Reflect vs Obsidian

Overall score

Weighted across the six axes below.

Best for

Our take

Features

Depth and breadth of what the app can do.

Ease of use

Speed, polish and how long it takes to feel at home.

AI

Quality and usefulness of the built-in AI, not just its presence.

Sync & reliability

How dependably notes move between devices.

Value

What you get for what you pay.

Platform coverage

How many places you can actually use it.

Starting price

Paid plans

Pricing model

Free tier

One-time purchase

Open source

Platforms supported

Windows

macOS

iOS

Android

Linux

Web

Features supported

Out of 82 tracked.

Voice recording

Record audio directly inside a note.

Audio transcription

Turn recorded or live speech into searchable text.

Speaker identification

The transcript says who said what, with a label per voice you can rename.

Meeting recording

Record both sides of a call from the computer audio and the mic, with no bot joining the meeting. Partial when a bot has to join, or only some meeting apps work.

Handwriting / stylus

Write by hand with a pen or stylus on a tablet.

Drawing canvas

A freeform canvas for sketches, diagrams and annotation.

OCR / handwriting search

Find text inside images, scans and handwritten notes.

Web clipper

Save articles and pages from the browser into the app.

Share extension

Send text, links and files into the app from anywhere on the phone.

Quick capture

A global shortcut or small floating window that saves a note while you stay in another app. Partial when it opens the full app instead, or only works from the phone lock screen or Control Center.

Images

Embed and manage images inside notes.

PDF & documents

Attach, view and mark up PDFs and office files.

Document scanning

Scan paper with the phone camera into a clean note.

Tags

Label notes with keywords across folders.

Folders / notebooks

Group notes into containers.

Multi-level folders

Nest folders inside folders, as deep as you want.

Internal links

Link one note to another, wiki style.

Backlinks

See every note that links back to the one you are reading.

Graph view

Visualise the whole vault as a network of connected notes.

Databases / boards

Turn notes into tables, boards and filtered views.

Daily notes / journal

A dated note created automatically each day.

Note templates

Reusable note structures you can spawn on demand.

Saved searches

Store a query and reuse it as a live view.

Pins / favorites

Keep the notes you use most within one click.

Merge notes

Combine two or more notes into one without copying and pasting.

AI chat / writing assistant

Ask questions and rewrite text with an AI built into the app.

AI agent with tools

An agent that can act on your workspace, not just chat.

Custom AI agents

Build your own agents, each with its own instructions, model and tools, and pick the one to ask. Partial when an agent is only a saved persona that cannot use tools.

Semantic search

Search by meaning rather than exact keywords.

AI web search

The assistant can look things up on the live web and use what it finds in the answer. Partial when web search only finds sources to add, not answers.

Connected apps for AI

Sign in to other apps, like Notion, Linear, Slack or Google Drive, and the assistant can look things up in them or make changes there. Partial when only one outside app can be connected.

Prompt templates

Save reusable prompts to run against your notes.

Custom AI instructions

Standing instructions the AI follows every time, like tone, language or format.

AI memory

The assistant remembers what you told it in earlier chats, and you can read, edit or delete those memories.

Scheduled AI tasks

Give the AI a job to run at a set time or on a repeat, like a morning summary of new notes, and read what each run did. Partial when only a fixed digest the app writes runs on a schedule.

Flashcard generator

Turn notes into flashcards to study from.

Spaced repetition

Cards come back for review just before you would forget them, from a queue of what is due today. Partial when the app only repeats the cards you missed, with no due dates.

Quiz generator

Generate practice questions from your own material.

Fill in the blank

Hide words in a sentence and practice recalling them, as cloze cards you write or the AI generates from a note. Partial when you can only tape over part of a page and tap to reveal it.

Mind maps

Build or generate a mind map from a note.

AI image generation

Generate an image from a prompt, or from the note itself, and drop it into the page.

Infographic generator

Turn a note into a designed visual summary.

Slide deck generator

Turn a note into a slide deck with AI, then edit the slides yourself.

AI mini apps

Describe a small tool, like a tracker, a calculator or a practice game, and the AI builds a working app inside the note. Partial when the app opens outside the note or forgets its data.

Brainrot video generator

Generate short vertical videos from notes for revision.

AI audio overview

Generate a podcast-style spoken summary of your notes.

Bring your own model

Plug in your own API key or run a local model.

AI job notifications

Long AI jobs keep running after you leave the app, and a notification says when they are done. Partial when only one kind of job does, or the notice comes by email.

Markdown

Write in markdown, and keep it as markdown.

Rich text

A formatted WYSIWYG editor with styles and blocks.

Code blocks

Syntax-highlighted code inside notes.

Math / LaTeX

Typeset equations with LaTeX.

Tables

Insert and edit tables in a note.

Find and replace

Find a word or phrase in the open note and replace it, one match at a time or all at once.

Version history

Roll a note back to an earlier state.

Note info

Word count, character count, created and modified dates.

Cloud sync

Notes follow you across devices automatically.

Sync through your own cloud

Sync through a cloud drive you already have, like iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive, instead of servers run by the app maker. A backup copy sent to a drive does not count.

Offline support

Read and write with no connection.

Offline-first / own your data

Local files are the source of truth, not a server.

Self-hosting

Run the sync server yourself.

End-to-end encryption

Only your devices can read your notes.

Locked notes

Lock a single note behind a password or biometrics. Partial when only a whole notebook, or the whole app, can be locked.

Daily backup

An automatic daily copy you never have to remember to make.

Import

Bring notes in from other apps.

Export

Get your notes out as markdown, PDF or HTML.

Public API

Read and write your notes programmatically.

Command line tool

An official command line tool that reads and writes your notes from a terminal or a script. Partial when it can only add notes, not read them.

Remote MCP server

An MCP server the app hosts, so Claude, ChatGPT or any agent can read and write your notes from anywhere. Partial when the server has to run on your own machine.

Plugins / extensions

Extend the app with community add-ons.

Share with people

Invite specific people to a note or folder and let them edit it. Partial when the people you invite can only read.

Real-time collaboration

Several people editing the same note at once.

Comments

Leave threaded comments on a note.

Public sharing

Publish a note to a public link or site.

Dark mode

A proper dark theme, not an inverted hack.

Custom themes

Restyle the app beyond light and dark.

Multi-language

The interface is localised beyond English.

Command palette

One shortcut opens a searchable list of every action in the app.

Split view

Open two notes side by side in one window and edit both. Partial when the second note only opens in a peek panel or a separate window.

Focus mode

A distraction-free mode that clears everything but the text you are writing off the screen. Collapsing the sidebar on its own does not count.

Home screen widgets

Capture or read notes from the device home screen.

Apple Shortcuts

Actions in the Shortcuts app on iPhone, iPad or Mac that create, find or add to notes, so an automation can use the app. Partial when the only action opens the app or a blank note.