Folio vs. Obsidian

Keep Obsidian as the personal editor, and add Folio when a team needs a browser, rights per page and shared live editing over the same Markdown files in Git. The two are not rivals: Obsidian is a local app for one person, and its team feature is Sync on a shared vault; Folio is a server for a team. Stay on Obsidian alone when the notes are yours, or when you rely on its graph, Canvas, Bases and plugins. Folio does not read Obsidian's own syntax today: wikilinks, embeds and tags inside the text are shown as plain text.

The workflow difference

In Obsidian, a vault is a folder of Markdown files on your own device. For a team, the route Obsidian documents is Sync: a shared vault with up to 20 collaborators, each on a paid Sync plan. Every collaborator has the owner's permissions, there is no web version, and when two people change one file the changes are merged during sync rather than shown live. Obsidian lists "Multiplayer" as planned on its roadmap, with no date.

In Folio, the same kind of folder lives in a Git repository on your server. A developer or a writer can keep working in Obsidian and push with Git. Colleagues open the pages in a browser, edit them together with rights per page, and a browser edit becomes a commit after about 90 seconds of quiet. Agents reach the same files through 23 MCP tools. The one setting that helps most: switch off "Use [[Wikilinks]]" in Obsidian's Files and links, so new links are written as Markdown links that Folio and GitHub both read.

Side by side

Folio vs. Obsidian: operating-model comparison
Area	Folio	Obsidian
What it is	A server that a team opens in a browser; pages are Markdown files in Git	A local app for one person; a vault is a folder of Markdown files on your device
Where you open it	Any browser, no install. Responsive layout; no separate app	Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. No dedicated web version
Source of truth	Markdown, table and board files in a Git repository; PostgreSQL holds the index, rights and live-editing state	Plain files in a folder on each device; Obsidian Sync copies them between devices
License	MIT	Proprietary app, free for personal, commercial and non-profit use
Price	Free software; you pay for your server and any AI subscription you connect	App is free. Sync: $4 (Standard) or $8 (Plus) per user per month billed annually, $5 or $10 billed monthly. Publish: $8 per site per month billed annually, $10 monthly. Optional commercial license: $50 per user per year
Team model	Spaces with roles (admin, editor, viewer), rights per page, invitation links. The instance administrator does not see spaces they are not a member of	Shared vault through Sync: up to 20 collaborators, all with the owner's permissions; only the owner invites; every collaborator needs a Sync plan
Live editing	Real-time editing of documents, tables and whiteboards; you see who else is on the page	No real-time collaborative editing: simultaneous changes to a file are merged during sync and cursors are not shared
Obsidian syntax	Standard Markdown plus callouts (five types), highlight and status tags. Typing [[ opens a page picker that writes an ordinary relative link. Wikilinks, ![[embeds]], %% comments and #tags from an existing vault show as plain text	Wikilinks by default, embeds, tags, callouts; can write Markdown links instead
Front matter and properties	Keeps other tools' front matter keys unchanged and manages only id, order, status, icon and cover. No properties panel and no queries over page properties	Properties panel with typed fields (text, list, number, checkbox, date, date and time) stored as YAML at the top of the note
Graph, Canvas, Bases	None. Typed data tables with views and filters, forms that write to a table, Excalidraw whiteboards and Mermaid diagrams	Graph view, Canvas, and Bases, a core plugin with table, list, cards, kanban and map views
Plugins	No plugins or themes. Extensions go through the REST API and MCP	Community plugins and themes. Restricted Mode is the default; an enabled plugin inherits Obsidian's access to your files and the internet
History	Git is the live content history; the commit follows about 90 seconds after the last edit, and IDE pushes return to the wiki	Sync keeps version history for 1 month (Standard) or 12 months (Plus)
Agents	Built-in Folio AI (Ask and Agent) on a Cursor key, personal or shared; 23 MCP tools with read or write scope over pages, boards and tables	No built-in team assistant or server; AI features come from community plugins
Publishing	A space can be set public: read-only site on a path, a subdomain or your own domain, with search and optional downloads. A page with its own restriction is never published. No robots.txt or sitemap yet	Publish, paid per site, with a custom domain. Password protection covers the whole site; individual notes cannot have their own password
Encryption	No end-to-end encryption; the server holds the content	Sync is end-to-end encrypted by default; Obsidian cannot read the notes, and a lost encryption password cannot be recovered
Offline	Documents and whiteboards opened on the device stay editable offline. Tables, forms and uploads need a connection	Local vault, works fully offline
Sign-in and administration	Email and password, optionally Google. No SSO, SCIM or groups	No account is needed to use the app. "Obsidian for Work", workplace controls over plugins and features, is listed as active on the roadmap
Try it	Public demo at demo.foliowiki.online (shared login, resets every 24 hours); or run it yourself with docker compose	Download the app; Sync and Publish are separate paid services

What Folio changes

Colleagues need only a browser: no install per person, no copy of the vault on each laptop, and no per-user Sync plan.
Roles per space and rights per page replace a shared vault where every collaborator has the owner's permissions.
Documents, data tables and whiteboards are edited together live, and the history is Git commits with the editor as author.
The cost: Folio does not render Obsidian's syntax, and it has no graph, Canvas, Bases, plugins, SSO or groups. You also run Folio, PostgreSQL and Redis yourself.

Where Folio is the better choice

Choose Folio when one folder of Markdown has to be used by more than the person who started it: a colleague in a browser, an editor with a narrower role, a page that must stay closed, an agent with read-only access. The person who prefers Obsidian can keep it as their own editor, with Markdown links, and push to the same repository. Choose Obsidian when the notes are personal, when a few people can share one vault and live with merge-on-sync, when you rely on the graph, Canvas, Bases or plugins, or when offline use and end-to-end encryption come first. Check Obsidian's roadmap before you decide: Multiplayer is planned there, with no date.

Try it with one real workflow

In Obsidian, open Settings, Files and links, and turn off "Use [[Wikilinks]]", so new links are written as Markdown links.
Put a copy of the vault in a Git repository and create a Folio space by cloning it. Binding the space to a folder of the repository (for example docs/) keeps Folio from writing an id into every file.
Look at the pages that use wikilinks, embeds, #tags or %% comments. Folio shows those as plain text.
Edit one page in the browser and one in Obsidian, push, and confirm that both changes reach Git and show up in the other tool.
Invite a colleague as a viewer and confirm that a page you restricted stays closed to them.

Sources (19 links, checked October 14, 2026)

Folio vs. Confluence Folio vs. Notion Folio vs. Outline Folio vs. MediaWiki Folio vs. Miro Folio vs. a conventional wiki

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