Name: Obsidian
Rating: 4.3 (17700 reviews)

Trust Report

Independently checked by Altapp where possible; developer-reported data is labeled as such. Last full review: Jul 17, 2026.

Verified Source

Downloads come straight from the developer, and the apps carry a public, independent audit history.

Apps independently audited by Cure53 in December 2023 and December 2024
Obsidian Sync audited by Cure53 (October 2024) and Trail of Bits (December 2025)
Installers distributed via obsidian.md and the official GitHub releases repository
Core app is proprietary, but audit reports and the plugin API are published openly

Data & Permissions

A local-first design keeps your notes on your device by default.

No account required and no telemetry collected, per the official security page
Notes are stored on-device as plain Markdown files you fully control
Optional Sync is end-to-end encrypted with AES-256
No ads and no third-party analytics inside the app

Known Risks

A clean audit record, with the usual caveats of a closed-source core.

All findings from the 2023–2025 audits were remediated and validated by the auditors
Closed-source core means the community cannot fully inspect the code
Community plugins are third-party code and are not individually audited
Actively developed — version 1.12.7 shipped across desktop and mobile in March 2026

Verification reflects the version listed above. Practices may change between releases. How we verify ›

Our verdict: the safest way to build a lifelong personal knowledge base — independently audited, telemetry-free, and stored in plain files you own.

Obsidian is a local-first writing and knowledge-management app that keeps your notes on your own device as plain Markdown files. There is no account to create and, per the developer's security page, no telemetry is collected — the core app works fully offline and is free for personal and commercial use. Backlinks, a graph view, canvas boards, and thousands of community plugins let it scale from a simple notebook to a complete thinking environment.

The apps have been independently audited by Cure53 (December 2023 and December 2024), and the optional Sync service — end-to-end encrypted with AES-256 — was further audited by Cure53 and Trail of Bits, with all findings remediated and validated by the auditors. Development is funded not by your data but by optional services: Sync from $4 per month, Publish from $8 per month, and a commercial license, keeping incentives aligned with user privacy.