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Scratchpad vs Obsidian

Scratchpad has built in what Obsidian leaves to plugins and extra subscriptions: sharing by link, live co-editing, search inside PDFs, PDF markup, transcription, reminders, publishing, and an assistant, with nothing to set up. Obsidian is free, local, and endlessly extensible, for people who enjoy building their own system.

Facts checked Sources All comparisons

Obsidian is a remarkable piece of software, and people who love it tend to love building it: choosing a vault, a sync method, and the plugins that turn it into their own system. Scratchpad starts from the other end. The things most people end up adding to Obsidian are already there, made and supported by us, and you can start writing the moment you open it.

The short answer

Choose Scratchpad if

  • You want to open it and write, with nothing to set up and no plugins to choose or keep working
  • You want to share a single note by link, or edit one with somebody at the same time
  • You want search to read inside your PDFs and Word documents, and a pen and highlighter for PDFs
  • You want voice memos turned into text, reminders, publishing, and an assistant, all built in
  • You want the same app in any browser, on any computer

Choose Obsidian if

  • You want your notes as plain files on your own disk, readable by any app
  • You want to pay nothing, or only for sync
  • You enjoy building a system with backlinks, a graph, canvases, database views, and plugins

At a glance

Scratchpad Obsidian
Price a month US$12, or US$8 with your own AI key Free. Sync from US$5, Publish US$10 per site
Price a year US$120, or US$80 with your own AI key Free. Sync from US$48, Publish US$96 per site
Free plan With a 30-day money-back guarantee The whole app
Setup None Choose a vault, a sync method, and plugins
Where notes live Scratchpad's servers, synced to your devices Markdown files on your own disk
Platforms Apps for Mac and Linux, plus any browser, installable on iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Native on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android
Web clipper For Safari, Chrome, and Firefox For Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge
Web app
Works offline Keeps going when the connection drops, and syncs after Fully
Share one note by link With a password or expiry Only through Publish or a plugin
Live co-editing Guests need no account
Publishing Included Obsidian Publish, US$10 a month per site, or US$8 billed yearly, with custom domains
Search inside PDFs and documents Built in Notes and canvases only, unless you add a plugin
PDF markup Pen, highlighter, shapes, sticky notes, and forms Reading only, unless you add a plugin
Voice memos to text Built in Recording built in. Transcription needs a plugin
Reminders By email and notification Plugins only
Built-in AI Plugins and MCP add it
Password-locked notes Plugins only
Version history Up to 200 versions per note, on every plan 7 days on each device, or 1 to 12 months with Sync
Organising Folders, #tags, links, and backlinks Folders, tags, links, backlinks, graph, Canvas, and Bases
Plugins None About 8,000

Obsidian with Sync Standard costs about half what Scratchpad does. Add Sync Plus and Publish and it costs more.

Where Scratchpad is better

Scratchpad on a computer: folders on the left, a list of notes, and a note called Lisbon in October with a checklist and a day-by-day plan in a table.

Sharing a note, and writing in it together

Obsidian can't share one note by link, and its shared vaults don't edit live: changes merge when they sync, and every collaborator needs their own Sync subscription. In Scratchpad you send a link that reads or edits, add a password or an expiry date, and see the other person's edits arrive as they type. They don't need an account.

Search reads your attachments

Obsidian's own search reads your notes and canvases. Scratchpad's reads inside attached PDFs, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, and everything you've had transcribed, as you type, with no plugin.

PDFs you can mark up

Scratchpad's reader has a pen, highlighter, underline, shapes, text notes, sticky notes, and form filling built in. It keeps your marks beside the original rather than rewriting it, and downloads a copy with them burned in. Obsidian shows PDFs, and highlighting needs a community plugin.

Transcription, reminders, and an assistant, all supported

Scratchpad turns voice memos into searchable text (20 hours a month), sends reminders you write in plain words by email and notification, and has an assistant that reads the note you're in and asks before it changes anything. Obsidian can get near all three through plugins, but they're somebody else's plugins to find, set up, and keep working.

There's nothing to set up

Open Scratchpad and you're in a note. No vault to create, no sync method to pick, and no plugins to evaluate, update, and trust. Obsidian's reviewers mention its learning curve for a reason: an empty vault is a blank page in more ways than one.

Publishing is included

Publishing a Scratchpad note as a web page is part of the plan. Obsidian Publish is a separate US$8 a month per site, billed yearly.

Lock a single note

A locked Scratchpad note is encrypted with a key that comes from its own password, and opens with Face ID or Touch ID once you set that up. In Obsidian that takes a community plugin.

History that isn't tied to one device

Obsidian's File recovery keeps local snapshots for seven days by default, separately on each device, and Sync keeps one month of history on Standard or twelve on Plus. Scratchpad keeps up to 200 versions of every note on every plan, synced, with a side-by-side comparison.

