Notion's offline mode would possibly simply make me ditch Obsidian

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Notion is one among my favourite instruments. From databases to to-do lists, monitoring eating places I needed to take a look at, and a lot extra, I’ve dabbled in it for years till I lastly made the change to Obsidian. That’s largely due to Notion’s one deadly flaw. The second you lose web, the app successfully turns into ineffective.

The second you lose web, the app successfully turns into ineffective.

I’ve realized that the exhausting approach on flights, cafes with rocky Wi-Fi, even when eager to examine a washer’s upkeep schedule in my basement laundry with no mobile sign. It’s what pushed me in the direction of Obsidian, a local-first markdown-based app that has by no means failed me after I simply wanted entry to my notes. For a really very long time now, Obsidian has been my security web. However now that Notion has lastly fastened that deadly flaw by rolling out offline mode, it is likely to be time for a rethink. Maybe it’s time to ditch Obsidian and return to Notion. Right here’s why.

Are you workforce Notion or workforce one thing else? 170 votes

Notion all the way in which

48%

Evernote/Obsidian/OneNote/others

38%

Simply pen and paper

14%

Why offline mode makes such a giant distinction

<img class="e_dh" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 64rem) 51.25rem, 80vw" title="Notion database" srcset="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-64w-36h.jpg 64w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-1000w-563h.jpg 1000w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-1920w-1080h.jpg 1920w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-1536w-864h.jpg 1536w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-675w-380h.jpg 675w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-300w-170h.jpg 300w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-1280w-720h.jpg 1280w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-840w-472h.jpg 840w" alt="Notion database" src="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Notion-database-scaled.jpg"/> Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority

For anybody who has used Notion lengthy sufficient, the dearth of offline entry was not a minor inconvenience. It was successfully a dealbreaker. The entire app was designed round its well-defined construction and cloud-first expertise. So while you misplaced entry to the web, you additionally misplaced the app’s utility. You would be staring on the prettiest dashboard on the earth, however if you happen to needed to examine your notes throughout a flight or in an space with no sign, it was successfully ineffective.

Obsidian's local-first strategy does not care whether or not you've web or not. It simply works.

For me, that was the hole Obsidian stepped into so neatly. With its markdown-based recordsdata dwelling in your native storage, it by no means mattered if the web was on or off. I may take my laptop computer on a long-haul flight or my telephone right into a low-signal zone, and my notes have been all the time there. Clearly, I couldn’t sync recordsdata throughout with out the web, however my work up to now was proper there and able to be accessed. I can’t rely the variety of occasions I’ve been mid-thought on a flight and needed so as to add one thing to my challenge tracker, solely to stare at a clean Notion display screen. Obsidian solved that, however at the price of giving up Notion’s highly effective databases, templates and collaboration instruments. Now that Notion guarantees to work the identical approach anyplace, it feels just like the stability is bridging the hole within the characteristic set. As somebody who's regularly on the go, I wanted that sort of reliability, and Obsidian has been the place the place I maintain something vital.

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In fact, Obsidian and Notion are very totally different in how they strategy note-taking. Obsidian leans into extensibility with plugins for nearly every part, and the truth that all notes are simply easy markdown recordsdata means they’re as transportable because it will get. However the app isn’t excellent. Even the best duties can take only a bit an excessive amount of time to perform.

<img class="e_dh" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 64rem) 51.25rem, 80vw" title="obsidian paper planner" srcset="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-64w-36h.jpg 64w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-1000w-563h.jpg 1000w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-1920w-1080h.jpg 1920w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-1536w-864h.jpg 1536w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-675w-380h.jpg 675w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-300w-170h.jpg 300w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-1280w-720h.jpg 1280w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-840w-472h.jpg 840w" alt="The Obsidian app open on a black Android with a white paper planner underneath." src="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/obsidian-paper-planner-scaled.jpg"/> Nathan Drescher / Android Authority

Notion, then again, is extra polished and collaborative. Constructing a database takes solely a few clicks. It shortly helps you to hyperlink tasks, create aesthetic and practical pages, share them to the web with one click on, and extra. Options like Notion Types are unimaginable for fast knowledge entry on the go. Suffice it to say, Notion has all the time felt like the higher instrument for managing larger tasks, whereas Obsidian is extra geared in the direction of private tasks and analysis. For years I lived in each worlds, and although it was messy, it labored.

