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Glean vs Obsidian

Obsidian is a powerful note-taking app built on local Markdown files. Known for its graph view, backlinks, and extensive plugin ecosystem.

Feature Comparison

Feature Glean Obsidian
Save from any URL Via plugins
AI-generated summaries Via plugins
Auto-extract action items
Task management Basic
Local-first storage
Graph view / backlinks
Plugin ecosystem
Browser extension Via plugins
iOS app
Markdown export

Pricing

Glean

Pro subscription

Free gives you 3 captures/week and 1 project. Pro costs $4.99 / week or $49.99 / year with a 3-day yearly trial.

Obsidian

Free for personal use. Sync at $5/month. Publish at $10/month.

Best For

Choose Glean if...

You want saved content to become contextual todos your agents can finish. Glean keeps the source, writes the subtasks, and hands the work to Claude Code or Codex.

Choose Obsidian if...

Power users building a personal knowledge base with strong privacy needs.

The Key Difference

Obsidian is a knowledge garden. Glean is a task factory. Obsidian helps you connect ideas. Glean helps you act on them.

Verdict

Choose Obsidian if you want a powerful, extensible personal knowledge base. Choose Glean if you want zero-config task extraction from online content.

Capture the same source. Get a task, not a bookmark.

Save it once, get a task with context, then hand it to Claude Code or Codex.

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