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 I would want to read: numbers you can check yourself, a clear list of the things Obsidian does that Skein does not, and a date on every figure so you can tell when it went stale.

The numbers

Obsidian’s current macOS download is 218 MB, a single universal disk image, published on their own releases page. Skein’s is 18.0 MB: the universal disk image, carrying both architectures, which is the like-for-like comparison. Skein is on the Mac App Store now, and the store thins the binary to the Mac you are on, so what you actually download from the button at the top of this page is 14.2 MB. The larger number is the fair one to set against Obsidian and it is the one used here. That is roughly twenty times, and 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.

Worth saying plainly: size on disk is the easiest thing to measure and the least interesting thing to feel. Nobody has ever enjoyed an app because of its byte count. What you actually notice is that a native app launches without a splash screen, holds its scroll position, follows 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 your Mac uses everywhere else.

The one that is not a matter of taste

Both apps keep your notes as ordinary Markdown files in a folder you picked. Neither has a database standing between you and your writing. This is the row in the table that matters most and it is the row where the two apps agree, which is why you can point Skein at an Obsidian vault this afternoon and open the same folder in Obsidian tomorrow evening.

It is also worth noticing how rare that agreement has become. In April 2026 Logseq, the other well-known file-based tool, split into two products: the version carrying the name now stores your notes in SQLite, and the Markdown one continues under the name Logseq OG with its own announcement calling it maintenance rather than development. Bear keeps notes in a SQLite container it tells you to open read-only. Craft keeps them on its own servers by default. Obsidian and Skein being on the same side of this line is the most important thing the two apps have in common, and it is more of a distinction in 2026 than it was in 2024.

The graph

Obsidian’s graph shows your whole vault. It is beautiful in a screenshot and, past a few hundred notes, a hairball. Their own community says so. Skein’s graph is local: it shows the neighbourhood around the note you are reading, one or two hops out, with position meaning something rather than being wherever a physics simulation pushed it.

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 merely 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, and I would rather say so in the third paragraph than the twentieth.
• Sync. Obsidian sells end-to-end encrypted sync from $4 a month, and in May 2026 they published third-party security audits of it from Cure53 and Trail of Bits, which is a genuinely unusual thing to do and worth crediting. Skein has no sync at all. Your folder can live in iCloud Drive or Dropbox, and that works, but it is your arrangement rather than a feature.
• Plugins. Obsidian says more than four thousand plugins and themes have been created since 2020, with over 120 million downloads between them. Dataview, Kanban, Excalidraw, spaced repetition, whatever you have built your system around. Skein has none, and is not planning a marketplace. That is the trade this app makes, and for a lot of people it is the wrong one.
• Bases.Obsidian’s database-like views over your notes, shipped as a core plugin. Skein’s live query blocks cover a similar need and are less capable.
• Publishing and a web clipper. Both present in Obsidian, both 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 18.0 MB download.
• A local graph, arranged by what a note is to the one you are reading, rather than a whole-vault scatter.
• One Markdown engine behind the editor, reading mode and the export, with a test that proves all three agree. Obsidian’s team has said on the record that Live Preview and Reading View are different systems, and their bug list shows what that costs.
• No account, no telemetry, and no network code in the app at all. Not disabled: absent.
• Everything in the box. No plugin to install before tables behave, no plugin for callouts, no plugin to renumber a list.
• One person who reads the feedback and answers the email.

The thing neither of us can fix for you

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: the app arrives as a workshop and expects you to build your own desk. Skein has no plugins to install, no dashboard to build and nothing to configure before you write a note, which is the right answer for some people and an insulting one for others.

If you enjoy the configuring, Obsidian is not a worse app for you because it is 218 MB. It is a better app for you, and you should use it.

Who should use which

Use Obsidian if you want your notes on your phone, if you want sync somebody else maintains and audits, if there is a plugin your way of working depends on, or if you are not on a Mac. 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 in order to keep them.

Both apps read the same files, which means this is one of the few software decisions you can make badly and undo completely. 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.

Figures checked 14 August 2026. Obsidian 1.13.7 from their published releases; Skein 18.0 MBfrom this site. Obsidian’s prices and plugin numbers are quoted from obsidian.md. If any of this has gone out of date, tell me and I will correct it rather than leave a flattering number up.