Obsidian keeps your notes as plain-text Markdown files in a folder on your disk, so anyone who can open that folder can read them, and encryption arrives only through a community plugin or the paid Sync add-on. NotePrivate keeps the same local-first, own-your-files idea and encrypts the whole vault at rest with a key only you hold.
macOS and Windows · You hold the keys · Import from Markdown, Apple Notes, Evernote, Standard Notes and more
NotePrivate is an encrypted Obsidian alternative for Mac and Windows, built for people who like the Obsidian idea of a local vault but do not want that vault sitting on disk as readable text. Obsidian stores every note as a plain Markdown file inside a folder you choose, which is exactly why those files open in any text editor, any backup and any synced copy. Encryption in Obsidian comes from somewhere else: a community plugin you install and keep working, or the paid Sync add-on, which protects the copy travelling to Obsidian's servers rather than the folder on your desk. NotePrivate closes that one gap and keeps the rest. Every note and attachment is encrypted with a master key wrapped by your password, that password never leaves your machine, the app opens with the network switched off, and typing [[ still autocompletes backlinks between notes. Obsidian itself is free, and its pricing page lists Sync at $4 a month billed annually, checked 25 September 2026. The NotePrivate planned price is $59 a year covering both macOS and Windows, and NotePrivate is not on sale yet, so every button on this page joins the NotePrivate waitlist. What NotePrivate is not: it is not free, it is not open source, there is no plugin ecosystem or graph view, and there is no iPhone, iPad or Android app yet.
Named products are market context, not reviews or endorsements. Check each vendor's own site before you commit.
Four reasons show up again and again in the threads, and only one of them is about features.
An Obsidian vault is a folder of Markdown files, so a stolen laptop, a shared work PC, an old backup drive or a synced copy in someone else's cloud folder all hand over the notes in the clear. NotePrivate stores the same kind of notes as an encrypted vault, so a copy of those files without your password is not a readable note.
To get encrypted notes in Obsidian you install a community plugin, encrypt the disk underneath, or pay for Sync and accept that the local files stay plain. NotePrivate is encrypted the moment it is installed, with per-note passwords, auto-lock, lock on sleep and Touch ID sign-in on Mac, and nothing to configure first.
The plugins that make Obsidian yours are written by volunteers and break on their own schedule, which is a fair trade if tinkering is part of the fun and a bad one if your notes are work. NotePrivate ships one app with rich text, Markdown, code, checklists, spreadsheets, one-time codes and saved web pages already in the box.
Obsidian costs nothing for personal or work use, and its app code is not published, which is why open source Obsidian alternative is a search of its own. NotePrivate is not open source either and does not pretend otherwise, so if auditable code is your bar, Logseq, Joplin or Standard Notes deserve the look before NotePrivate does.
Plenty of people arrive at Obsidian for private notes and leave when the second brain method starts costing more time than the notes are worth. NotePrivate is a notes app first: folders, tags, saved searches, instant switching and encryption, without a methodology to adopt.
A dated Obsidian daily note is often the most personal file in the vault and the least protected. NotePrivate treats a journal entry like any other encrypted note, and the private journal app page covers what changes once those entries sit under your own key.
Four questions people search right before they pick, with where NotePrivate lands on each.
Better depends on the one thing you are optimizing for, which is why no two Obsidian alternative lists agree. For an encrypted local vault on Mac and Windows, NotePrivate is better, because Obsidian writes plain Markdown to your disk and NotePrivate writes ciphertext. For a free and open source vault you can audit, Logseq and Joplin are better. For plugins, Canvas, a graph view and phone apps, nothing here beats Obsidian today. Sort yourself into one of those three groups first and the list gets short fast.
If your group is the encrypted one, the NotePrivate and Obsidian table below is the fastest way to see what you gain and what you give up.
Yes, several, and NotePrivate is not one of them. Logseq is a free open source outliner that keeps Markdown files on your own machine. Joplin is free and open source with end-to-end encryption you switch on yourself and syncing to a backend you choose. Anytype publishes its source and describes itself as local-first and end-to-end encrypted. Standard Notes is open source with a free tier and paid plans for the extras. NotePrivate is closed source at a planned $59 a year with encryption on by default, which is a fair trade only if you want the encryption without the assembly.
Weighing the open source encrypted vaults against each other? The Standard Notes alternative page compares tiers, features and what each one holds back.
The closest Microsoft answers are OneNote and Loop, and neither is a local Markdown vault. OneNote keeps notebooks in OneDrive by default, syncs through your Microsoft account, and can password protect a section while Microsoft still holds the notebook. Loop is a cloud workspace built around shared pages and needs the network. Neither leaves you a folder of files you own on the PC, which is the part Obsidian users care about most. NotePrivate is the Windows answer that keeps the vault local and encrypts it, with a native Windows installer and the same vault opening on a Mac.
For the wider Windows picture, including what BitLocker covers and what Notepad cannot do, read the encrypted notepad for Windows page.
