NOAN vs Obsidian
Obsidian is a second brain for a person: local markdown files, linked notes, private by design, free, and genuinely excellent at thinking. NOAN is a brain for a company: a smaller set of verified, versioned facts served to agents, apps, teammates, and your website over an API. Many builders today point AI at a vault of markdown files and call it grounding. It works until it matters: a file cannot tell an agent who approved it, when it changed, or whether it is still true. A fact can. Keep Obsidian for your thinking. Give the company NOAN for its truth.
Side by side
Competitor claims last verified 26 August 2026| Dimension | NOAN | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The company brain and API: verified facts, tasks, contacts, notes, and assets behind one REST endpoint | A local-first markdown knowledge base: linked notes, graph view, plugins, your files on your disk |
| Source of truth | Approved, versioned facts with an owner; one source of truth for the whole company | Whatever the file says; drafts, ideas, and decisions look identical to a reader |
| Verification | Facts enter through a verify gate: a human approves before anything reads it as true | None; that is the point of a personal notes tool |
| API | Plain REST plus MCP, bearer keys, unlimited API keys on every plan | No official API; files are readable by anything, which is both the charm and the limit |
| Agents | Built for agents: facts to ground on, a task board to control them, any model | Agents can read vault files as context; no approval, versioning, or task control around what they read |
| Auditability | Every fact versioned with full history and Time Travel; every agent action lands on the task board | File history only if you add git or Sync version history yourself |
| Pricing model | Whole-workspace plans from $99/month; unlimited keys, no per-agent or per-task metering | Free for personal use; Sync $4 to $5 per user per month, commercial license $50 per user per year |
| Lock-in | Facts are plain text behind a REST API; one GET exports everything | None at all: plain markdown files you own outright |
When to choose Obsidian
- Personal notes, research, and thinking, where linking ideas matters and nobody else needs to trust the contents
- You want local-first privacy and files you own with zero lock-in
- You are one person grounding your own AI on your own notes and you accept the drift
When to choose NOAN
- More than one person, or any agent, needs to rely on the knowledge being true
- Facts need owners, approval, versions, and an API rather than a folder path
- Your website, apps, and agent fleet should update together when a fact changes
Common questions
Can I use my Obsidian vault as a knowledge base for AI agents?
You can, and for personal use it works: point the agent at the files. The failure mode arrives with stakes and with teams: files carry no approval, no versioning an agent can check, and no way to know a note is stale. Grounding a company agent on a vault means acting on whatever was last saved, by anyone, for any reason.
Is NOAN an Obsidian alternative?
Not for personal knowledge management; Obsidian is exceptional there and free. NOAN is the alternative for the company layer: the facts that must be true, verified and served over an API. Different altitude, honestly different tools.
What is the difference between markdown files and facts?
A markdown file is content; a fact is a governed claim. The fact carries an owner, an approver, a version history, and a list of everything reading it, and it is served over an API. The file is perfect for thinking; the fact is safe for acting.
Sources: obsidian.md/pricing · All comparisons
See the fact layer with your facts in it
Every plan includes the API, MCP, and unlimited keys. Start with one verified fact and build from there.