Obsidian Official Download
About Obsidian
Obsidian is a knowledge management app that saves your notes as local Markdown files. It was founded by Shida Li and Erica Xu, entered public beta in 2020 and released its 1.0 version in 2022. Every note is an ordinary .md file on your Mac, kept in a vault folder of your choosing, and Obsidian states that this data is not sent to its servers. That means you can build up notes over the long term with confidence, and you can open or move them with any other editor at any time.
For macOS, Obsidian provides a Universal build that runs natively on both Intel and Apple silicon Macs. Many Mac users treat it as the hub for their writing, reading notes and research material. Two-way links tie concepts together, the graph view shows the structure of your knowledge visually, and Canvas offers an infinite whiteboard for brainstorming and arranging ideas and sources. With the Web Clipper extension for Safari, Chrome and other browsers, you can also clip a web article into your vault in one step.
Obsidian has an active community, and thousands of plugins and themes can add capabilities such as calendars, kanban boards, task management and data queries. This lets you start with a plain notes folder and extend it only in the directions you actually need, rather than adopting a fixed structure from day one.
The app is free for both personal and commercial use and does not require you to register an account. If you also use an iPhone, iPad or other devices, you can choose the paid Obsidian Sync service, which offers end-to-end encrypted syncing with version history, or use Obsidian Publish to turn your notes into a website. Compared with cloud-based tools such as Notion, Obsidian puts more weight on privacy and data ownership: your notes remain plain text files in a folder you control, which makes it a good fit for people who want their knowledge base to outlast any single app.
Key features
- Local plain-text Markdown vaults
- Universal app for Intel and Apple silicon
- Links and graph view
- Infinite Canvas
- Community plugins and themes
- Web Clipper for Safari, Chrome and more
- Optional encrypted Sync with version history
- Optional Publish to the web
Official downloads
The SHA256 comes from the GitHub Release asset digest, so you can verify the file yourself. How to verify
The link points to the app’s official release channel; appwl does not rehost or modify files.
How to install
“App is damaged and can’t be opened”
Move the app into Applications, open Terminal, run this line, then open the app again:
xattr -cr "/Applications/Obsidian.app"“Developer cannot be verified”
In Finder → Applications, Control-click the app, choose Open, then Open again. On macOS 15 or later: System Settings → Privacy & Security, then “Open Anyway” at the bottom.
Apple silicon or Intel?
Apple menu → About This Mac. If the chip says Apple M, pick the Apple silicon build; Universal works on both.
Check the file
Run this in Terminal and compare the result with the SHA256 listed for the cloud file:
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/file-nameAlternatives
Joplin
Logseq
Notion
QOwnNotes
Changelog
Release notes
FAQ
How do I download Obsidian?
Obsidian is downloaded from its official channel: the “Official download” button on this page opens the official release page (github.com).
Is Obsidian free?
Obsidian license: 免费（专有软件，闭源）. appwl only lists official builds and charges nothing for downloads.
Which systems does Obsidian support?
This page offers Obsidian for macOS, version 1.14.5.
Is Obsidian from appwl safe?
appwl only lists official releases with their version and date. You can verify the SHA256 using the install tips on this page.