Logseq vs Obsidian - Which to Choose?

In today's video, I give my two cents about a topic that has come up frequently in the comments - which should you choose? Obsidian or Logseq?
Spoiler Alert - they're both pretty great!
#logseq #personalknowledge #pkm #notes #obsidian

[@torspedia]

I actually use both. Logseq is my go-to app for my fleeting notes, planning and when I'm in research mode. When I'm ready to put those notes into my own words, that's when I switch to Obsidian... I also use Obsidian for my long-form writing.

[@_thealexm_]

Can you explain your process further please. I want it easy to take notes (logseq) but I am also doing long form writing (obsidian). But i cant pick which app is best for me. I am a writer.

[@new-lviv]

Logseq is completely open source. It means that if maintenance is dropped by the current people, other may fork it and my data will still be usable. For personal usage, this is what I need.

[@AnarchySane]

This is provided that someone decides to stop developing Obsidian. Opensource development does not need to be overestimated, if the main developers abandon the project, then no opensource will help to come to life.

[@m0rav]

All notes in Obsidian are in pure Markdown format, so they will be usable in any context

[@AnarchySane]

@@m0ravObsidian markdown not pure markdown. There are a lot of things in obsidian that don't fit into the markdown standard. Pure makdown is foam, zettlr or dendron.

[@franchocou]

Thx ps clarification ​@@AnarchySane

[@Kristina-ok3th]

Really glad that this video was in my recs. Please keep making videos, you're truly good at this! I've just recently switched from notion to obsidian and I'm still getting used to it. I read about logseq but never tried it, maybe I should

[@Thorned_Rose]

I was almost converted to Logseq by the fact that it can do queries and annotate PDFs out of the box. And then I discovered that it doesn't adhere to Markdown standards as much as Obsidian does. That alone was unfortunately a deal breaker for me. Part of the whole point of using a markdown based system was that it's future proof and should Obsidian ever stop being developed, I can move my data to a different app. Even with Logseq having the advantage of being opensource, if the devs stop working on it and no one else picks it up, having non-standard markdown beneath it all is going to screw users over.

[@tkenben]

I didn't find this to be a problem as long as you are aware of the *special* markdown.

[@phillix1]

I tried to use Obsidian, adding outliner and journaling plugins but it didn work because Obsidian doesn't work well with block units. In my Logseq's journal, I start a paragraph(a.k.a. block) for each client/team meeting during the day and write the name of the client/meeting on it (it automatically recognize the name and links it to my client's page), then I write indented bullets bellow for each comment or task. Latter on, I can go to the backlinks section in each client's page where I can see not only the journal's paragraphs lines with the links, but also all the child indented comments and tasks, and I can actually edit them there (This is called transclusion, i think). So i have an automated report by client, project, team or whatever just by looking at the backlinks. Obsidian doesn't inherit the paragraphs indented rows and you cannot edite them right there in the backlinks. That's a deal breaker for me. I wish Logseq had the beautiful UI of Obsidian or Roam or Capacities.

[@CJ-je4hd]

Absolutely fantastic video! Really helped me decided which I wanted to use, thank you!

[@frankg.39]

And which one is that?

[@tansybradshaw]

I used obsidian for ages and it worked well.... but never really felt seamless. I am a writer by occupation so I need short and long form writing. I tried moving my longform to Obsidian but the cost was a big factor. Finally settled my zettelkasten in Logseq after realising that I am a outliner note-taker by trade. Also - as I am neurodivergent while some plugins are nice, having unlimited customisation made me more focused on customising than note taking. It became overwhelming. I am also someone that uses emojis and colours. Logseq has an easier way to also handle metadata, querying and ways of displaying files. By that I mean even showing the folders at the side was annoying to scroll instead of just a basic search - without showing you all the files. I know features are still in Beta but as someone who primarily takes their laptop with them when they are 'doing writing' I know it serves my purpose. I outline in Logseq but when I am doing my actual article writing - I use Scrivener which is much easier to manage, store and add metadata that is there but not in your face and has so many buttons and whistles that it is distracting.

[@HaydarAlThwaini]

Thanks so much for sharing your opinion, even thoug im not a heavy user of obsidian but as a neurodivergent myself it became so overwhelming with so many distractions. i will try logseq very soon.

[@davijorgearte]

I've choose Logseq after test ALL others ! And it has full markdown resources (11/05/2024). I use it with Syncthing and I have a full cross-platform , project management, Personal Knowledge Database, journal, notes and a lot of other things that I can shape it to do. For tasks and daily organization I use Twos...

[@kirso]

The most underrated feature is that you don't need to think where to put notes given the underlying calendar date, blocks and backlinking there is a record and that's really powerful. Don't make me think philosophy just works.

