Obsidian was great until it wasn’t. Here’s the real story, tools I replaced it with, and why you might rethink your setup too.

Introduction

There was a time when firing up Obsidian felt like stepping into my own personal Batcave.
My second brain, my infinite canvas, my kingdom of markdown glory.
I crafted intricate vaults, strung together thousands of backlinks, and convinced myself I was building a note-taking fortress that would last forever.

But like every epic saga, cracks began to appear.
What started as an empowering playground turned into an exhausting maintenance job.
Sync issues crept in. Managing my notes became a daily chore.
And somewhere between battling plugins and rescuing lost files, I realized:
I was spending more time babysitting my tools than creating with them.

Reminder: If you spend more time maintaining your system than using it, your system is broken.

This isn’t some dramatic “Obsidian is bad” rant it’s a real story about how a tool can be perfect for one season of your life and painfully wrong for another.
If you’re a developer, gamer, builder, or just someone tired of “managing the manager,” this story might sound a little too familiar.

Let’s rewind the tape and start where it all went right.

What Made Obsidian Awesome

Obsidian didn’t just appear it ambushed me in the best way possible.

At first glance, it was everything I had ever wanted from a note-taking app:

  • Local-first storage (no vendor lock-in paranoia)
  • Lightning-fast markdown editor (because plain text is sacred)
  • Graph view that made me feel like Tony Stark building a neural net of my brain
  • Plugins and themes so customizable you could lose entire weekends “optimizing productivity” instead of… you know, actually being productive.

Fun Fact: Obsidian’s community plugin library exploded past 1000 plugins within its first few years. Insane DIY energy!

The real magic? Backlinks.
Suddenly, notes weren’t isolated anymore. They talked to each other.
Ideas started to snowball into projects. Half-baked thoughts connected into real insights.

It felt less like keeping a journal and more like building a private internet of ideas and I was the sole architect.

Pro Tip: If you’ve never seen Obsidian’s Graph view, prepare to lose hours connecting random dots between ideas.

Obsidian wasn’t just a tool; it was a lifestyle.
Every new plugin felt like leveling up: calendar views, Kanban boards, Pomodoro timers…
It was markdown meets Minecraft an endless sandbox limited only by your imagination (and willingness to spend three hours debugging a broken theme update).

For a while, it was perfect.
I was flying.

But if you’ve ever played a survival game, you know: the early game is always the most fun…
Before the grind hits you like a brick wall.

Where Obsidian Started to Break for Me

For a while, Obsidian was my cozy little corner of the universe.
But somewhere between the 300th note and the 20th plugin, the cracks started to show and not in a charming “quirky indie game” way.
I mean full-on spaghetti code chaos.

1. Sync Drama

Sure, Obsidian had its official sync service — but it cost extra, felt disconnected from the core app, and sometimes had its own tantrums.
DIY syncing (Dropbox, Git) worked if you were ready to troubleshoot merge conflicts like it was your full-time job.

Quick Note:
When your “second brain” needs a sync therapist, it’s time to rethink your architecture.

2. Scaling Chaos

Obsidian is magical at 50 notes.
At 500+? It starts feeling like hoarding markdown files in a digital basement.

Nested folders inside folders.
Tags for folders.
Folders for tags.

At one point I wasn’t sure if I was finding ideas or getting lost inside my own taxonomies.

3. Plugin Fatigue

Plugins were a blessing... until they became a curse.
One plugin update would break another.
Some devs abandoned their projects halfway.
Every update felt like rolling the dice: "Will my notes still work tomorrow?"

Reminder:
 If your note system needs version control just to stay alive, you're not note-taking you're running a mini startup.

Meme Break (after this section):

By now, I realized:
I was spending more time managing my second brain than using it.

Not exactly the productivity dream.

The Moment I Knew I Had to Leave

It all came crashing down on a random Tuesday night at 11:43 PM.

I had just wrapped up a killer brainstorming session for a side project.
The ideas were flowing. My brain was firing on all cylinders.
I quickly typed it all into Obsidian, feeling that rare, beautiful sense of momentum.

Reminder:
Capture ideas when they strike you’ll never “remember them later” as clearly as you think.

I hit save. Closed my laptop. Slept like a champion.

The next morning?
Half the note was gone.
The other half looked like it had been run through a blender.
A plugin update + a sync conflict + a sleepy brain = one completely nuked thought process.

I wasn’t even angry.
Just… tired.

That was the moment.
Quiet. Final.
If the tool I trusted to capture ideas was actively losing ideas, it wasn’t a tool anymore it was a liability.

And that’s when I knew:
It was time to walk away.

What I Needed Instead

After that painful sync betrayal, I stopped chasing “feature lists” and started focusing on real-world survival needs.
Because let’s be honest I didn’t need another shiny app.
I needed a workhorse.

Here’s the checklist that emerged after a lot of forehead-slamming moments:

1. Real Time, Rock Solid Sync

When I type something on one device, I expect it to already exist on another no sync gods, no ceremonies.
I wanted sync that’s boring because it just works.

Reminder:
 Good sync is invisible. If you notice it, it’s already broken.

2. Cross Platform (And Actually Good Everywhere)

Not just “technically” available on mobile and desktop — but actually usable without feeling like a bad port.

