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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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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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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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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