens in a Markdown editor with live preview. Typing double brackets links one note to another, and every note shows its backlinks, so ideas connect without a fixed folder hierarchy. The graph view draws those links as a network. Canvas gives an infinite board for arranging notes, images and web pages, and Bases, a core plugin added in 2025, turns notes with properties into sortable tables, cards or maps that work like a lightweight database. Daily notes, templates and tags cover journaling and task capture. The 1.15 mobile release added voice Quick Capture with live transcription on iOS 26, and PDF export on mobile.

Obsidian's flexibility is also its main drawback. A new vault is a blank editor, and building a useful system takes time and plugin choices. Real-time collaboration is limited compared with Notion, Microsoft Loop or Google Docs, and community plugins vary in quality and security. Notion suits teams that want shared databases and built-in AI. Logseq, which is open source, offers an outliner model with similar local files. Anytype offers local-first, encrypted notes with object-based structure. Pick Obsidian if you want notes that remain usable files in 20 years and are willing to add AI yourself; pick Notion for team wikis.

Reflect began as Alex MacCaw’s networked note-taking company around 2021 and raised just over $1 million through a community funding round. Its original service stored encrypted notes and included daily notes, backlinks, search, calendar context, web capture, and mobile access. In July 2026, MacCaw introduced Reflect Open, a rebuilt local-first app using ordinary Markdown as its source of truth. The Mac app is free and open source, while an iPhone beta is available through TestFlight. Optional AI, transcription, and sync use connected providers or storage. Reflect Pro is listed at $9.99 monthly or $99 yearly in the US App Store, with regional prices varying. Reflect remains independent; SmartBear’s January 2024 acquisition of a separate AI web-testing product called Reflect does not concern Reflect Notes.

A typical workflow begins in a daily note, where users capture writing, meetings, tasks, links, screenshots, and audio. Wiki links connect notes, while backlinks and tags reveal those connections. The Chrome extension saves selected text and page context, and Apple Calendar events can appear beside a daily note. Reflect Open provides a live-preview Markdown editor, local full-text search, optional on-device semantic search, task views, attachments, contacts, and a command-line interface. AI chat answers questions across notes with citations, and selected text can be rewritten, summarized, translated, or processed with a saved prompt. Private notes are excluded from AI requests. The Mac app is free, with optional AI, transcription, and sync using connected providers or storage. iPhone and iPad Pro plans cost $9.99 monthly or $99 yearly.

Reflect’s portability is a strong defense against vendor failure, but users must manage storage, Git or iCloud configuration, provider keys, and backups themselves. The free Mac app is open-source and stores Markdown locally; optional AI, transcription, and sync depend on connected providers or storage. Reflect lacks Notion’s managed collaboration depth, Anytype’s database and team-workspace model, and Obsidian’s mature graph and plugin breadth. It centers daily notes and keeps AI optional through bring-your-own keys. Privacy is strong for local files, but enabled AI or transcription sends selected content outward. Pro costs $9.99 monthly or $99 yearly through the US App Store for iPhone and iPad, with regional prices differing. Pick Reflect for private, Markdown-first personal notes, especially on Mac.