3. Easy Open Backups

Local files. Exports. Some form of ownership over my data.
No black box nonsense where my notes are held hostage in case I want to move tomorrow.

4. Lightning Fast Search

If I can Google a meme from 2008 faster than I can find my own idea from last month, something is wrong.
I needed a fuzzy, typo-friendly, screaming-fast search system.

5. Minimal Maintenance

I’m a builder, not a plugin mechanic.
The app should work out of the box — not need weekly maintenance windows just to stay functional.

6. Private By Default

No random data mining.
No “oops, we had a breach” emails about my late-night business ideas.

In short:
I didn’t need a new app to play with.
I needed an app to disappear while I was working.

Pro Tip:
If your tools aren’t making you faster, they’re slowing you down. Period.

The Alternatives I Tried

After ditching Obsidian, I didn’t just stumble into the perfect tool.
Nope I went on a wild journey through the note-taking jungle, battling shiny UIs, weird sync bugs, and existential dread.

Here’s what that odyssey looked like:

Notion

At first, it felt like I had entered a productivity spaceship. Databases! Toggles! Embeds!
But within a few weeks, I realized: I was spending more time formatting my notes than writing them.

Quick Take:
 If you need to take a note fast, Notion feels like building IKEA furniture during a house fire.

Logseq

Almost won me over.
It had offline-first magic, backlinks, graphs the whole nerdy package.

Problem?
Mobile was clunky. Sync was unpredictable.
And every third plugin broke something crucial.

Evernote

Tried a nostalgic comeback.
But opening Evernote in 2025 felt like stepping into a dusty museum where every exhibit costs $7.99/month.

Goodbye, old friend.

Apple Notes

Surprisingly good… if you’re already deep inside the Apple walled garden.

Fast. Beautiful. Instant search.
But locked tighter than a medieval castle — getting your data out isn’t pretty.

🔔 Reminder:
 If you’re going to build your second brain, make sure you actually own it.

Others I Briefly Toyed With:

  • Standard Notes Secure, but too minimal for heavy PKM users.
  • Bear Gorgeous, but no Windows version = dealbreaker.
  • Craft Stunning UI, but felt more like a presentation tool than a quick note app.
  • Joplin Good vibes… (Spoiler: more on this soon.)

The verdict?
Every app solved part of the problem but none hit that perfect sweet spot yet.

It was like shopping for a gaming laptop and realizing they all either have a broken keyboard, overheating issues, or are disguised Chromebooks.

The hunt wasn’t over.
But the trail was getting warmer.

What I Use Now

After speed-running through half the note-taking apps in existence, I finally landed on a system that hit the sweet spot:

Joplin.

And no, it’s not a shiny, startup-backed, VC funded magic unicorn app.
It’s simple, open-source, a little rugged but it works. Really works.

Why Joplin Works for Me

Real Sync Freedom

You can sync using Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, or your own server if you want.
No forced subscription. No “trust us” cloud black boxes.

Markdown First, Forever

Pure markdown.
No hidden formatting disasters lurking under the hood.
If Joplin disappeared tomorrow, I’d still have readable notes sitting neatly on my drive.

Cross-Platform Done Right

Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and the apps feel actually built for each platform, not lazily ported.

Tip:
Cross-platform doesn’t mean “barely usable on mobile.” It means trusting your notes on every device.

Offline-First, Always Available

Even if I lose internet for hours, everything stays available, editable, and safe locally.
No cloud dependency panic attacks here.

Lightweight Plugins (Only If You Want Them)

Plugins exist, but Joplin doesn’t require them to stay functional.
It feels like you’re adding sprinkles to an already solid cake, not patching missing core features.

Real Life: How It Feels

Joplin isn’t trying to dazzle me with aesthetics or sell me “productivity dreams.”
It quietly gets out of my way so I can write, think, and move faster.

Is it perfect?
Nope.
There are tiny UI quirks and some rough patches.

But compared to daily sync panics, graph view lag, and plugin breakages?

It feels like switching from a duct-taped spaceship to a rugged pickup truck that just starts every time.

Exactly what I needed.

Final Thoughts: Goodbye Obsidian, Thanks for Everything

Leaving Obsidian wasn’t some dramatic rage-quit.

It was more like realizing your favorite game from childhood doesn’t quite hit the same anymore.
You remember the good times. You respect what it taught you.
But you know it’s time to move on.

Reminder:
Tools are for seasons. Outgrowing one doesn’t mean you failed — it means you grew.

Obsidian gave me so much:

  • It made me fall in love with networked note-taking.
  • It taught me how powerful plain text can be.
  • It pushed me to build workflows I didn’t even know I needed.

And for that, I’ll always be grateful.

But the needs changed.
My projects got bigger.
My workflow got faster.
My tolerance for sync errors and maintenance busywork dropped to absolute zero.

And that’s okay.

Today, I need tools that move as fast as I do tools like Joplin that quietly empower instead of silently eroding my momentum.

If you’re feeling the same tension stuck between loyalty to a system and frustration with it maybe it’s your season to rethink too.

Thank you, Obsidian.
Hello, new adventures.

Helpful Resources

If you’re thinking about your own note-taking setup, here are some solid starting points: