How to Publish Obsidian Notes Online For Free(Obsidian Publish Alternative)
Based on Prakash Joshi Pax's video on YouTube. If you like this content, support the original creators by watching, liking and subscribing to their content.
Use Obsidian Digital Garden plus a Vercel deployment to publish Obsidian notes online without Obsidian Publish.
Briefing
Publishing Obsidian notes online for free can be done without Obsidian Publish by pairing the “Obsidian Digital Garden” plugin with a free deployment pipeline on GitHub + Vercel. The payoff is a public, domain-backed site that can mirror many core Obsidian features—backlinks, graphs, table of contents, callouts, code blocks, and more—while letting users choose exactly which notes go live.
After testing multiple alternatives to Obsidian Publish, the workflow centers on Obsidian Digital Garden. A sample garden site is shown with a custom domain, a homepage, and sections like “recommended books” built using the Data View plugin. The key functional claim is that this setup supports Data View queries, so tables and query-driven content can appear on the published site. It also supports common Obsidian publishing elements such as footnotes, highlights, local and global graphs, backlinks, and link previews. The creator further emphasizes that many other Obsidian Publish alternatives fail to support Data View or similar plugin-driven content.
The guide then moves into a step-by-step build. First, a GitHub account is required, followed by a Vercel account. Next comes deploying a GitHub repository to Vercel: the user opens a linked repository, clicks “Deploy,” names the repository (example: “garden”), and chooses whether it’s private or public. Once Vercel finishes deployment, it provides a live URL (example shown as a garden-*.vercel.app address) that will host the generated garden.
On the Obsidian side, the “Digital Garden” plugin is installed and enabled. Plugin settings require the Vercel/GitHub integration details: the Vercel-deployed repo name (example: “garden”), the GitHub username, and a GitHub token with the needed permissions. The token can be set to expire (example: 7 days) or set to no expiration for convenience.
Publishing is controlled through note frontmatter properties. The guide uses two checkbox properties: one to mark the homepage (example: “DG home” set to true) and another to control publication (example: “DG publish” set to true). Only notes with “DG publish” enabled are pushed to the public site, preventing accidental publication of an entire vault.
To publish, users run Obsidian’s command palette and choose “Publish single note” or “Publish multiple notes.” The process pushes content to the GitHub repository and then triggers a Vercel redeploy, so updates can take a short moment to appear online. The example includes publishing a homepage plus multiple notes, including Data View content sourced from a Readwise folder.
Finally, the guide shows enabling additional site features through the plugin’s “Global node settings,” such as local/global graphs, backlinks, table of contents, sidebar file navigation, search, and link previews. It also covers theme customization (choosing an Obsidian theme and light/dark base theme) and an optional Base URL setting for better SEO via sitemap generation. The result is a free, customizable Obsidian-style knowledge site that updates from Obsidian with minimal manual work.
Cornell Notes
Obsidian notes can be published for free by using the Obsidian Digital Garden plugin together with a Vercel deployment. After deploying a repository on Vercel, the plugin is configured with the repo name, GitHub username, and a GitHub token. Notes are published selectively using frontmatter properties: one marks the homepage (DG home = true) and another controls whether a note goes public (DG publish = true). Publishing is done from Obsidian via “Publish single note” or “Publish multiple notes,” which pushes content to GitHub and then redeploys on Vercel. The setup supports Data View queries and many Obsidian-style features like backlinks, graphs, table of contents, and link previews, plus theme customization.
What makes Obsidian Digital Garden a practical alternative to Obsidian Publish?
How does the selective publishing mechanism work?
What credentials and identifiers must be configured in the Obsidian Digital Garden plugin?
What happens when a user publishes a note from Obsidian?
Which site features can be enabled after the basic publishing pipeline works?
How can the published garden be customized visually and for SEO?
Review Questions
- How do DG home and DG publish differ, and what happens if DG publish is not set to true on a note?
- Why might updates take time to appear after running “Publish multiple notes” from Obsidian?
- Which plugin capability is emphasized as a common weakness in other Obsidian Publish alternatives, and how is it used in the example workflow?
Key Points
- 1
Use Obsidian Digital Garden plus a Vercel deployment to publish Obsidian notes online without Obsidian Publish.
- 2
Deploy a repository to Vercel first, then configure the Obsidian Digital Garden plugin with the repo name, GitHub username, and a GitHub token.
- 3
Control what goes public with frontmatter properties: set DG home = true for the homepage and DG publish = true for publishable notes.
- 4
Publishing from Obsidian pushes content to GitHub and then redeploys on Vercel, so site updates can take a short moment.
- 5
Data View support is a major advantage: Data View tables and query results can appear on the published site.
- 6
Enable additional features (graphs, backlinks, table of contents, sidebar, search, link previews) via Global node settings, then redeploy.
- 7
Customize the site theme and optionally set a Base URL for sitemap generation and better SEO.