I hope my question isn't bothering anyone. I see that SiYuan is an excellent tool as a second brain, and I like it more than Obsidian, but I still have my doubts about whether it's worth migrating. Since I'm new to both tools, I'd like someone to explain the differences and advantages between them so I can make my decision.
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cirsid • • 1PRO
I haven't got a definitive pros and cons, but you could probably get that using ChatGPT or Gemini. I used Obsidian for a long while, but in the end I didn't like paying a monthly subscription to sync my notes, and couldn't get other Obsidian options to work cleanly. I also became annoyed with the number of plugins I had to use and maintain to make things work how I wanted.
Obsidian is a great tool and has huge community engagement, but I've found SiYuan a more complete PKM implementation which looks great and does everything I need, and I still retain control of my data.
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Siysuy • • 1
I have been using Siyuan for a long while. Obsidian I have used far less. I do find Siyuan superior and havent regretted or had any desire to switch back to obsidian. If you do commit to migration to siyuan from obsidian, obviously there isnt an ideal back and forth migration (between siy vs obs) that retains all document structures, backlinks perfectly intact last I tested 6 months back, mainly because the syntaxes differ (and features differ) between the two apps for creating backlinks. I have seen some third-party tools specific to migration, and since 6 months there might be better solutions I havent figured out
Siyuan Excels in:
- editing: where Obsidian can still be a little quirky, rather Siyuan has flawless consistency editing paragraphs, code block, lists, embedded blocks and not to forget moving any block types around. Moving blocks and nesting blocks also feels superior in Siyuan
- Backup/restore: Siyuan can backup of entire workspace, partial documents, migrate to new workspaces while retaining prior structures and context flawlessly. I havent had any issues starting anew, creating temporary workspaces. I have less understanding how Obsidian deals with deep backup/restore that much, but Siyuan wont leave you hanging or yurning obsidian.
There is more to be said and compare, but basically, Siyuan never left me hanging or desiring a switch. The core features of siyuan (some mentioned above) as stable PKM were superior, where Obsidian (and switching between edit view vs reading view) seems more quirky.
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AlexSlender •PRO Author
Thanks for sharing your experience. I totally agree, and I'm amazed that there is so little information on the web (at last at Youtube) about SiYuan, having such great and many features! I met the app by this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L3txd8_Psk&list=PLE_pXle7cark. Is SiYuan so young in the market? The only thing that makes me doubt for buying SiYuan is if the WebDAV sync will really work for me. I got a koofr account and I'm happy how it works for other apps I use, but by now I couldn't make it work with Obsidian plugins. I'm not sure if I'm wrong setting it up. They are not so clear in instructions.
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rali •PRO
- Open source: Unlike Obsidian, which is closed source, Siyuan's source is open. This gives a lot of benefits; some of them will be cited below
- Performance: Siyuan can handle millions of documents; Obsidian lags badly at the 280,000+ notes mark
- One-time payment for Sync & Versatility of choice: Obsidian offers only subscription-based sync; Siyuan offers one-time payment and also one-time payment for a subscription plan for limited seats
- Sustainability: Due to its small team, location, the enormous edge that Siyuan offers, and its rapid international adoption, Siyuan's sustainability looks stable.
- Posteriority & Aging: Siyuan's technical stack is future-proof, its usage of Go for kernel and pure HTML/CSS/JS for interface are good foundation for solid aging.
- Intentionality: Attention to details, precision, well-thought-out design decisions, focus on the right things...ect
- Experience & Wisdom: B3log dev team cumulated 20+ years of experience around markdown, editing and publishing. The remarkable adoption of Siyuan didn't come overnight, its the fruit of long years of making the right decisions.
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Djo •VIP Warrior
Obsidian:
The interface is very confusing, IMO. Very difficult to get the hang of.
I find the editing experience awful with the Preview mode, where the markdown syntax keeps popping up. I don't care about markdown, full WYSIWYG is far better.
IMO Obsidian is stuck with the markdown format and files. They are trapped along with their community, some of whom are extremists from the markdown file, even though it actually has far more drawbacks than benefits to build an entire PKM program on it.SiYuan is so pleasant to work with. All the opposite of Obsidian for me. And it is great out of the box, no need to manage a tons of plugins. What a relief.
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Mon •
Your question is valid imo and Im happy to share my thoughts/experiences on these two apps. Ive started using obsidian since its infancy stage and i was onboard with it because i wanted to use an alternative to notion that can be use offline and has better privacy. I got into the rabbit hole, like changing the layouts, formatting my templates, everything. But then i slowly realized that i spent a lot of my time customizing and optimizing everything that i end up not doing that very thing why i downloaded this app, which is to make notes! lol and at that time, it lacks proper tables and databases, although tables can be created now with the latest update but it still lacks the database that i need, it feels janky to me. Another thing, I struggle with text formatting in markdown without installing another plugin to suffice my needs. Also, just like what everyone has mentioned already, the plugins are overwhelming and annoying. These really lose my interest in note-taking in obsidian for a long while. Thankfully, i found about siyuan via reddit and i never look back ever since. I love WYSIWYG approach, making notes and organizing them is way easier for me. I only use minimal number of plugins in siyuan. Most of them are just QOL plugins like bookmark+, tab manager, link icon to name a few. There are still some room for improvement (still waiting for the official release of calendar view for database) and Im hoping for more features/updates to come. EDIT: Calendar view is already released and im pleased with the update. Thank you devs! :D
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Siyuan is far far better than Obsidian. Its even better than some other open source alternatives out there.
- The most impotant thing is that Siyuan is open source unlike Obsidian which is very important.
- Extrememly featureful mobile platform: If you have used the obsidian's android app you'll find how limiting and basic it is.
- Versatile and generous sync mechanisms: Synching on Obsidian is pardon my language god awful. Even if you subscribe you can only sync through their servers.
- Obsidian fans are basically markdown cultists. Their main argument is that because it is markdown there is no vendor lockdown but this argument is moot because Siyuan is already open source. There was never a lockdown to begin with.
I have tried many note taking apps both open source and closed soure. I have tried anytype, affine, appflowy, logseq, simplenotes, joplin, trillium, notesnook and ofcourse notion and obsidian, hoewever they all either did not have the lackluster or the ease of use as as siyuan. Either they leaned heavily towards a very particular notetaking paradigm that was far from conventional and wysiwyg or they never were as featureful as siyuan.
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