Obsidian and Notion answer different questions, so the honest answer is neither. Obsidian is a local Markdown vault that opens offline and stays on your machine. Notion is a hosted workspace built for databases, shared pages and teams, which means it needs the network and the company stores your content. Choose Obsidian if the notes are yours alone and must work on a plane. Choose Notion if the work belongs to a team and the database views are the point. NotePrivate sits on the Obsidian side of that line and adds encryption at rest, which neither one gives you on your own disk by default.
Leaving a Notion workspace rather than a vault? The private Notion alternative page covers offline access, open source options and moving a Notion export across.
The same local-first, own-your-notes idea, but encrypted on disk rather than plain text. The bottom four rows are where Obsidian wins.
| Capability | NotePrivate | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Local-first, own your data | Yes | Yes |
| Encrypted on your own disk | Yes | NoPlain-text files |
| End-to-end encrypted | Yes | PartialPaid Sync only |
| Per-note password | Yes | No |
| Built-in encryption, no plugin | Yes | No |
| Works fully offline | Yes | Yes |
| Backlinks with [[ autocomplete | Yes | Yes |
| Markdown import, folders kept | Yes | Yes |
| Sync without an extra subscription | YesYour own cloud folder | PartialPaid Sync, or roll your own |
| Plugin ecosystem, Canvas and graph view | No | Yes |
| iPhone and Android apps | NoDesktop only so far | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
| Free to use, including for work | No$59/year planned | Yes |
Competitor details are a general reading and change over time; verify on the vendor's site.
Six tools people compare against Obsidian, sorted by the two questions that actually decide it: is it encrypted without setup, and can you read the code.
| App | Encrypted at rest by default | Open source | Platforms | Price shape |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NotePrivate | Yes | No | macOS, Windows | $59/year planned, all features |
| Obsidian | No | No | macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android | Free, Sync from $4/month billed annually |
| Logseq | No | Yes | macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android | Free, database version sync in alpha |
| Joplin | PartialYou switch it on | Yes | macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android | Free, optional paid sync |
| Anytype | Yes | PartialSource published | macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android | Free tier, paid plans |
| Standard Notes | Yes | Yes | Desktop, web, mobile | Free tier, paid plans |
| Foam for VS Code | No | Yes | Inside VS Code on macOS, Windows, Linux | Free |
Named products are market context, not reviews or endorsements. Platform lists, licenses and pricing change; check each vendor's site before you commit.
NotePrivate is the paid, closed source, desktop-only row, and it is the only one that arrives encrypted with nothing to switch on and nothing to sync to. That is the whole pitch, and the four columns above are there so you can reject it quickly if the trade is wrong for you.
The searches that follow "Obsidian alternative for" are mostly about things NotePrivate does not do, so here is where NotePrivate fits and where another app does.
Yes, but NotePrivate is not it. A NotePrivate vault belongs to one person, and its only sharing is a single note sent as an expiring link that opens in a browser, with no shared editing. Obsidian handles teams through Sync: its help pages say every collaborator needs an active Sync subscription, a shared vault holds up to 20 users, and live editing on the same file is not supported yet. Joplin Cloud lets you share notes and collaborate on them, and Anytype calls itself a safe haven for digital collaboration, with shared spaces for invited members.
If the team needs a shared wiki more than a private vault, the NotePrivate Notion alternative page covers that ground.
NotePrivate has no AI assistant in its feature list, which suits a vault whose point is that notes stay encrypted on your own machine. Obsidian gets AI through community plugins, the same extension layer where Obsidian users already worry about a plugin phoning home. If AI is the reason you are leaving Obsidian, an AI-first notes tool is the better fit, and that is the opposite trade to NotePrivate, because an assistant that reads your notes has to see them.
Obsidian has no web version: it ships desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux, phone apps for iOS and Android, and a Web Clipper browser extension. NotePrivate has no web or Android app either, because it ships on macOS and Windows only. If you need a browser, Standard Notes runs as a web app alongside its desktop, iOS and Android apps, and Logseq offers a web demo. If you need Android, Joplin, Logseq and Obsidian all ship Android apps. NotePrivate reaches a browser in one place only: a shared note, sent as a link and decrypted in the recipient's browser.
NotePrivate does not run on Linux, so this answer is short. Obsidian ships AppImage, Snap and Deb builds for Linux, and Joplin and Logseq both run there too, free and open source. If Linux is your daily machine, pick one of those three over NotePrivate. Already on Joplin and weighing a move? NotePrivate lays out the free and encrypted Joplin alternatives side by side.
NotePrivate is not a code editor, though it keeps code notes and Markdown in the same encrypted vault. If you already live in VS Code, Foam is the closest thing to Obsidian there: its Marketplace listing describes a local-first, Markdown-based personal knowledge base inside VS Code, with wikilinks, a backlinks panel and a graph view, and it is open source. Like an Obsidian vault, a Foam workspace is a folder of plain Markdown files that anything can read. The NotePrivate encrypted Markdown notes page shows what changes when those same Markdown notes sit in an encrypted vault.
