Notion’s offline mode might just make me ditch Obsidian

Notion is one of my favorite tools. From databases to to-do lists, tracking restaurants I wanted to check out, and so much more, I’ve dabbled in it for years until I finally made the switch to Obsidian. That’s mostly because of Notion’s one fatal flaw. The moment you lose internet, the app effectively becomes useless.

I’ve learned that the hard way on flights, cafes with rocky Wi-Fi, even when wanting to check a washing machine’s maintenance schedule in my basement laundry without a cellular signal. It’s what pushed me towards Obsidian, a local-first markdown-based app that has never failed me when I just needed access to my notes. For a very long time now, Obsidian has been my safety net. But now that Notion has finally fixed that fatal flaw by rolling out offline mode, it might be time for a rethink. Perhaps it’s time to ditch Obsidian and go back to Notion. Here’s why.

For anyone who has used Notion long enough, the lack of offline access was not a minor inconvenience. It was effectively a dealbreaker. The whole app was designed around its well-defined structure and cloud-first experience. So when you lost access to the internet, you also lost the app’s utility. You could be staring at the prettiest dashboard in the world, but if you wanted to check your notes during a flight or in an area without a signal, it was effectively useless.

For me, that was the gap Obsidian stepped into so neatly. With its markdown-based files living on your local storage, it never mattered if the internet was on or off. I could take my laptop on a long-haul flight or my phone into a low-signal zone, and my notes were always there. Obviously, I couldn’t sync files across without the internet, but my work so far was right there and ready to be accessed. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been mid-thought on a flight and wanted to add something to my project tracker, only to stare at a blank Notion screen. Obsidian solved that, but at the cost of giving up Notion’s powerful databases, templates and collaboration tools. Now that Notion promises to work the same way anywhere, it feels like the balance is bridging the gap in the feature set. As someone who is frequently on the go, I needed that kind of reliability, and Obsidian has been the place where I keep anything important.

Of course, Obsidian and Notion are very different in how they approach note-taking. Obsidian leans into extensibility with plugins for almost everything, and the fact that all notes are just simple markdown files means they’re as portable as it gets. But the app isn’t perfect. Even the simplest tasks can take just a bit too much time to accomplish.

Notion, on the other hand, is more polished and collaborative. Building a database takes only a couple of clicks. It quickly lets you link projects, create aesthetic and functional pages, share them to the internet with one click, and more. Features like Notion Forms are incredible for quick data entry on the go. Suffice it to say, Notion has always felt like the better tool for managing bigger projects, while Obsidian is more geared towards personal projects and research. For years I lived in both worlds, and though it was messy, it worked.

Notion’s offline mode update upends that. With the software’s latest release, I can now view, edit, and create notes without needing the internet. Everything syncs back once you reconnect, similar to Obsidian. On paper, that means I no longer need two separate tools. My use case is better served by Notion, and having access to offline mode means I should be able to ditch Obsidian. Well, as is always the case, the details matter, and Notion’s offline mode comes with plenty of quirks that you will want to watch out for.

For starters, unlike Obsidian, Notion’s offline mode isn’t automatic. Any page that you want to access offline must be marked for offline use on each device you plan to use. If you forget to do that, you’re out of luck. Premium plans do ease things by automatically downloading recent and favorited pages, but it is still far from Obsidian’s always-available simplicity. And since most home and enthusiast users are on the free tier, they do not benefit from auto-downloading.

Then there are the limits. Databases are capped at 50 rows for offline access with no way to force a full download. If you have a complicated setup using multiple subpages, you’ll have to manually toggle each one for offline access. Subpages don’t automatically tag along when you mark a parent page offline. On top of that, embedded content, buttons, and forms stop working without a connection. None of these issues are dealbreakers individually, but together they make offline mode feel more like a workaround than a seamless feature. While I am glad the feature exists, it is clear that Notion was built from the ground up as a cloud-first tool.

Despite the many limitations of Notion’s offline mode, it is already making me rethink how I work. As I mentioned earlier, Notion comes across as the slicker tool due to its more defined schema of getting things done. Obsidian offers more freedom and has never let me down with offline access, but all too often you have to jump through hoops for simple tasks. Sometimes you even need to install third-party plugins for what should be basic functionality. That isn’t ideal for how I use apps.

With offline mode, Notion has finally earned back some of that trust. Offline mode is not perfect, but it no longer collapses the moment Wi-Fi drops. That is enough for me to consider shifting back.

At the same time, I don’t see myself deleting Obsidian any time soon. Markdown files stored locally are still unmatched for permanence. If something goes wrong, I know my notes are sitting on my hard drive, untouched by anyone else. That sense of ownership is hard to beat, especially for someone like me who is deeply entrenched in the self-hosted ecosystem. But the reality is that I don’t want to live in two worlds anymore. Splitting notes between apps adds friction I no longer need. If Notion can do enough for me day to day, then Obsidian starts to feel like a safety net I don’t need to check quite as often.

For now, I will probably integrate Notion more into my daily workflow while keeping critical access documents on Obsidian. I still need to see how well offline syncing holds up in real-world use. How well does Notion handle conflicts? Will Notion increase the database limit? These are questions that only long-term use can answer. But offline mode, even in its current form, is enough for me to seriously consider ditching Obsidian. And it might just be for you as well.