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Craft vs Obsidian

Which is the better Note apps for Mac in 2026?

PublishedUpdated
Craft icon

Craft

Native document editor

Full review
Obsidian icon

Obsidian

Knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

Full review
Website previewCredit: Obsidian

Our verdict

How we compare apps

August 2026 preserves the split: Craft leads when the deliverable must be beautiful and shared now, native block elegance, instantaneous collaboration and share polish justify Plus at ~$8 per month. Obsidian leads when thinking is the deliverable, Markdown vaults on disk, graph navigation and an 1,800-plugin forge that reshape the tool to the mind, all at $0 core cost, reward the patient builder. Budget, platform and whether your notes must be presented or inhabited decide the winner more than any feature table.

Read the quick answer

Which is better: Craft or Obsidian?

Craft and Obsidian are both Note apps on a Mac, so the pick depends on workflow. Choose Craft for beautiful, share-ready documents on Apple devices; choose Obsidian for a file-owned, extensible second brain. Many users keep Obsidian for. As of October 2026, both install with brew install --cask craft and brew install --cask obsidian.

TL;DR

Craft vs Obsidian: August 2026 preserves the split: Craft leads when the deliverable must be beautiful and shared now, native block elegance, instantaneous collaboration and share polish justify Plus at ~$8 per month. Obsidian leads when thinking is the deliverable, Markdown vaults on disk, graph navigation and an 1,800-plugin forge that reshape the tool to the mind, all at $0 core cost, reward the patient builder. Budget, platform and whether your notes must be presented or inhabited decide the winner more than any feature table.

Feature Comparison

Feature comparison between Craft and Obsidian
FeatureCraftObsidian
PriceFreeFree
Open SourceNoNo
ReplacesUlysses ($39.99/year)Roam Research ($15/month)
Best fornotes, documents, writingnotes, markdown, knowledge
Installbrew install --cask craftbrew install --cask obsidian
CategoryProductivityProductivity

Quick Install

Craft
brew install --cask craft
Obsidian
brew install --cask obsidian

Learn More

Craft
Craft Details
Full review, features, and FAQs
Obsidian
Obsidian Details
Full review, features, and FAQs

In-Depth Overview

What is Craft?

Craft from Luki Labs is a premium document editor built natively in Swift for macOS, iOS and iPadOS, with a capable web app for viewers on other platforms. It earned an Apple Design Award for its block-based editor where each paragraph, image, table, code block, toggle, LaTeX snippet or media embed is a draggable block with refined typography and smooth animations. Documents can be organized in folders and quick-access Daily Notes, linked via page cards, shared as responsive, branded web pages with permissioning, exported to PDF, Markdown or DOCX, or presented as slides. Craft syncs via iCloud or Craft's cloud, supports real-time collaboration with comments and mentions, and integrates with Calendar, Reminders and X extensions. In August 2026 pricing holds Free (roughly 1,500 blocks and 1GB), Plus around $8 per month monthly or about $96 annually with unlimited docs, extended version history and higher AI assistant quotas, and Business for teams with centralised billing and admin. The AI assistant spans writing, editing and summarisation within the doc, using included credits on paid tiers. On macOS Tahoe 26.x Craft is Apple Silicon-native, notarised, and installs via direct download or Homebrew cask craft; offline edits queue cleanly and render remains local-first on Apple devices even though collaboration sync is cloud-mediated.

What is Obsidian?

Obsidian from Dynalist's makers is a fast, local-first Markdown knowledge base that treats a folder of .md files as the vault of record. No account required to write; wikilinks [[like this]], block refs, tags and YAML frontmatter connect ideas, while Graph View, Canvas infinite board, Daily and Periodic Notes, search with operators, and a thriving community of 1,800+ plugins shape those files into personal workflows, Dataview, Tasks, Templater, Excalidraw, spaced-repetition and countless more. Core is free without time limits; monetisation is opt-in: Sync at $4 per user per month billed annually ($5 monthly) adds E2EE multi-device sync with version history and shared vaults; Publish at $8 per site per month annually ($10 monthly) hosts vaults as sites; Option $25 one-time supports early builds; Commercial $50 per user per year is optional support for business use. Obsidian is fully offline, Git-friendly, CSS-snippet themable, and on Tahoe runs as a notarised, Apple Silicon-capable Electron app tuned for large vaults (10,000+ notes) with multi-cursor editing, Vim keys and mermaid/LaTeX blocks. Available across macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and direct or Homebrew install, it answers to no outside cloud schema.

Detailed Feature Comparison

Writing & Typography

Critical importance

Craft

Excellent

Native typography, block rendering and motion make Craft feel premium; moving, styling and embedding blocks stays fluid.

Obsidian

Good

Capable Markdown editor with multi-cursor and Vim, but default theme and editing polish trail Craft's native refinement.

Verdict: Craft wins the moment writing delight decides the purchase.

