I tried to replace Obsidian and failed

02 Apr, 2026

Background

I try to cost optimize my purchases, including my digital tools. Unfortunately, many of these tools sustain themselves via subscription models for their premium. There are some tools, such as BearBlog, that offer lifetime models, but they are rare.

A few months ago, I was trying to find a more all-in-one solution for my task management and notes app. The primary apps that took those positions then were Obsidian and Todoist. Although I ended up finding a wonderful Todoist replacement called Griply, which is a goal-focused task management app, I was still curious about what other alternatives were out there. I haven't really been in the note-taking app scene for a few years after landing on Obsidian.¹

What I wanted

Some of the things I was actively looking for was:

• It was cross-platform where it needs to be on Android and Windows at the very least.
• It had to have some sort of backup/sync solution. My primary gripe with Obsidian then was the conflicts that come up once in a while and having to have DropSync open on my phone and tablet in the background, chewing up resources for it to work. It can also be slow as well, as you can't choose what to sync, so sometimes it syncs your entire vault.
• It should, preferably, be low-cost. Or at least was on sale or had a few existing coupons floating around.

Experimenting

Tried AmpleNote. It worked decently, but I think it is a bit dated looking and too task-focused, with their premium model with some useful features being quite pricey.

Source

Tried Evernote after years of not touching it. Horribly slow on my Samsung A54, which was odd as my phone isn't that old. And one search on their subreddit showed similar experiences. It seems like it wasn't in a good place either after the Bending Spoons acquisition.

Source

Took a peek at what UpNote was like after I passed over my lifetime account to my partner. He likes it, but I found it too limiting in terms of features. I do think it's one of the better options if you're looking for something close to Evernote, though.

Source

And then, I saw Craft. I liked the idea of Craft. It's more of a documents-first app, but it had the flexibility similar to Notion, and it was much prettier too. Source

I tried it for a few days on my Windows computer using the free version, and it went decently. Except for getting used to the block system that Craft used, it was fairly smooth.

However… when I tried the premium version (there are some 50% yearly discounts floating in a few sponsored videos on YouTube) and imported my Obsidian vault notes, I realized that my computer could not handle the load.

It was too slow and too jittery, and its built-in importer treated file names badly and took the first line of the markdown file's text and used that as the title instead of the actual file name. It would've taken me a long time to rename them all.

I tried it on my Android, and it was the same. There is a slow boot-up time, and I think I might just be too spoiled with how quick Obsidian is once you load the app up. I'm able to jump from note to note with CTRL+O easily, move my notes to different panes of the screen and resize them, and the flexibility is just endless.

And... back to what we started with

Speed is important to me, so even though Craft's document designs and sharing functions are neat, that wasn't good enough for me to compromise over. I need to have my daily note open at all times during work, so I can't really have my app stuttering here and there when I try to keep just a few notes open.

So… I decided to fully commit to Obsidian and pay for the sync solution they provide. Even though it was slightly pricier² at RM130 ($32.86) per year vs RM190 ($48), I think the difference pays for itself with the time saved from waiting for my notes to load up. Plus I get to support the platform as it isn't VC-funded unlike Craft. Nothing wrong with it, just it does scare me just a bit, especially with how Evernote turned out.

Source: My Obsidian vault with Maple as the theme used, paired with the Notebook Navigator and calendar plugin.

If I wasn't using Griply as my task management app, I would've just built a simple task management system within Obsidian. It's just that flexible.

So… who would I recommend Craft to?

I think Craft is still a decent app, with a decent community behind it too. They have a Slack channel (interesting choice of platform to be on) that I lurked around to see how the team interacted with customers, and I respect their passion for the product and how active they seem to be.

If you're someone looking for a one-and-done solution, including tasks, a calendar (though it only syncs with iCal), and especially sharing and collaborating on documents with others, it's a solid choice! Especially so with the 50% discount.

But if you're willing to take the time to set up Obsidian (though it's actually pretty good out of the box) how you like it and for your uses, I still think it's one of the most optimized note-taking apps out there.

Video demonstrations for each application

If you might be looking to try one of these and want to see how they work, here are a few videos I think give a great overview of them:

• AmpleNote
• Evernote - Honestly not much options for Evernote, content for the app seems to have fallen off.
• UpNote
• Craft
• Obsidian

#obsidian #productivity #tools