SiYuan vs Obsidian

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
      PRO

      I use Cloudflare R2 (S3 storage) for sync as it has a generous free tier.

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    • cirsid 1
      PRO

      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.

    • 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.

    • 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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