Choosing a Note Tool: Obsidian, Notion, and Whether Your Data Comes With You
Before choosing a note tool, ask five things: can other programs open its files, do links survive renaming, can you search and filter, does it sync across devices, and does it work offline. Obsidian's notes are just Markdown files in a folder on your computer, but syntax such as block references can't be followed outside Obsidian, and on iPhone only two sync methods are officially recommended. Notion's databases are powerful, but an export takes only one view, callouts become HTML, and an export can't simply be uploaded back to restore your workspace. Before switching tools, export once and open the result in another program.