Notion’s offline mode replace upends that. With the software program’s newest launch, I can now view, edit, and create notes without having the web. Every little thing syncs again when you reconnect, just like Obsidian. On paper, which means I now not want two separate instruments. My use case is best served by Notion, and accessing offline mode means I ought to be capable to ditch Obsidian. Properly, as is all the time the case, the main points matter, and Notion’s offline mode comes with loads of quirks that it would be best to be careful for.

The place Notion’s offline mode nonetheless falls quick

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For starters, in contrast to Obsidian, Notion’s offline mode isn’t automated. Any web page that you just wish to entry offline should be marked for offline use on every machine you propose to make use of. In the event you overlook to do this, you’re out of luck. Premium plans do ease issues by routinely downloading latest and favorited pages, however it's nonetheless removed from Obsidian’s always-available simplicity. And since most residence and fanatic customers are on the free tier, they don't profit from auto-downloading.

Notion's offline mode feels extra like a workaround than a seamless characteristic.

Then there are the bounds. Databases are capped at 50 rows for offline entry with no strategy to drive a full obtain. When you have a sophisticated setup utilizing a number of subpages, you’ll need to manually toggle every one for offline entry. Subpages don’t routinely tag alongside while you mark a father or mother web page offline. On high of that, embedded content material, buttons, and kinds cease working with no connection. None of those points are dealbreakers individually, however collectively they make offline mode really feel extra like a workaround than a seamless characteristic. Whereas I'm glad the characteristic exists, it's clear that Notion was constructed from the bottom up as a cloud-first instrument.

Rethinking my workflow

<img class="e_dh" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 64rem) 51.25rem, 80vw" title="notion on the phone" srcset="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled-1920w-1080h.jpg 1920w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled-1536w-864h.jpg 1536w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled-675w-380h.jpg 675w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled-64w-36h.jpg 64w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled-1000w-563h.jpg 1000w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled-300w-170h.jpg 300w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled-1280w-720h.jpg 1280w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled-840w-472h.jpg 840w" alt="notion on the phone" src="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/notion-on-the-phone-scaled.jpg"/> Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority

Regardless of the numerous limitations of Notion’s offline mode, it's already making me rethink how I work. As I discussed earlier, Notion comes throughout because the slicker instrument as a result of its extra outlined schema of getting issues executed. Obsidian provides extra freedom and has by no means let me down with offline entry, however all too usually it's a must to bounce by means of hoops for easy duties. Typically you even want to put in third-party plugins for what must be fundamental performance. That isn’t supreme for the way I exploit apps.

With offline mode, Notion has lastly earned again a few of that belief. Offline mode isn't excellent, however it now not collapses the second Wi-Fi drops. That's sufficient for me to contemplate shifting again.

Offline mode isn’t excellent, however it’s sufficient to make me take into account Notion once more.

On the similar time, I don’t see myself deleting Obsidian any time quickly. Markdown recordsdata saved regionally are nonetheless unmatched for permanence. If one thing goes improper, I do know my notes are sitting on my exhausting drive, untouched by anybody else. That sense of possession is tough to beat, particularly for somebody like me who's deeply entrenched within the self-hosted ecosystem. However the actuality is that I don’t wish to dwell in two worlds anymore. Splitting notes between apps provides friction I now not want. If Notion can do sufficient for me daily, then Obsidian begins to really feel like a security web I don’t must examine fairly as usually.

For now, I'll in all probability combine Notion extra into my every day workflow whereas retaining essential entry paperwork on Obsidian. I nonetheless must see how properly offline syncing holds up in real-world use. How properly does Notion deal with conflicts? Will Notion improve the database restrict? These are questions that solely long-term use can reply. However offline mode, even in its present type, is sufficient for me to noticeably take into account ditching Obsidian. And it'd simply be for you as properly.