Maybe a familiar topic but it’s something I’m constantly wrestling with despite my best efforts,
I really like noteplan as a dashboard/work surface. It loads fast on iOS and works really well,
However, I really like obsidian as an overall source of knowledge and notes that I’ve collected,
I am aware that some people point both apps at the same folder, but I’m using obsidian sync and my work laptop has been cut off from iCloud Drive so it’s really not an option for me anymore,
Anyways, I like using noteplan but it seems like using obsidian daily notes and just having everything in obsidian is a cleaner solution. The bonus being that I am spending more time in obsidian and working with my zettelkasten notes more.
But noteplan works so much better for the time based and task based stuff. I just hate to have the added friction of deciding where edge cases should go and losing on the compounding collection of everything over time being in the same place.
Am I overthinking? You better believe it. But that’s what my brain does best.
I’m not sure if this helps, but I also use both. I have been reading electronically since the Kindle was first released, annotate a lot, and have created a substantial collection of book/article highlights. I also generate quite a few ideas. Previously, I used Bear, an app I like a lot, but Markdown files in the Finder gained value with AI tools, so I moved my notes to Obsidian. At the same time I am moving towards using NotePlan for project and task management (from OmniFocus), and am comfortable switching between these two similar—but different—apps for what I see as rather different purposes. With NotePlan, I can just focus on what I need to do; in Obsidian, I see it as a repository of highlights, things that interest me, and ideas—without task management clutter. Obsidian works on mobile, but I find NotePlan preferable on a phone or iPad, and I am bouncing between platforms all day. Since they are all Markdown files, I can always move things around in the future as my needs change, apps improve, or workflows evolve. (Which they no doubt will!)
This, 100%!I use both NotePlan and Obsidian. NotePlan is reserved for everything that’s official or administrative in nature. Obsidian is for learning and research. I like keeping the two domains in their own walled gardens since there’s virtually no overlap between them. Even if I moved all the admin to Obsidian, it would be segregated in its own vault, much as my Robot Assistant now is.
I also use both against the same fileset. I prefer the noteplan daily note system, but I can access the same dailys in Ob if necessary. Now that there is a noteplan MCP, it integrates beautifully into Claude. I’m finding David’s Robot system works really well with NP.
This comment is a bit off-target but the messages above got me interested in possibly using Noteplan again. One of the reasons I stopped using Noteplan a few years ago was the pricing became way too high. I don’t know if I’m “richer” now or the pricing has come down/stabalized. At any rate, $99 per year seems quite reasonable to me.
Does anyone know about the pricing over the years? Has it always been about $99 per year or has the price actually stabalized and come down a bit?
I don’t have SetApp. And I’m certainly willing to pay $99 for NotePlan. I last used NotePlan 4 years ago and I vaguely remember it was because (1) I just retired and (2) the price seemed to be going up every year. Realistically my memory of the pricing may be bad, or the price has stabalized. Don’t know which!
One of the reasons I stopped using Noteplan a few years ago was the pricing became way too high. I don’t know if I’m “richer” now or the pricing has come down/stabalized. At any rate, $99 per year seems quite reasonable to me.
A different (and perhaps unfortunate) thesis: cost of living has increased in the last few years and what was expensive at $99/year a few years ago now feels more reasonable in 2026.
Does anyone know about the pricing over the years? Has it always been about $99 per year or has the price actually stabalized and come down a bit?
I believe NotePlan was $60/year in 2020 and increased to $99/year in 2022 or thereabouts.
Thanks for your reply! Yes, I think you’re correct about how our internal sense of pricing has likely changed. I think as a retired person this is especially true. In addition a change from 60 to 99 during the year I retired probably encouraged me to stop using it at that point … also thinking I’d have no use for it in retirement. Turns out I was very wrong! Gladly re-subscribing again.
FWIW, I subscribed to NotePlan earlier this month at a the $60/year rate—perhaps it was just one sale for a bit?
For those that have switched from Obsidian to NotePlan, I’m running into two issues (so far) that I’m hoping others have addressed:
Obsidian has aliases for files. This means that I can have a note for, same John H. Smith and including an alias that is just John Smith. Then, in other notes, I can type either [[John Smith]] or [[John H. Smith]] and it will resolve to the same note. NotePlan doesn’t have aliases.
Obsidian has a mechanism for linking to headings within a given note by using `[[#Heading Name]]. NotePlan doesn’t have the same mechanism.
Have others encountered these issues when migrating from Obsidian to NotePlan? If you did, how did you address them?
Ah - thanks for pointing that out. It’s a bit hard to read compared to the Obsidian implementation, but it does work.
Now I just need to find a good way to do aliases. (I’ve found references suggesting I can do the full [Alias]([[NoteName]]) link format, but that doesn’t really solve the use case I describe above—hopefully this can be done somehow)