Data Ownership & File Portability

Critical importance

Craft

Good

Markdown/DOCX/PDF export exists; organisation leans on Craft's folder graph rather than a plain folder you can Git outside.

Obsidian

Excellent

Your vault is a plain folder of Markdown files, tool-agnostic, versionable, forever portable.

Verdict: Obsidian wins outright for file ownership and future-proofing.

Extensibility & Plugins

High importance

Craft

Good

Craft X extensions and iCloud/Calendar integrations extend the doc surface, but catalog is small vs Obsidian.

Obsidian

Excellent

1,800+ community plugins and CSS snippets can reshape Obsidian into a task manager, whiteboard, Zettelkasten or CMS.

Verdict: Obsidian's plugin graph is an order of magnitude larger and more useful.

Knowledge Graph & Linking

High importance

Craft

Good

Backlinks and page cards connect documents; Daily Notes support journaling but not graph-native PKM.

Obsidian

Excellent

Wikilinks, block embeds, backlinks panel, graph view and daily/periodic notes are PKM-first primitives.

Verdict: Obsidian wins networked-thought depth.

Sharing & Publishing Polish

High importance

Craft

Excellent

One-click sharing produces branded, responsive web pages and slides with permissions; export fidelity stays high.

Obsidian

Good

Publish at $8 per site per month hosts vaults publicly; share links lack Craft's branded polish without HTML tweaks.

Verdict: Craft wins when the share link is the product.

Daily Notes & Journal Flow

High importance

Craft

Good

Daily Notes capture improves continuity but sits atop a document manager, not a daily graph.

Obsidian

Excellent

Daily/Periodic Notes plus Calendar and community journaling plugins make journaling a first-class vault ritual.

Verdict: Obsidian's daily notes history and graph yield stronger long-term journaling.

Team Collaboration

Medium importance

Craft

Excellent

Real-time co-editing with presence, comments and mentions feels Google Docs-smooth but prettier.

Obsidian

Fair

Collaboration via Sync-shared vaults and community patterns exists, but there is no enterprise-grade permission or live presence.

Verdict: Craft wins for multiplayer document polish; Obsidian wins for private systems.

Pricing for Individuals

Medium importance

Craft

Good

Free up to 1,500 blocks and 1GB; Plus ~$8 per month monthly (~$96 annually) removes limits and raises AI credits.

Obsidian

Excellent

Core free indefinitely; pay only for Sync $4 per month annual or Publish $8 per site annual if you want them.

Verdict: Obsidian's free core keeps single-user TCO lower unless you live in Craft sharing.

Who Should Choose Which?

1Independent Consultant Pitching Clients

Craft

Beautiful share links and real-time co-edit close deals without extra design overhead.

2PhD Building a Second Brain

Obsidian

Graph, Dataview and Markdown ownership support years-long research continuity.

3Small Studio Managing Meeting Notes

Craft

Daily Notes, templates and calendar-sourced docs keep weekly cadence polished.

4Technical Writer with Git-Managed Vault

Obsidian

Plain files, Vim and Git keep docs auditable and scriptable.

5Founder Running a Shared Team Wiki

Craft

Permissioned sharing and quick slide presentation beat community-share workflows.

6Quantified-Self Journaler

Obsidian

Daily graph, templates and plugin habits compound over years with full ownership.

Migration Guide

Craft → Obsidian

Export Craft Markdown/ZIP, drop into an Obsidian vault, re-apply tags and rebuild page-card links as wikilinks; daily notes map cleanly, permissions do not.

Obsidian → Craft

Export vault Markdown, import documents into Craft, then recreate graph dashboards manually and move Daily Notes into Craft's Daily Notes section; expect to trade plugin logic for polished sharing.

Pro Tips

Treat Craft as the presentation tier and Obsidian as the thinking tier. Write privately in Obsidian, publish finished pieces from Craft, the pair complement each other better than either replaces the other.

Final Verdict

Overall Winner

tie

8.9/10

Score

Craft

8.9/10

Score

Obsidian

Scores are Bundl.run editorial ratings out of 10 across 8 criteria (the feature comparison above), last reviewed August 2026.

August 2026 preserves the split: Craft leads when the deliverable must be beautiful and shared now, native block elegance, instantaneous collaboration and share polish justify Plus at ~$8 per month. Obsidian leads when thinking is the deliverable, Markdown vaults on disk, graph navigation and an 1,800-plugin forge that reshape the tool to the mind, all at $0 core cost, reward the patient builder. Budget, platform and whether your notes must be presented or inhabited decide the winner more than any feature table.

Bottom Line: Choose Craft for beautiful, share-ready documents on Apple devices; choose Obsidian for a file-owned, extensible second brain. Many users keep Obsidian for thinking and Craft for presenting, rather than forcing one to pretend to be the other.

