Obsidian vs Coda: Side-by-Side Comparison (2025)

In this Obsidian vs Coda comparison, I will show you the key differences between these two productivity apps. I will compare Obsidian to Coda based on features, pricing, user interfaces, and pros and cons. I spent numerous hours with both note-taking apps, and I am here to share the benefits and limitations of each tool to ensure you make the right choice.

These are the key points that I explored during the Obsidian vs Coda clash:

• Obsidian is a more extensive note-taking app than Coda.
• Obsidian is more suitable to create your personal knowledge management center.
• Obsidian is quite complex and has a long learning curve.
• Coda is a better tool for project management and team collaboration.
• Coda is a simple app with a beautiful user interface.

Now, let’s dive into the side-by-side comparison of Obsidian vs Coda!

Key differences between Obsidian and Coda

	Obsidian	Coda
Best for	Individuals	Individuals and small teams
Features	Note-taking, Graph view and internal links, Plugins, Canvas view	Project, task, and document management, Notes, Coda AI, Templates
User interface	Old-fashioned, and complex, and has a long learning curve	Simple and user-friendly interface
Integrations	Limited integrations	Extensive integrations (+7,000)
Pricing	Free plan: Available Commercial use license: $50 per year Obsidian Sync add-on: $4 per month Obsidian Publish add-on: $8 per month Catalyst: $25+ one-time payment	Free plan: Available Pro plan:  $10 per month per doc maker Team plan: $30 per month per doc maker Enterprise plan: $60 per month per doc maker
Mobile app	Available	Available
Offline version	Available	No
Product Hunt or G2 ratings	4.9	4.7

Comparison: Obsidian vs Coda

First, I will show you both note-taking apps’ features one by one. Second, I will guide you through their user interfaces, integration options, and pricing. Lastly, I will show you the pros and cons of Obsidian and Coda and their alternatives and reveal my pick.

Key features

Obsidian’s features

Let’s start with Obsidian’s features!

Obsidian Vault

The Obsidian Vault is a folder that contains your notes, attachments, and data. When creating a vault, you can choose end-to-end encryption that offers the strongest security. However, if you choose end-to-end encryption for your vault, safely store your encryption password, as you cannot enter your vault without it.

You can create more vaults and customize them with different themes. If you go to appearances, there are over 160 themes created by the community that you can install and use right away.

It is great that Obsidian offers these customization options so you can personalize your vaults.

Note-taking app

As mentioned before, Obsidian uses markdown language when writing your notes. To create paragraphs, just insert a blank line to separate your paragraphs. If you press Enter, it will create a new line in your note, and it will be treated as a continuation of the same paragraph in the rendered output.

Also, you can change the size of your fonts under the Appearance option in settings even if you use Obsidian on mobile devices.

You can create tags, which help you organize and find your notes more easily. Just enter a hash symbol (#), and you can choose from your tags.

When taking notes, Obsidian allows you to use attachments, such as images, audio files, or PDFs. You can access these files using your files system. Moreover, you can embed web pages as well. To embed a web page, you have to use the iframe.

Ultimately, you can create notes easily with Obsidian, and the way they work makes them ideal for creating your personal knowledge management center or second brain.

Bidirectional links

The internal links are one of the best features I discovered during my Obsidian review. Using this feature, you can link notes to each other and connect ideas through your vault.

To link notes, just type “[[” in Obsidian and then choose the file to which you want to create a link. Another way to add a link is to select the Command palette and then choose the option of “add an internal link.”

So, it is quite simple to connect your notes. And the real power of the internal links comes with the graph view.

Graph view

The graph view is perfect for visualizing the relations between your data. Using the graph view makes it easy to create your personal knowledge base, as you can see how your ideas are connected to each other.

You can easily zoom in and out using the scroll wheel on your mouse. What is especially valuable are the filter options. Obsidian’s graph view allows you to filter your notes based on search terms.

Overall, it works like a knowledge graph view, and you can see how your notes are connected.

Canvas view

One of the features I recommend you to try is the canvas view. It offers an excellent tool for visual note-taking.

This function lets you choose from visual aspects, such as size and position, to make sense of your notes. With the canvas, you can connect notes with lines and group multiple notes together to better understand their relationship.

