Head to head · Productivity · updated Oct 15, 2026
Obsidian vs Granola
Obsidian scores 41 to Granola's 30 on public evidence for AI notes & second brain, and they rank #1 and #2 there. Both are free to start. Numbers below are the same public signals the ranking uses, recomputed nightly — nothing here is sponsored.
Obsidian
A local-first Markdown knowledge base with a large community plugin ecosystem, including AI chat, embeddings and generation plugins.
+ Your notes are plain files you own, and plugins like Copilot and Smart Connections let you chat with your vault using any model, including local ones.
− AI features require configuring third-party plugins and API keys yourself.
Granola
A notepad that listens to your meeting from your computer audio (no bot) and merges your typed notes with an AI transcript.
+ No bot joins the call, and the final notes combine your own jottings with what was actually said.
− Desktop-only capture means it cannot record a meeting you join from another device, and the free tier is a small trial.
Side by side
public evidence| Obsidian | Granola | |
|---|---|---|
| Evidence score / 100 | 41 | 30 |
| GitHub stars | closed source | closed source |
| Hacker News stories, 30d | 18 | 6 |
| Release-feed mentions, 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Last activity | – | – |
| Pricing | Free; Sync $4/mo | Free tier · Individual $18/mo |
| Platforms | mac, windows, linux, ios, android | mac, windows, ios |
| Maker | Obsidian (Dynalist Inc.) | Granola |
Which one?
Pick Obsidian if
- you want the stronger public evidence (41 vs 30)
- you need it on android, linux
Best for a private, pluggable second brain.
Pick Granola if
No bot joins the call, and the final notes combine your own jottings with what was actually said.
Best for bot-free meeting notes.