Video Tutorials

Give Me 15 Minutes. I'll Teach You 80% of Obsidian

Linking Your Thinking with Nick Milo • 384.6K views

The least scary Obsidian guide you’ll ever see

A Better Computer • 505.7K views

Obsidian: The ultimate note-taking app!! ✨#obsidian #notetaking #secondbrain

The Organized Notebook • 198.5K views

Obsidian for Beginners: Start HERE — How to Use the Obsidian App for Notes

Linking Your Thinking with Nick Milo • 2.2M views

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Craft worth $8 per month when Obsidian is free?
For personal plain-text notes, Obsidian's free core is the better value. Craft Plus earns its $8 per month when one-click branded publishing, slide presentation, real-time co-edit and higher AI assistant quotas matter commercially, e.g., proposals and client docs you bill for. The Free Craft tier at about 1,500 blocks and 1GB is enough to evaluate but not to live in long-term if you publish often.
Can Obsidian match Craft's beautiful shares?
Obsidian Publish at $8 per site per month can host vault pages publicly, and community plugins help theming, but Craft's native share links remain more polished and brandable without CSS effort. If share-page aesthetics are client-facing, Craft wins; if archival ownership trumps polish, Obsidian wins.
Which is better for Daily Notes journaling?
Both support Daily Notes. Craft keeps them atop a document library with clean resurfacing, while Obsidian's Daily/Periodic Notes plus calendar and templating plugins make a graph of every day with backlinks and queries that compound over years. Heavy journalers and habit trackers usually prefer Obsidian's vault graph; teams prefer Craft's clean day-by-day doc surface.
How do plugins compare?
Obsidian's 1,800+ plugin marketplace redefines the app, tasks, Dataview, Canvas, Excalidraw and spaced repetition fundamentally change workflows. Craft X exists but is a younger, curated extension surface. Pick Obsidian when workflow shape-shifting is the requirement; pick Craft when a coherent, designed path beats infinite optionality.
Do both run well on macOS Tahoe 26.x?
Yes. Craft is Swift-native for Apple Silicon, notarised, fast with block rendering and accessible via direct download and Homebrew. Obsidian is also notarised and Apple Silicon-capable, tuned for large local vaults with excellent local search. Both support offline writing and soft focus; Craft needs connectivity for real-time collaboration, Obsidian needs it only for Sync or Publish.
Should I keep both apps?
Many Mac users do. Capture and think in Obsidian vaults on disk where files stay forever, then finish and share the artefact in Craft where presentation matters. Keep a one-way promotion flow, draft → peer review → Craft publish, so vault and docs stay distinct and search stays predictable.

About the Author

Alex Chen

Senior Developer Tools Specialist

Code Editors & IDEsTerminal EmulatorsVersion Control Tools
12+ years in software development · Former senior engineer at tech startups
TwitterGitHub

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Sources & References

Key Verified Facts

  • Craft is a Swift-native Apple Design Award document app with block-based editing and branded sharing.[1]
  • Craft Plus costs around $8 per month (≈$96 per year annually) with a Free tier limited to about 1,500 blocks and 1GB.[2]
  • Obsidian's core app is free with Sync at $4 per user per month billed annually and Publish at $8 per site per month billed annually.[5]
  • Obsidian offers a vault of local Markdown files with 1,800+ community plugins and graph navigation.[6]
  • Craft renders natively on macOS Tahoe with notarised Apple Silicon builds available via direct or Homebrew install.[3]
  1. 1
    craft.doCraft, Official site

    Accessed Aug 9, 2026

    Source excerpt
    Craft, Official site
  2. 2
    craft.doCraft Pricing Plans

    Accessed Aug 9, 2026

    Source excerpt
    Craft Pricing Plans
  3. 3
    support.craft.doPlans and Pricing, Craft Help Center

    Accessed Aug 9, 2026

    Source excerpt
    Plans and Pricing, Craft Help Center
  4. 4
    obsidian.mdObsidian, Official site

    Accessed Aug 9, 2026

    Source excerpt
    Obsidian, Official site
  5. 5
    obsidian.mdObsidian Pricing, Sync and Publish

    Accessed Aug 9, 2026

    Source excerpt
    Obsidian Pricing, Sync and Publish
  6. 6
    cloudwards.netObsidian Review 2026, Cloudwards

    Accessed Aug 9, 2026

    Source excerpt
    Obsidian Review 2026, Cloudwards
  7. 7
    techrepublic.comCraft Docs Review, TechRepublic

    Accessed Aug 9, 2026

    Source excerpt
    Craft Docs Review, TechRepublic

Related Technologies & Concepts

CraftObsidianCraft XObsidian PublishObsidian SyncmacOS Tahoe
Craft (Native document suite with block editor and shareable pages.), Obsidian (Local-first Markdown vault with plugin extensibility.), Craft X (Extension framework for Craft workflows.), Obsidian Publish (Paid hosting that publishes vaults as sites.), Obsidian Sync (Optional E2EE multi-device sync for vaults.), macOS Tahoe (Current macOS release both apps support natively.)

Related Topics

Markdown knowledge tools

How share-polished docs contrast with plugin-shaped vaults for PKM.

craft vs notionnotion vs obsidian