[@zfadli]

I tried Obsidian but I always come back to Logseq. I gravitate towards the time-stamping style of Logseq

[@Drugvigil]

In UI stand point logseq is fantastic but I am using obsidian now fulltime. I don't know how may I manage bak folder when I use both sync together

[@thorberg2192]

I use Obsidian to write and Logseq to think; Notion to archive. I love them all. A superior thing of Obsidian for me is the Vim Mode - even though I am not a developer. When I discovered Vim it was the most natural way of typing. Thats why I use Obsidian for writing text.

[@SWINDISA]

I'd love it if you could make a video comparing obsedian vs capacities? This was great

[@oakld]

I had Obsidian for some time and struggled to even use it. It was just another note taking app with benefit of markdown. When I learned about LogSeq, I took off like a rocket from day one and it became among the most used and useful application I've ever used. With little bit of exaggeration I wonder, how could I had lived and work without it before 😊

[@TomCarlson]

Thanks for this. Interestingly, it convinced me that I’m best off sticking with Obsidian, which underscores your balanced comparison.

[@WillOstrick]

Love the work you have done on Logseq, best content on this topic on KZbin. It's a pleasure sitting back and letting you pass your information on. Well done :) As a suggestion, I would really like to see a further in-depth video with examples specifically on how you go about categorising your pages and tags. For instance a way to keep things easily referencable after taking 6 months worth of notes from different meetings and different projects. Just a thought ! Otherwise keep up the great work

[@balonm]

I have both on my computer to test i choose but logseq seems do laggy and sometimes does not responding for couple od seconds, like frozen. Anybody have this problem?

[@themichaelferrari]

Thanks for the recap Alan! As an OG of both apps, I agree. LogSeq's strongest feature is its daily journal. And it fits to write and let the app do the organizing for you. And for those who like to organize everything manually using tags and folders, Obsidian is best for you. What tips the scale for me is friction. There's too much friction to write in Obsidian's daily journal. And for me no matter how awesome Obsidian is (I, do, think it's awesome), I just don't write on it. And when I don't write, I can't organize anything on it 🤷🏻‍♂ I'd love to give Obsidian a second chance. I think it has the potential to be an awesome app for personal project managing app, if it has less friction. I'd like to know for Obsidian power-users (especially project managers) out there. How do you write on its daily journal everyday?

[@ItsAlanYoung]

I’m completely with you on this!

[@FOSSGuru]

Nailed it! 🔨I liked your viewpoints and takeaways. I am thinking about using a hybrid of the two as well myself. LogSeq seems like a good replacement for burning one's eyeballs out in MS WordPad. 😂 And if it can run from an Obsidian folder (or vice versa who knows) it's a win-win for shifting personal data away from proprietary cloud notes. 💪

[@majorgear1021]

I mostly write wiki notes and configuration notes to remember how to do things and how I did things. For example, what is the command to restart a Unix daemon? Or, what options did I select when installing an application? That way if I need to do it again, I’ll remember my choices.

[@nakoskyranos4080]

I feel like if they can both do what the other does without much configuration at all really, then it just comes down to which is better, right? And to me it is clear that the one with more polish, features, pluggins and performance is Obsidian. The only, but very valid, reason I see to use Logseq is if you are a open source absolutist, which hey, fair.

[@mfernandes8945]

Subscribed! Great content and very well delivered!

[@JonBrookes]

I like your frank candid and balance summary of these 2 popular solutions logseq is open source, there for for me is the win but like you say, some folks might just prefer obsidian but it is not free for commercial use, so that is a deal breaker for me as I use it for integration into other systems, like CMS for web site and app creation the block edit with 'bullets' for everything took me by surprise when using logseq however I found you can highlight and export blocks as long prose very easily then it all fell into place using blocks like in this 'outliner' pattern starts to make prose like objects you can move about, which finally made it click for me and then use the plugin 'bullet threading' makes this a joy the lack of plugins for me is actually a win over obsidian as I keep these to a bare minimum as privacy and security is key for me

[@Vedas_OM]

Which Camera do you use?

[@toolsontech]

Excellent video that takes the time to really highlight the strengths and weaknesses of both. While I'm obviously skewed to Logseq that doesn't mean I would highly recommend Obsidian to a lot of people. For me it's the open source license and outliner feature that are deal breakers. This doesn't mean I don't look with envy to the speed and robustness of Obsidian. I think a large set of questions stem from the fact that they are so close that people can't really make a good on the spot decision. But as long as you don't use linking to blocks too much it's pretty easy to switch between the two.

[@ItsAlanYoung]

Thank you and well said!

[@kacperkazaniecki596]

Adam, I'm so grateful to have come across your channel. Very structured and well explained videos with professional quality. Tried obsidian for a few months but watching your videos helped me understand why it didn't feel natural to me. All about the concept of 'friction' that you speak about. LogSeq aligns much better with how I work and take notes. Atomic blocks that can be referenced from anywhere. I'm a developer so hope to add some plugins myself or contribute to LogSeq in my free time. Once again, I truly appreciate your videos greatly. I wish you all the best for this channel! Please set up buymeacoffe or equivalent as I'd love to support your work.