Plugins

With the plugins, you can customize your vault and access many advanced features. There are two types of plugins.

The Obsidian core plugins switch on and off features you do and do not like. For instance, you can switch off the graph view if you do not use it.

When it comes to the community plugins, you can choose from more than 2,000 plugins. The community plugins allow you to access more features like creating Excel-like tables or even a language translator.

To access the community plugins, open settings, select the turn on community plugins, and install the ones you like.

Coda’s features

Let’s check Coda’s features now!

Project management tools

Coda is not a business intelligence tool, but it has sufficient depth when it comes to project management tools. During my Coda.io review, I discovered that this tool makes it easy for people to get the information they need quickly, as it has advanced visualization features.

Coda offers numerous view options that help to visualize dependencies, making the project planning and tracking much smoother. It is very easy to create customized dashboards.

You can choose from numerous view layouts when creating your projects. Just click on the options tab next to the block, and you can access the tables, grids, boards, calendars, Gantt charts, and more views.

Coda excels in customizing the way how you track projects. For example, you can apply filters, change the details of how Coda displays the information, or set the order for the rows.

Overall, Coda’s project management tools allow smooth collaborative work. It is also great that this productivity tool offers in-depth customization options.

Let’s move on to the task management features of Coda and how they work with its project management tools.

Task management

Task and project management come hand-in-hand, as the tasks are mostly related to one of your projects. Regarding the tasks, Coda gives you many options to structure them in a way that suits you.

You can add different columns for each task. When adding columns, you can change their types, which is great, as it makes filling the data easier and organizing your tasks.

When considering what type you want to add, there is a full list from which you can choose. You can insert text, dates, checkboxes, links, files, assignees, and many other elements.

Coda has a pretty solid formula editor, so you can add conditional formatting, colors, etc. Using these, you can organize your data in a way that helps you to overview the relevant information.

Furthermore, Coda allows you to comment, mention someone, and attach files to each task. This way, you can discuss the tasks and project details in one place without switching between numerous apps.

Note-taking

Coda is an ideal tool for note-taking as well. It uses building blocks when creating notes.

The note-taking is quite intuitive and works similarly to Notion. It has a drag-and-drop interface, and you can structure your content with headings, texts, bullet points, tables, and more.

If you click on the “/” tab, you can insert many text formats besides the essential ones. For example, you can use callouts, codes, pull quotes, and embed pages.

The text formatting is decent, as you can apply bold, italics, underline, and strike-through to your text. Also, you can choose from different text and highlight colors.

Embedding audio, video files, pictures, maps, files, and socials is also possible. Coda allows direct import from other tools like Notion, AirTable, Google Sheets, and Docs to your page.

If you push the “/” and go below, you will access the version history and share the page with your team members.

Lastly, you can utilize the nested pages to connect your notes and create your personal knowledge base. With this feature, you can create sub-pages for your notes or projects.

Data and document management

Coda is a great tool for creating different types of documents, such as spreadsheets, databases, and wikis. Its document management capabilities are similar to those of Dropbox Paper.

Coda has a permission management feature as well, which you can use to set up the published Coda Docs. There are three types of permission settings.

You can let your team members view, play, or edit the document. If choosing the view option, anyone can view the Coda Docs, but they can not interact with it. This option is helpful for blog posts, for instance.

If using the play mode, your team members can use the buttons and reactions in your Coda Docs. This is ideal for quizzes, calculators, or worksheets.

Finally, you can let your team members edit the document so they can add rows, columns, and text. The editing is useful when creating trackers for project management or brainstorming.

Automation

Automation allows you to create workflow rules and automate repetitive tasks. If you click on the settings icon in the top-right corner of your document, you can create rules.

You can select triggers, conditions, and actions. So, Coda uses the When and Then conditional logic for workflow automation.

The first step in workflow automation is the When. Here, you can select the time, row changed, the form submitted, and webhook invoked-based triggers.

Second, you can add an additional rule to the automated actions if needed. Finally, you can decide what actions Coda should take if the conditions are met.

To ensure the workflow automation works fine, you can run a test. If everything works well, you are good to go!

