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Obsidian vs Roam Research: free local files vs $15/mo cloud

By Ali Raza • Last checked: 3 November 2026 • Authors

Main topic: Obsidian vs Roam Research · Facts checked 3 November 2026 — prices change, so re-check the official page before acting on them.

Last checked: 3 November 2026

Short answer: Obsidian gives you the networked-thought workflow — daily notes, links, block references, a graph — in free local Markdown files you own. Roam Research is the original outliner for networked thought, but it is cloud-only and paid: $15/month or $165/year, with a 31-day free trial and no free plan, as seen 2–3 November 2026 — re-check on the official page on publish day. If the daily-notes-and-blocks way of thinking is what you want, Logseq offers it free and open source, too. Facts checked 3 November 2026.

Head to head

	Obsidian	Roam Research
Price	App free; Sync $4/mo yearly · $5 monthly	No free plan; $15/mo or $165/yr, 31-day trial — as seen 2–3 Nov 2026
Where notes live	Plain Markdown files on your devices	Roam’s cloud
Offline	Full — local-first	Cloud-only
Thinking style	Documents first; outlining via plugins and folds	Outliner first: every note is nested blocks
Daily notes	A core feature, one note per day	The home screen — the original daily-notes workflow
Block references	Supported, plus a plugin ecosystem	The signature feature — blocks reusable anywhere
Open source	No — free but closed-source	No

↔ Scroll this table sideways — the rest of the page stays put.

Where Roam wins

Purity of the model. In Roam, everything is a block in an outline, every block can be referenced or embedded anywhere, and the daily note is where thinking starts. People who think in Roam’s way find document-first apps clumsy by comparison — there is no file to file, no folder to choose, just today’s page and the web of links growing out of it. If that workflow is your religion, Roam is the purest expression of it.

Where Obsidian wins

Price, files and freedom. Obsidian’s app costs nothing, your notes are Markdown files on your own disk — readable without Roam’s servers, exportable without Roam’s permission — and the app works fully offline. Sync is the only real cost, and even that has free routes (see how to sync Obsidian for free). Obsidian also does documents properly: long-form writing sits beside the daily notes instead of fighting the outliner. Over a year, the maths is stark — $0 to $48 for Obsidian against $165 for Roam, at the prices seen 2–3 November 2026.

The third option most Roam-curious people miss

If it is Roam’s workflow you want — daily notes, blocks, block references — rather than Roam itself, read Obsidian vs Logseq. Logseq is built on exactly that model, keeps local files, and is free and open source. It is the comparison that ends most “should I pay for Roam?” questions.

Questions people ask

Is Roam Research free?

No. Roam has no free plan — there is a 31-day free trial, then $15/month or $165/year, as seen 2–3 November 2026. Re-check the official pricing page on publish day. Obsidian’s app, by contrast, is free with no limits.

Does Obsidian have daily notes like Roam?

Yes — daily notes are a core Obsidian feature, and block references and backlinks cover much of Roam’s workflow. The difference is shape: Obsidian is documents first with outlining available; Roam (and Logseq) are outliners first.

Can I move from Roam to Obsidian?

Roam exports Markdown, and Obsidian reads Markdown files — so the text of your notes can move. What needs care is the block-level structure: deeply nested block references and embeds flatten into documents, so test with a copy of an export before committing.

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