AI Note Taker · Head-to-head

Evernote AI vs Obsidian

Freemium 4.1 (15,600)

Freemium 4.7 (3,200)

Two AI note taker tools compared on the same eight rows — rating, pricing, what each does best and where each falls short — so you can decide in a minute.

Rating Obsidian wins 4.1 vs 4.7
Free tier Both have one

Side by side

The same rows for both.

Rows come straight from each review. A soft highlight marks the objectively better cell: higher score, cheaper tier, fresher review.

Criterion	Evernote AI	Obsidian
Rating	4.1 (15,600)	Wins 4.7 (3,200)
Pricing	Freemium	Freemium
Category	AI Productivity AI Note Taker	AI Productivity AI Note Taker
Best for	Mature, dependable platform with a huge base of long-time users	All notes stored locally as plain Markdown — full data ownership
Strengths	Mature, dependable platform with a huge base of long-time users AI search understands natural-language questions across all your notes Web Clipper remains one of the best tools for saving pages and PDFs	All notes stored locally as plain Markdown — full data ownership Graph view and backlinks connect related ideas automatically AI plugins (Copilot, Smart Connections) add chat and summarization
Watch-outs	Free plan is now very restrictive (limited notebooks and note count) Interface feels heavier than newer AI-first note apps AI features arrived later and go less deep than Notion or newer rivals	Steeper learning curve than simple note apps like Apple Notes AI isn't built in — you configure third-party plugins and API keys Setup and syncing require more effort out of the box
Last updated	Jul 2026	Jul 2026
Visit	Visit Evernote AI	Visit Obsidian

Evernote AI

Rating: 4.1 (15,600)
Pricing: Freemium
Category: AI Productivity AI Note Taker
Best for: Mature, dependable platform with a huge base of long-time users
Strengths: Mature, dependable platform with a huge base of long-time users
AI search understands natural-language questions across all your notes
Web Clipper remains one of the best tools for saving pages and PDFs
Watch-outs: Free plan is now very restrictive (limited notebooks and note count)
Interface feels heavier than newer AI-first note apps
AI features arrived later and go less deep than Notion or newer rivals
Last updated: Jul 2026
Visit: Visit Evernote AI

Obsidian

RatingWins: 4.7 (3,200)
Pricing: Freemium
Category: AI Productivity AI Note Taker
Best for: All notes stored locally as plain Markdown — full data ownership
Strengths: All notes stored locally as plain Markdown — full data ownership
Graph view and backlinks connect related ideas automatically
AI plugins (Copilot, Smart Connections) add chat and summarization
Watch-outs: Steeper learning curve than simple note apps like Apple Notes
AI isn't built in — you configure third-party plugins and API keys
Setup and syncing require more effort out of the box
Last updated: Jul 2026
Visit: Visit Obsidian

Quick take, not a full review Generated from the two reviews · 2026

Which one should you pick?

Pick Evernote AI if this matters most to you: Mature, dependable platform with a huge base of long-time users. Pick Obsidian if this does: All notes stored locally as plain Markdown — full data ownership.

Both are freemium, so price is unlikely to decide it.

Our editorial scores put Obsidian ahead (4.7 vs 4.1). Evernote AI still wins for the specific case above.

The trade-offs are real on both sides: Evernote AI's biggest limit is that free plan is now very restrictive (limited notebooks and note count); Obsidian's is that steeper learning curve than simple note apps like Apple Notes.

For pricing detail and limits, read the full Evernote AI review or the full Obsidian review.

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