European Alternatives to Obsidian
Obsidian is a popular Markdown note-taking app by Canadian company Dynalist. The core app is local-only (private), but Obsidian Sync — the paid cloud service — stores notes on US servers operated by Dynalist.
1 EU alternative · avg. privacy score 97 · 1 free
Why switch from Obsidian?
- –Obsidian Sync stores notes on Dynalist's US servers
- –Canadian company — Five Eyes jurisdiction
- –Closed-source commercial product despite community perception
- –Sync and Publish add-ons create US cloud dependency
1 European Alternative
Sorted by privacy score
Zettlr
German open-source Markdown editor for researchers and note-takers. 100% local, no cloud required.
| Tool | Score | Privacy | Pricing | OSS | EU Data | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
#1Zettlr German open-source Markdown editor for researchers and note-takers. 100% local, no cloud required. High Trust | 78 | 97 | Free | ✓ | ✓ | 🇩🇪 |
German open-source Markdown editor for researchers and note-takers. 100% local, no cloud required.
Frequently Asked Questions
The core Obsidian app is local-only and very private. However, Obsidian Sync (the paid cloud service) stores your notes on US servers. For EU users wanting cloud sync, use Obsidian with Nextcloud or Syncthing instead of Obsidian Sync.