European Alternatives to Obsidian

Obsidian is a note-taking app made by Dynalist Inc., a company located in Canada. Notes are stored as plain files in a folder on the user's own device, and the app is free to use, including at work. A commercial licence for USD 50 per user per year is encouraged but not required. Paid add-ons are Obsidian Sync (USD 4 per month billed annually) and Obsidian Publish (USD 8 per site and month billed annually). The app itself is not open source. This page lists Obsidian alternatives from Europe, collected in the note-taking apps category.

Why people look for an Obsidian alternative

• The program is proprietary, even though plugins and themes come from a large community.
• Synchronisation across devices needs the paid Sync add-on or a self-built solution.
• Some users want a provider inside the EU or Switzerland, or an open-source licence.
• Others miss structured databases or typed objects, which Obsidian handles through plugins.

The European options compared

Joplin from France is the closest match for people who want open source and Markdown. It encrypts notes end to end and lets users choose the sync target, but it keeps notes in its own storage rather than in a plain vault folder.

Anytype from Switzerland is local-first like Obsidian and encrypts data end to end, with a database-like model of linked objects. Its licence is source available, not open source, and notes are objects rather than plain files.

Capacities from Germany organises notes as typed objects with daily notes and a graph view. It is an account-based service with a free plan, and its AI and calendar features need an internet connection.

Bear (Ireland, founded in Italy) offers Markdown writing with a clean interface but runs only on Apple devices. Craft (United Kingdom) combines notes, documents and tasks in a polished app and is proprietary cloud software.

Before switching

Test the import and export options with a small copy of the vault first. Obsidian users who rely on community plugins should check which of those features exist in the new app, because none of these tools has an identical plugin ecosystem.