Synap vs Obsidian
Obsidian proved that you can own your knowledge. Synap takes that further: no manual link maintenance, no plugin juggling, no folder taxonomy to curate. The connections are made for you.
| Topic | Obsidian | Synap |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Markdown files on your disk | Your own server — a pod with PostgreSQL |
| Links | [[wiki-links]] you maintain by hand | Relationships detected and proposed for you |
| Extensions | A plugin ecosystem to manage | Views, agents and connectors built in |
| Data model | Files and frontmatter | Typed records with typed relations |
Structuring on capture is part of Pod + AI (€100/month). On the Pod plan (€20/month), the agent you connect does the structuring through Synap's tools. Either way, changes arrive as proposals you review.
In Obsidian, you create [[wiki-links]] between notes by hand. In Synap, connections between your captures are detected for you — who wrote a paper, what project an idea belongs to, which tasks block each other — and proposed for your review.
Obsidian treats everything as a Markdown file. Synap knows that a person, a task, and a research paper are different things — each with the right properties, typed relationships, and queryable structure. Same ownership. Much more power.
Obsidian stores your notes as local Markdown files — you own the files but must create links between them by hand. Synap stores your data on a dedicated server you own (your own PostgreSQL database) and detects relationships, classifying content into typed records. No plugin ecosystem to manage, no manual [[wiki-links]].
Yes, in a different shape. Obsidian gives you local files. Synap gives you a dedicated server running an open stack (PostgreSQL for data, Markdown for notes): export SQL or JSON at any time, or self-host the whole stack with Docker Compose. Your data stays in open formats, not proprietary ones.
Export your vault as the Markdown files it already is. An agent connected to your pod, such as Claude Code, can read those files and write them into Synap as typed records, with links and properties. Each write arrives as a proposal you review, so nothing lands in your pod unseen.
No. Synap builds in what Obsidian needs plugins for: a connected assistant, graph, calendar and board views, and database-style tables. There are no plugin compatibility issues to manage.