Coda AI

Coda AI utilizes artificial intelligence and helps you in many ways to make you more productive and save time. If you push”/,” you will quickly access Coda AI, which works similarly to Notion AI. It will instantly give suggestions on what topic it should generate for you, from blog posts to sales emails or meeting agendas.

Essentially, Coda AI helps you to edit, write, summarize, and paraphrase your content. However, you can implement it in more workflows. For instance, it can help you brainstorm projects and tasks, or you can ask to analyze customers, summarize meetings, and convert text into tables.

The use cases of Coda AI are almost endless. As you use Coda along the way, you will implement it in more workflows than you think.

Templates

Coda’s Gallery includes many templates for project management, meetings, knowledge management, project briefs, OKRs, and more. Templates are great for creating documents and projects faster.

If you click on the workspaces, you will see the templates tab next to your workspace’s name. There are not as many templates as Notion has, but they are quite practical and useful, and you do not need to start your documents from scratch.

Collaboration tools

Coda has a wide range of team collaboration features. You can edit text in real-time, mention and tag others, or assign tasks to your team members.

You can share documents easily with your team members with a click, so you can be on the same page. Both permission management and workflow automation are key to collaborating more efficiently.

With permission management, you can create and properly use more types of documents. For example, you can create only a viewable document about company policies and a playable document about voting on where the next team should be building.

When it comes to automation, you can easily trigger actions that will send data or notifications via Gmail or Slack. This feature can be quite helpful to eliminate repetitive communication or tasks within your team.

Integrations

Obsidian’s integrations

Using the plugins, you can integrate Obsidian with other third-party apps like Todoist, Trello, or Toggl Track. The number of integrations is quite limited, but at least some popular tools are among them. You can see the full list of integrations here.

Coda’s integrations

You can connect Coda with multiple third-party apps, including Zapier. Thanks to the Zapier integrations, Coda supports integrations with more than 7,000 third-party apps.

User interface

Now, let’s take a look at both apps’ user interfaces!

Obsidian’s user interface

Let’s say that Obsidian’s user interface is not pretty. It is similar to Apple Notes’ user interface, but somehow, I feel like Obsidian’s UI is a little bit clunky. If you do not like its user interface, try the dark theme, as it seems better.

You can also choose different themes from the community plugins. Many users recommended the Minimal theme, so you can give it a try.

Coda’s user interface

Coda is a beautiful and simple productivity app. Personally, I experienced a short learning curve, and it was easy to navigate through its features.

While Coda a simple app, it has the depth to manage documents and projects in more detail. So, it will take some time to learn all the features. Nevertheless, it has some tutorials and guides, so you will quickly master Coda.

Pricing

Here, I will show you both note-taking apps’ pricing models to see which one is better in the Obsidian vs Coda comparison.

Obsidian’s pricing

One of the best things I found during my Obsidian review is the pricing. If you use Obsidian for personal use, it is 100% free.

The free version for personal use includes all the features, themes, plugins, APIs, and community support. The free version is quite generous, as there are no limitations on which features you can use.

However, if you want Obsidian for commercial use, you need to buy the commercial use license, which is $50 per year. Commercial purposes mean using Obsidian for revenue-generating or work-related activities within a for‑profit organization with two or more employees. However, before deciding to purchase Obsidian, you have 14 days of free trial.

To upgrade your Obsidian experience and security, you can buy add-ons. You need to purchase the add-on services separately for commercial and free users.

The Obsidian Sync add-on allows you to synchronize your notes across multiple devices and offers end-to-end encryption, version history options, and priority email support. It is $4 per user per month.

The Obsidian Publish add-on is $8 per month per site. With this add-on, you can publish notes to the web, and it offers graph view and priority email support.

Finally, you can access the beta versions of Obsidian and VIP badges for a one-time payment of over $25. With this, you can support Obsidian and get early access to the beta versions.

Coda’s pricing

Coda offers four pricing plans.

The free plan has essential features like unlimited doc size for unshared docs, collaborative docs, tables, charts, kanban boards, forms, and automation. The free version is ideal for individuals or teams that want to test whether Coda suits the whole team.

The Pro plan is $10 per month and is ideal for small businesses or individuals who need advanced features. This plan includes a 30-day version history, hidden pages, custom domains, brandings, icons, and AI credits as well.

