First Look at Obsidian - New Zettelkasten App

Obsidian positions itself as a purpose-built Zettelkasten knowledge-management app, with the biggest practical win coming from how it handles links—especially backlinks—without forcing users into proprietary file formats or server lock-in. For anyone using the Zettelkasten approach, where each note represents a single idea and notes are connected through links, Obsidian’s core value is that it makes those connections easy to create, easy to visualize, and easy to maintain over time.

A major selling point is full link and tag support paired with plain-text storage. Notes remain plain text files on the user’s system, and the app doesn’t require uploading private information to Obsidian servers or converting notes into a proprietary format. That matters because it preserves portability: if someone later switches tools, their content remains intact rather than trapped behind an export/import workflow.

Obsidian also adds a graph view that visually maps notes and their relationships. While similar visualizations are possible elsewhere, they often require extra setup—downloads, scripts, or technical steps. Here, the visualization is presented as a straightforward button-driven feature, intended to scale as the note collection grows.

Backlinks are the other centerpiece. In Zettelkasten workflows, adding outward links is only half the story; the linked-to note ideally should show that it’s referenced. Previously, keeping backlinks accurate often meant manual bookkeeping or custom scripting. Obsidian introduces a one-click backlinks view that lists everything linking back to the note currently being edited. It also automatically updates links when a note is renamed, reducing the common maintenance burden that breaks references in other systems.

The app’s UI flexibility further supports the way people think. Multiple notes can be open at once, with window splitting that enables branching and comparison rather than forcing a strictly linear editing flow. That’s framed as particularly useful when writing triggers new ideas—users can spawn new notes and keep related threads visible without resorting to hacks like special “resume” characters or relying only on back/forward navigation.

The main downside is performance. Obsidian isn’t a native Mac, Windows, or Linux app; it’s built with Electron, which can behave like a browser tab packaged as an application. In this beta context, memory usage is reported as high—around one gigabyte of RAM—raising a potential deal-breaker for some users. The caveat is that Electron apps vary widely in efficiency, and the issue may be tied to beta bugs and memory management rather than Electron itself.

Overall, the recommendation is conditional: Obsidian’s backlinks, graph visualization, and flexible multi-window editing are compelling enough to justify a trial, with the expectation that users will monitor RAM usage. If performance becomes too costly, the plan is to revert to iA Writer; if not, Obsidian could become a primary Zettelkasten tool. For those already satisfied with a lighter setup, the advice is to treat it as a bookmark and revisit later as stability improves.