I Used Obsidian and Roam Research for 30 Days: Here's My Brutally Honest Take

I dove headfirst into the great debate: Obsidian vs. Roam Research. For 30 days, I committed to using both, hoping to finally find the perfect \'second brain\' for my chaotic thoughts. Honestly, I was skeptical. I\'ve tried countless note-taking apps, and they usually end up as digital graveyards for forgotten ideas. My goal wasn\'t to find the app with the most features, but the one that felt like a natural extension of my own thinking process. This is what I discovered.

My first impression: the \'out-of-the-box\' experience

Getting started with both was a study in contrasts. Roam Research felt immediately accessible. I signed up, and within seconds, I was in a browser tab, looking at the daily note page. The core loop of writing, indenting, and creating new pages with brackets felt intuitive. There was almost zero friction. I just started typing.

Obsidian, on the other hand, felt a bit more like being handed a box of high-end Lego bricks with no instructions. I downloaded the app, created a \'vault\' (just a folder on my computer), and was met with a blank, dark screen. The power was palpable, but so was the initial intimidation. I knew I had complete control over my data—it was just a folder of plain text files—but I also knew I\'d have to actively build my own system from the ground up.

The daily driver test: where the differences really shine

After the first few days, the fundamental philosophies of each tool became crystal clear. Living in both systems day-to-day revealed how they shape not just your notes, but your thinking.

Obsidian\'s local-first freedom (and responsibility)

Working in Obsidian felt empowering. The fact that all my notes were simple markdown files on my hard drive gave me a sense of security I hadn\'t realized I was missing. I spent hours exploring community plugins, and that\'s where I had my \'aha\' moment. With plugins like Dataview and Kanban, I wasn\'t just taking notes; I was building a personalized digital workspace. It\'s a tinkerer\'s dream. The downside? It\'s also a tinkerer\'s curse. I sometimes found myself tweaking settings instead of actually writing.

Roam\'s seamless \'just works\' philosophy

In contrast, using Roam felt like gliding. The block-level referencing and the way every indented point could be its own self-contained, linkable idea was incredible for journaling and brainstorming. The friction was so low that I captured more fleeting thoughts in Roam. The daily notes page became a central hub without me even trying. The trade-off, however, was always in the back of my mind: my data lived on their servers, and the subscription fee was a constant reminder of my dependency.

The moment of truth: which one stuck?

For weeks, I was torn. I loved Roam\'s fluid outlining, but I cherished Obsidian\'s ownership and customizability. The decision came down to a simple question: Do I want a tool that adapts to me, or one that I adapt to? For me, the answer was the former. The process of building my own system in Obsidian, piece by piece, actually helped me clarify my own thinking. I had to be intentional about my workflow, and that was a benefit in itself.

I still miss Roam\'s effortless daily notes and block referencing sometimes, but the feeling of owning my \'second brain\' in a future-proof format with Obsidian is something I\'m not willing to give up. It\'s not about which tool is better, but which one better reflects how you want to build and connect your knowledge over a lifetime.