This is where NotePrivate fits. NotePrivate ships a native Windows installer and a native Mac app, one license covers both, and the same encrypted vault opens on either machine through a synced folder you control. On a Windows PC, an Obsidian vault is a folder of readable Markdown, Notepad and Sticky Notes have no note password, and BitLocker encrypts the drive rather than the note. NotePrivate encrypts every note and adds a second password to the ones you pick, which the NotePrivate notes app with a password page walks through step by step.
NotePrivate is a desktop app: a native Windows installer, a native Mac app, and one license covering both machines. On a Windows PC this is the practical difference, because an Obsidian vault there is a folder of readable Markdown like any other folder, and Windows disk encryption protects the drive rather than the note. NotePrivate encrypts each note inside its own vault, adds a second password on the ones you pick, and uses the on-device OCR engine so text inside a screenshot is searchable without the image leaving the PC.
Obsidian keeps two advantages here and they are real. It runs on Linux and NotePrivate does not. It has iPhone, iPad and Android apps and NotePrivate has none yet, so if you capture notes on a phone all day, Obsidian or Joplin is the better fit and no amount of encryption changes that. NotePrivate syncs between your own Mac and PC through a cloud folder you already pay for, and the vault stays encrypted the whole way, so the provider stores ciphertext it cannot read.
Coming to this from Windows specifically? The encrypted notepad for Windows page covers BitLocker, the Encrypting File System and what Notepad cannot do. Coming from a Mac and Apple Notes rather than a vault? The private Apple Notes alternative page covers what carries over.
Your Obsidian vault is already Markdown, which makes this the easiest import NotePrivate does. Five steps, and the order saves you the tidying twice.
Bringing notes from more than one place? NotePrivate also imports from Apple Notes, Evernote, Standard Notes, Notion, Google Keep, Simplenote, HTML, DOCX and plain text. The Evernote alternative page walks through the .enex route, and the NotePrivate homepage covers the full setup in five steps.
Switching has a cost. Here is where Obsidian keeps the advantage, said plainly rather than buried.
Obsidian's community plugins, themes, Canvas and the graph view have no equivalent in NotePrivate, which ships one fixed feature set on purpose. If your vault runs on Dataview queries or a template system you wrote yourself, moving to NotePrivate means giving that up, and there is no plugin API waiting to replace it.
Obsidian has iOS and Android apps and NotePrivate is macOS and Windows only for now. Quick capture on a phone is the single most common reason to stay with Obsidian, or to look at Joplin instead, and no encryption argument beats not having the app in your pocket.
Some people choose Obsidian precisely because the vault is a folder of Markdown any tool can touch: Git, a script, another editor. NotePrivate's vault is encrypted, so outside tools cannot read it without going through the app or an export. That is the trade, and if scriptability matters more than privacy, Obsidian is correct.
Obsidian is free for personal and work use, and NotePrivate has a planned price of $59 a year with no free tier. Against a free app, NotePrivate has to win on encryption alone, and if the budget is zero then Logseq, Joplin or Obsidian itself is where you should land.
Obsidian runs on Linux and NotePrivate does not. There is no workaround and no plan to claim one here.
This is the one NotePrivate takes. If you want an Obsidian-style local vault where every note is already encrypted, the password never leaves your machine, and there is nothing to install or maintain to keep it that way, NotePrivate is the alternative worth joining the waitlist for.
Not on your own disk. Your local Obsidian files are plain-text Markdown, readable by any text editor, any backup tool and anyone with access to the folder. Obsidian's paid Sync encrypts the copy in transit and at rest on their servers, and the files on your computer stay exactly as readable as before. NotePrivate encrypts the vault on your device instead, so the ciphertext is what sits on the disk, in the backup and in the synced folder.
Yes. An Obsidian vault is already a folder of Markdown files, and NotePrivate imports Markdown while keeping your folder structure, so nothing needs exporting first. Attachments come across with the notes. What does not come across is anything a plugin created, including Canvas boards and the graph view, so keep the original vault folder until you are certain you do not need it.
Yes. Your NotePrivate vault lives on your own machine and the app opens with the network switched off, exactly like an Obsidian vault. The difference is that the NotePrivate vault is encrypted at rest with a master key wrapped by your password, and that password never leaves the machine, which is also why nobody at this end can reset it for you.
Backlinks yes, graph view no. Typing [[ in NotePrivate autocompletes a link to another note, so the linking habit that Obsidian built survives the move, alongside folders, subfolders, tags, labels and saved searches. There is no graph visualization and no plugin ecosystem, so if the graph is how you think, Obsidian keeps that round.
Yes, through a cloud folder you already use, with no separate sync subscription. The NotePrivate vault stays encrypted the whole way, so your provider stores ciphertext it cannot read, and one license covers both the Mac and the Windows PC. If you would rather not sync at all, the app is complete on a single machine.
Obsidian is free, including for work, and its pricing page lists Sync at $4 a month and Publish at $8 a month, both billed annually, checked 25 September 2026. NotePrivate has a planned price of $59 a year with every feature included and no free tier, and it is not on sale yet, so the only thing you can do today is join the waitlist. If free is the deciding factor, Obsidian, Logseq or Joplin is the better answer.
Private by design, rich enough to be your only notes app, and yours to keep forever.
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