Quick Verdict

Overview

Feature Comparison

Installation Complexity

Community and Support

Use Cases

Choose SiYuan If...

Choose Obsidian If...

Final Verdict

Related Obsidian is the better choice for most users — plain Markdown files, a massive plugin ecosystem, and a huge community make it the safer bet. SiYuan wins if you want a WYSIWYG block editor with features like block embedding, database views, and built-in S3/WebDAV sync without third-party plugins. SiYuan is an open-source, local-first note-taking app with block-level editing, bidirectional links, graph view, and database-style content views. It uses a custom JSON storage format and can be self-hosted as a Docker container for web access. Developed by B3log, a Chinese open-source organization. Obsidian is a commercial (but free for personal use) Markdown-based knowledge management app. It stores notes as plain .md files, supports bidirectional links and a graph view, and has a massive plugin ecosystem. Obsidian itself isn't open-source, but self-hosted sync is possible via the community LiveSync plugin with CouchDB. SiYuan self-hosted: Single Docker container, no external database. Access via web browser. Simple deployment. Obsidian self-hosted sync: Requires CouchDB Docker container, custom local.ini configuration for CORS, then installing and configuring the LiveSync community plugin in each Obsidian client. More moving parts. SiYuan is simpler for web-based self-hosting. Obsidian requires more setup to get self-hosted sync working. SiYuan runs as a server accessed via browser — no client install needed (though desktop apps exist). Obsidian is an Electron desktop app with sync through CouchDB. SiYuan: ~25,000 GitHub stars, active development, community primarily Chinese-speaking with growing English documentation. Updates are frequent (weekly patches). Obsidian: Massive community — millions of users, active Discord (100,000+ members), Reddit (r/ObsidianMD with 200K+ members), and a thriving plugin ecosystem. Documentation and tutorials are abundant in English. Obsidian's community is significantly larger, which means more tutorials, themes, plugins, and troubleshooting help. Obsidian is the safer choice for most people. Plain Markdown storage means your notes are never locked into a proprietary format. The plugin ecosystem handles anything SiYuan does natively (Dataview for databases, Excalidraw for canvas, various block reference plugins). And the community size ensures long-term sustainability. SiYuan is the better product if you evaluate features in isolation — the WYSIWYG block editor is smoother, block references are more powerful, and database views work without plugins. But the custom storage format is a real trade-off: your notes are in .sy JSON files, not portable Markdown. If portability and ecosystem matter: Obsidian. If native WYSIWYG power matters: SiYuan. Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. as well , this person and/or - You prefer a WYSIWYG block editor over Markdown source editing

- Block-level references and embedding are essential to your workflow- You want built-in database views without plugins- You want a self-hosted web UI accessible from any browser- You prefer open-source software (AGPL-3.0)- Built-in S3/WebDAV sync is simpler for you than setting up CouchDB - You want plain Markdown files (future-proof, portable, readable anywhere)- The plugin ecosystem matters (1,500+ plugins for any workflow)- You want polished mobile apps- You prefer a large English-speaking community for help- You use many different tools that can read Markdown- You want themes and customization options- You're already using Obsidian and want to self-host sync - How to Self-Host SiYuan- How to Self-Host Obsidian Sync- How to Self-Host Trilium Notes- Best Self-Hosted Note Taking- Replace Notion- Replace Evernote- Docker Compose Basics