And everything else Scratchpad does.

  • Reminders in a sentence

    Type /remind call the vet Friday at 9am, and get an email and a notification.

  • Voice memos, transcribed

    Record into a note and get the words back as text you can search. 20 hours a month.

  • Write on PDFs

    Pen, highlighter, shapes, sticky notes, and forms, and a copy to download with your marks on it.

  • Every version, kept

    Up to 200 versions of each note, compared side by side and brought back in a click.

  • Search inside your files

    The words in your PDFs, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, your pictures and scans, and your transcripts, as you type.

  • Tabs, panels, and callouts

    Split a long note into tabs, fold a section away, or set a tip apart in a callout.

  • Code, maths, and footnotes

    Highlighting for about 35 languages, LaTeX that renders as you type, and footnotes that number themselves.

  • Locked notes

    Encrypted with a password of their own, and opened with Face ID or Touch ID once you set that up.

  • Share links you control

    Read or edit, with a password or an expiry date, and nobody needs an account. On paid plans.

  • Publish in one click

    Turn a note into a clean web page, and take it down just as fast. On paid plans.

  • An assistant that asks first

    It reads the note you are in, and its edits arrive as a change you approve.

  • Works with Claude and ChatGPT

    Any app that speaks MCP can search, read, and add to your notes. On paid plans.

  • Two-step sign-in and passkeys

    An authenticator code or an emailed one, backup codes, and passkeys for Touch ID and Face ID.

  • Folders, tags, and backlinks

    Three levels of folders, each with its own colour and icon, #tags as you type, and backlinks.

  • Bring your notes in

    Markdown, Word, HTML, RTF, or a whole zip, with its folders.

  • Markdown in and out

    Export a note, a folder, or everything as Markdown, plain text, or JSON.

Where Obsidian is better

Your notes are files you own

Obsidian keeps your notes as Markdown files in an ordinary folder, with no account and no server, so they'll outlive Obsidian itself. Scratchpad exports everything as Markdown whenever you like, but day to day your notes live on our servers.

It's free, and it's endlessly extensible

The whole app costs nothing, for personal use and for work. Graph view, Canvas, Bases, and around eight thousand community plugins let you build almost anything. Scratchpad deliberately doesn't try to be that.

Native apps, including Linux, fully offline

Obsidian is a real app on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android, and works fully offline. Scratchpad has apps for Mac and Linux and runs in any browser everywhere else, but it's built to be online most of the time.

Sync is end-to-end encrypted

Obsidian Sync encrypts your whole vault end to end by default. Scratchpad encrypts the notes you lock, not the rest, which is what lets search, sharing, and the assistant work on them.

Moving from Obsidian to Scratchpad

Zip your vault and bring it in from Settings → Your data → Bring notes in. Folders become folders, up to three levels deep. What to expect:

  • Headings, lists, checklists, tables, code, and callouts ([!NOTE] and friends) arrive formatted.
  • Tags typed in the text come with you. Tags in front matter don't, because front matter arrives as text at the top of the note.
  • [[Wiki links]] arrive as plain text rather than as links.
  • Pictures and PDFs in the vault aren't attached to the notes that embed them. Add the ones you need by dragging them in.

Plugins' own formats (Canvas, Bases, Dataview queries) have no equivalent in Scratchpad. See Bringing your old notes in.

Good questions.

Is Obsidian free?

Yes. The app is free for personal and work use, with no account needed. Obsidian Sync (from US$4 a month billed yearly) and Obsidian Publish (US$8 a month per site, billed yearly) are optional paid services. Scratchpad has no free plan: it's US$12 a month, or US$8 with your own AI key, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Does Obsidian have real-time collaboration?

No. Obsidian's own documentation says it doesn't support live editing of the same file. Shared vaults on Sync merge changes when they sync, for up to 20 people who each pay for Sync. Scratchpad has live co-editing, and the other person doesn't need an account.

Does Obsidian have a web app?

No. Obsidian runs as an app on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Publish sites are read-only websites. Scratchpad runs in any browser, and has apps for Mac and Linux.

Does Obsidian search inside PDFs?

Not on its own. Its search covers notes and canvases, and community plugins add PDF and attachment search. Scratchpad searches inside attached PDFs, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files as standard.

Can I move my Obsidian vault to Scratchpad?

Yes. Zip the vault and import it. Formatting, folders, and inline tags come across. Wiki links arrive as plain text, and attachments need adding again.

Sources

Checked on 24 September 2026, from Obsidian's own pages:

And for Scratchpad, the documentation and pricing.

The best way to decide is with your own notes.

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US$12 a month, or US$8 with your own AI key. 30-day money-back guarantee.