Obsidian
About Obsidian
Obsidian is a personal knowledge base and note-taking application built on plain-text Markdown files. Founded by Shida Li and Erica Xu, it entered beta in 2020 and reached version 1.0 in 2022. Notes live in a local folder on your PC and, according to Obsidian, are not sent to its servers, so you are never locked in.
On Windows, Obsidian serves well for writing, reading notes, projects and research. Links between notes, an interactive graph and an infinite Canvas help connect ideas, while the Web Clipper extension saves web pages into your vault. Thousands of community plugins and themes extend it further. It is free for personal and commercial use with no account required; Sync and Publish are optional paid services.
Key features
- Local plain-text Markdown vaults
- Links between notes for a personal wiki
- Interactive graph view
- Infinite Canvas
- Thousands of community plugins and themes
- Web Clipper browser extension
- Optional end-to-end encrypted Sync with version history
- Optional Publish to the web
Download via Quark Drive
We’re still preparing the Quark Drive share for this app. It will appear here once it’s ready. Tap “Request” to bump it up.
How to install
“Windows protected your PC”
SmartScreen shows this for apps without a paid signature. Click “More info”, then “Run anyway”.
Antivirus blocks it
Open-source apps are often flagged because they aren’t commercially signed. Check the SHA256 first, then allow it in your antivirus.
Won’t start, or a DLL is missing
Usually a missing runtime. Install Microsoft’s Visual C++ Redistributable (x64) and the .NET Desktop Runtime, then try again.
Check the file
Run this in Command Prompt and compare the result with the SHA256 listed for the cloud file:
certutil -hashfile "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\file-name" SHA256Alternatives
Joplin
Logseq
Notion
QOwnNotes
Changelog
Release notes
FAQ
How do I download Obsidian?
The Quark Drive share for Obsidian is being prepared and will appear in the download section of this page.
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 Windows, 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.