Skein vs Obsidian

I built Skein because I wanted Obsidian’s idea in a Mac app. Notes as plain Markdown in a folder I chose, linked to each other, with a graph that shows how. That idea is good enough that I use it every day. The implementation is a browser.

So this is a comparison written by someone with an obvious interest in the outcome. I have tried to make it the kind of comparison I would want to read: numbers you can check yourself, and a clear list of the things Obsidian does that Skein does not.

The size difference, and where the number comes from

Obsidian’s macOS installer is 213,334,249 bytes, published on their own releases page. Skein’s is 9,350,973 bytes, the same file you get from the button at the top of this site. Both figures divided the same way, that is 203 MB against 8.9 MB, or about twenty-three times. The installed sizes are measured on the same Mac, with both apps sitting in the Applications folder.

The reason is not that one team is careless. Electron ships a copy of Chromium with every app, because that is what makes an Electron app run everywhere. You are downloading a web browser, and then a note-taking app to run inside it. Skein is a Mac app, so it uses the frameworks already on your Mac.

What actually changes day to day

Size on disk is the easiest thing to measure and the least interesting thing to feel. What you notice is that a native app launches without a splash screen, holds a scroll position properly, respects the system appearance the moment you change it, and handles text the way every other Mac app handles text, because it is using the same text system.

The other thing you notice is the absence of a project. Obsidian has a plugin marketplace, a community of setups, and an entire genre of YouTube video about how to configure it. That is a genuine strength and also the reason a lot of people bounce off it. Skein has no plugins to install, no dashboard to build, and nothing to configure before you can write a note.

The graph

Obsidian’s graph shows your whole vault. It is beautiful in a screenshot and, past a few hundred notes, a hairball. Skein’s graph is local: it shows the neighbourhood around the note you are reading, one or two hops out. You use it to ask “what is near this idea” rather than “what does my brain look like from space”.

This is the one place I think Skein is not just lighter but better, and it is the reason the graph is on the front page.

What Obsidian does that Skein does not

This is the list that matters, and it is not short.

• iOS and Android. Obsidian is on your phone. Skein is Mac only. If you capture notes on a phone, that is likely the end of the conversation.
• Sync. Obsidian sells an end-to-end encrypted sync service at $4 per month. Skein has no sync at all. Your folder can live in iCloud Drive or Dropbox if you want it on two Macs, and that works, but it is your arrangement rather than a feature.
• Plugins. Over a thousand of them. Dataview, Kanban, Excalidraw, spaced repetition, whatever you have built your system around. Skein has none, and is not planning a marketplace.
• Canvas, publishing, web clipper. All present in Obsidian, all absent in Skein.
• Windows and Linux. Obsidian runs everywhere. That is the thing Electron buys, and it is a real thing to buy.

What Skein does that Obsidian does not

• Launches in about a second, from an 8.9 MB download
• A local graph, rather than a whole-vault one
• No account, no telemetry, no sync service to decline
• Native text handling, native shortcuts, native light and dark
• One person who reads the feedback and answers the email

Who should use which

Use Obsidian if you want your notes on your phone, if you want sync that someone else maintains, or if there is a plugin your way of working depends on. It is a good piece of software and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

Use Skein if you work on a Mac, you want your notes to be ordinary Markdown files in a folder you picked, and you would rather not adopt a system to keep them. Both apps read the same files, so you can try Skein against your existing vault this afternoon and still open it in Obsidian tomorrow. That is rather the point of plain files.

Skein is free, macOS 14 and later, Apple silicon and Intel. If it is not for you, your notes are exactly where you left them.

Sizes checked on 11 August 2026. Obsidian macOS .dmg v1.12.7 from their published releases, Skein .dmg v1.0.2 from this site, installed sizes measured on the same Mac.