The framing
These tools solve different problems. Comparing them head-to-head misses the point.
Obsidian
Best for: personal knowledge, long-term reference, writing drafts. Markdown files on disk. Plugins for everything. Sync is paid but files are yours.
Notion
Best for: team wikis, project tracking, shared databases. Great collaboration. Data is locked in their format. Performance degrades on large pages.
Logseq
Best for: daily notes, outliner-style thinking, linking ideas as you go. Graph database under the hood. Steeper learning curve, smaller plugin ecosystem.
The verdict by role
- Solo developer: Obsidian
- Small team: Notion for shared stuff, Obsidian or Logseq personally
- Researcher: Logseq or Obsidian with Dataview plugin