Side-by-side
Obsidian vs SiYuan
Pricing, founders, indie status and curated alternatives compared from our directory — all data points sourced from each tool's public site or press materials.
Obsidian
Local-first Markdown knowledge base.
At a glanceObsidianSiYuan
At a glance
- Pricing
- Obsidian$50 commercial license
- SiYuan$3/mo cloud sync
- Pricing model
- ObsidianFreemium
- SiYuanFreemium
- Founded
- Obsidian—
- SiYuan—
- Location
- Obsidian—
- SiYuan—
- Bootstrapped
- ObsidianYes
- SiYuan—
- Open source
- Obsidian—
- SiYuanYes
- Category
- ObsidianNotes & Knowledge
- SiYuan—
- Indie alternatives
- Obsidian4
- SiYuan0
- Founders
- ObsidianErica Xu, Shida Li
- SiYuan—
Key differences
Pricing
SiYuan starts cheaper at $3/mo cloud sync; Obsidian starts at $50 commercial license.
Funding
Both are indie / bootstrapped or open source.
Open source
SiYuan is open source; Obsidian is closed source.
Indie alternatives
Obsidian has 4 curated indie alternatives in our directory; SiYuan has 0.
Differences are derived directly from the data on each tool's page. Empty fields mean we haven't verified a value yet — never that one tool lacks the capability.
Founders of Obsidian
- Shida LiCo-founder
Founder of SiYuan
No founder details documented yet.
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