[@SamirOumghar01]

Thanks for your comment. I would like to know which notetaking/notebook app do you recommend for programmers?

[@praveenperera]

I wish there was a neovim plugin for logseq

[@kora5]

I love daily journal and outline-first approach. So surely Logseq

[@whisperwind9905]

After inserting the picture, move the mouse over it and the picture will turn white. Is there a way to cancel this function? Very inconvenient to view

[@fullsleevetats]

Obsidian, non-free, not open source, it's off the list from the start. That puts Logseq ahead, but Logseq against Joplin, Logseq falls behind on some features and capabilities.

[@kqvanity]

I can longer tell the diff between pkm and plain note-taking apps

[@AnarchySane]

3:30 But Logseq, unlike Obsidian, does not have a standard template for creating extensions. So having it is half the case. 😅

[@CaptZenPetabyte]

If pages and long-form content was easier in logseq, I would love logseq more for my uni work ... the graph really doesnt work for me making notes for uni and trying to organise pages is hard because there are no folders or places to put them (and putting them in 'favourites' is not what thats for) and yeah, theres the 'content' fold out menu but it gets in the way ... Id go to obsidian because it can do the bullet points the same way but I prefer the way logseq has all its PDF stuff seamlessly built in. Its getting to the point I may just return to doing text files or set up a personall wiki on my server?!?!

[@paulywalnutz5855]

The speed of obsidian after a bunch of notes is why its my main driver

[@jonchines]

LogSeq for meeting and daily notes - pen and paper “replacement”. Obsidian for long form. For anyone else that cares, vi-mode/bindings in Obsidian are far better. Edit: I guess I could’ve actually watched the video before posting as we’ve redundantly said the same thing…

[@joshuamarcano350]

You're never going to find the perfect tool. You're going to use what's hot today and switch to what's hotter tomorrow. My biggest problem with content praising these tools is that the channels are 100% dedicated to them.

[@botbot3698]

The right answer is to use BOTH :)

[@fvc1612]

Bro literally said 🥚

[@HoldTunes46]

2:25

[@timbushell8640]

So 'MD' is 'MD' and both O and LS can be pointed at the same 'starting "folder" or "vault"... so if I used LS to highlight some PDFs - locally stored - and opened the note file in O - do I get garbage?

[@itsArridian]

Nope, it does take some work to get them to play nice together though! Try to search it up on KZbin or google, there are a few videos on it

[@paulywalnutz5855]

I use arch lin.. sorry i meant ema... i mean obsidian

[@SorelPunk]

😂😂😂 the best comment of the day

[@Arc_Soma2639]

Meanwhile I use Notion

[@laughingvampire7555]

I prefer that logseq is open source I prefer obsidian's style, If I could have obsidian open source, I would choose obsidian over logseq. I'm put off by logseq's default theme of solarized, I just don't like it.

[@user-wp8mk3yg4o]

5:53 TO 6:53

[@user-iz9sj1nn5q]

3:59 7:37

[@AnarchySane]

Logseq, unlike Obsidian, distorts Markdown extremely much, so you should not even stutter about any Future proof. I remind you that links to blocks will remain just sets of characters when exporting. Therefore, if you want to have access to notes in 5-10 years or more, then only Obsidian and so on that is stored in normal markdown files.

[@tomtomico]

But wouldn't you run into a similar issue when statting to use linking and extensions in Obsidian? (which is pretty much inevitable, isn't it?)

[@AnarchySane]

@@tomtomico I personally generally use Foam for guaranteed future proof

[@AnarchySane]

@@tomtomicoyes. That's why I'm not using Obsidian or logseq. My choice is Dendron. The dot hierarchy format does not distort the markdown link format in any way

[@xthebumpx]

@@AnarchySane Isn't Dendron dead? Did it get new maintainers?

[@celinnesu]

logseq works alot like our brain, its easier for me to organize since I'm such a scatter brain and a visual learner

[@spicynoodleboi]

I do love my logseq

[@technovelodos]

Definitely Vi, I mean LogSeq

[@new-lviv]

I see you no afraid of Emacs army at your gates, soldier...

[@KromKrausser]

I prefer Notepad

[@RegamiR]

When talking about plugins please also try to compare from a mobile user's perspective. On Android, logseq is just barebones.

[@michaeltodd2012]

And that's what moved me back to Obsidian. And I can't find anything on Logseq's site as to when they are going to support plugins on mobile.

[@kevinhar5307]

i use both now but i dont think any difference. seem even use logseq is also find as the mobile speed is faster than obsidian much. and i still looking for reason why need to use both. as i used obsidian before but seem this two tools so similer currently

[@kevinhar5307]

and you video gave me some insight about it

[@1wayamazing619]

One more vote for Logseq

[@aceofswords1725]

your pronunciation of logseq makes my brain ache

[@ItsAlanYoung]

According to the developers: It's pronounced “log-seek”. “Log” for “logbook” and “seq” for “sequence”.