🇺🇸 Obsidian for United States Users
The private, offline-first note-taking app used by millions of US students, researchers and professionals. Free forever. No cloud required.
Version 1.12.7 • Free for personal use • No US data storage • Works offline
v1.12.7
Current stable release
$0
Cost for personal use (USD)
1,000+
Community plugins
5
Supported platforms
In a landscape dominated by cloud-first apps like Notion and Evernote, Obsidian offers something different — complete data ownership and total offline capability.
Unlike Notion, Evernote, or Google Keep, Obsidian never uploads your notes to any server by default. No US data centers, no foreign cloud — your notes stay on your device. Ideal for professionals, lawyers, healthcare workers, and anyone handling sensitive information.
Obsidian is widely used at US colleges and universities for academic note-taking, literature reviews, and thesis research. The Zettelkasten method — popular in US academic circles — maps perfectly to Obsidian's linking model.
The US knowledge worker community has embraced Obsidian as a core PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) tool. Integration with the PARA method, Readwise, Zotero, and other popular US productivity tools makes it a natural choice.
All downloads come directly from the official Obsidian GitHub releases page or official app stores. Free, no sign-up required.
| Platform | File | Version | Download |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🪟 Windows 10/11 | .exe installer | 1.12.7 | Download |
| 🍎 macOS (Intel & M-series) | .dmg | 1.12.7 | Download |
| 🐧 Linux | .AppImage | 1.12.7 | Download |
| 📱 iPhone / iPad | App Store | Latest | App Store |
| 🤖 Android | Google Play | Latest | Google Play |
How Obsidian stacks up against the apps most commonly used in the United States.
| Feature | Obsidian | Notion | Evernote | Apple Notes | Google Keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free for personal use | ✅ Fully free | ✅ Free tier | ⚠️ Very limited | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Works offline | ✅ Always | ⚠️ Limited | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ Always | ⚠️ Limited |
| Local file storage | ✅ Yes | ❌ Cloud | ❌ Cloud | ✅ iCloud | ❌ Cloud |
| Private (no server access) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ⚠️ iCloud | |
| Plain text / Markdown | ✅ Native | ❌ No | ❌ No | ⚠️ Partial | ❌ No |
| Bidirectional links | ✅ Core feature | ⚠️ Partial | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Community plugins | 1,000+ | Limited | Few | None | None |
| Cost for power features | $0 | $16+/mo | $14.99/mo | $0 | $0 |
From Silicon Valley engineers to Ivy League researchers — Obsidian serves a wide spectrum of US knowledge workers.
Manage lecture notes, research papers, and reading lists across semesters. Link concepts between courses. Build a knowledge base that compounds across your entire degree.
Implement the Zettelkasten method for literature reviews. Connect papers with the Zotero plugin. Build a second brain that surfaces unexpected connections between research threads.
Maintain technical runbooks, architecture decision records, and code snippet libraries. Version-control your vault with Git. Works perfectly with the developer workflow.
Keep case notes, legal research, and client information completely private — no cloud upload, no third-party data access. HIPAA and privilege-sensitive work stays on your machine.
Personal study notes, medical reference material, and continuing education content — all offline, all private, all on your device. No cloud compliance concerns.
Research notes, interview transcripts, story outlines and drafts — all linked together in one private vault. Publish selectively with Obsidian Publish.
All prices in USD. The core app is and always will be free for personal use.
$0 / forever
The full Obsidian app — unlimited notes, all core features, all community plugins, themes, graph view, canvas.
$10 / month USD
End-to-end encrypted sync across all your devices. Version history for 12 months. Plugin settings sync.
$16 / month USD
Publish your notes as a public website. Custom domain support. Includes the interactive graph view.
Join millions of US users who manage their personal knowledge in Obsidian. Free forever, offline-first, no account required.