If you want unlimited automation, version history, and AI credits, you need to go for the Team plan, which is $30 per month. This plan is great for small and bigger teams as well. Using Coda’s Team plan, you will access the folder access, which can be crucial for teams.

Lastly, Coda offers an Enterprise plan for large businesses. It is $60 per month, and you will have access to advanced security features and a dedicated customer success manager.

Obsidian’s pros and cons

Now, let’s take a look at Obsidian’s pros and cons!

Obsidian’s pros

First, I discovered during my Obsidian vs Coda review that Obsidian is a safe note-taking app that allows you to store sensitive data thanks to its high-security standards. This is particularly true if you purchase the Obsidian sync add-on, so you can protect your data with end-to-end encryption.

Furthermore, Obsidian’s free version is excellent. It includes all the features you need to manage and organize your notes effectively.

In addition, there are regular updates, so I expect more features and plugins in the future.

Moreover, I enjoyed using the graph view and bidirectional links to visualize the relations between my notes.

Finally, utilizing markdown files is practical if you want to switch to other note-taking apps eventually.

Obsidian’s cons

When it comes to the cons of Obsidian, it is easy to see that it is quite a complex app with a huge learning curve. So, it will take time to learn how to use Obsidian.

Another problem for me is the lack of collaboration features. Basically, you can use this note-taking app only for personal knowledge management. Therefore, I do not see it as a best fit note-taking app for teams.

Lastly, while it is safer to store your data locally, some people just want to use a web version. However, you can not make such a decision in the case of Obsidian, as you are forced to download it to your device.

Coda’s pros and cons

Now, let’s check the pros and cons I explored during my Coda review!

Coda’s pros

Coda has solid project management features that you can customize in detail. I particularly loved how many view options it has and how easy it is to change between them.

Furthermore, Coda is an ideal tool for note-taking. It uses building blocks for your notes, and you can easily move them around.

Moreover, Coda AI is a useful addition that saves you time when creating documents, projects, and notes.

Finally, Coda has a generous free plan that is ideal for individuals.

Coda’s cons

My biggest issue is that Coda does not have a desktop app. So, you always need to have internet access when using Coda.

Additionally, the Enterprise plan is pricey compared to other tools.

Alternatives to Obsidian and Coda

Here are some alternatives to Obsidian and Coda:

• Xtiles: An easy-to-use note-taking app with visual boards.
• Notion: An all-in-one app for data, task, project management, and note-taking.
• Anytype: It is like the mix of Notion and Obsidian.
• Evernote: A popular note-taking app.
• Taskade: A simple but effective note-taking app ideal for more complex project management.
• NotebookLM: A note-taking and research app with a fantastic podcast feature.

Wrap-up: Obsidian vs Coda

After my Obsidian vs Coda review, I discovered that Coda is an all-in-one app, while Obsidian is a note-taking app. While many people use Obsidian for project management as well, it does not have the extensive features Coda does.

Nevertheless, it is true for vice-versa. Coda has simple and useful note-taking capabilities. However, it is far from Obsidian note-taking ability.

To wrap it up, if you are looking for a tool to manage your projects and tasks, I recommend you try it at Coda. Particularly, if you want to implement a tool for your whole team. Coda has many collaboration features, while Obsidian has zero. It also has similar note-taking capabilities to Notion, so it can do the work.

However, if you are looking for a massive note-taking app to create your second brain, Obsidian is a much better choice.

Ultimately, both Obsidian and Coda are fantastic tools. I hope this Obsidian vs Coda article helped you understand the key differences and decide which is the best tool for you.

Related articles:

Notion Vs Obsidian: Which Note-Taking App Is Better For You?

Frequently asked questions

What is better than Obsidian notes?

Obsidian is an excellent note-taking app, but if you are looking for another tool to manage your notes, try these apps:

• Xtiles
• Notion
• Anytype
• Evernote
• Taskade
• NotebookLM

Is Coda or Obsidian better for personal knowledge management?

Obsidian is a better tool for creating a personal knowledge management center, as it offers many useful extra features like graphs or canvas views.

Which one should you choose when managing complex projects?

I would choose Coda for project management. Coda has fantastic project management features with many view options and collaboration tools, so it is ideal for managing complex projects.

Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read the full privacy policy here.