Obsidian Publish Review
Last updated: 2026-08-18
Overview
Obsidian Publish is the official hosting and publishing service for Obsidian, the local-first markdown note-taking app founded in 2020 by Erica Xu and Shida Li. Obsidian Publish lets users share their Obsidian vault — or selected folders within it — as a live, navigable website with graph view, linked notes, and full markdown rendering. It's aimed at researchers, writers, developers, and knowledge workers who want to publicly share their digital gardens or documentation. Rated 4.2/5, it's one of the few publishing tools that preserves Obsidian's bidirectional linking and graph visualization on the web.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Comprehensive feature set
- Good value for money
- Active user community
- Regular updates
Cons
- Learning curve for beginners
- Some features need premium plan
- Customer support response times vary
Features
Obsidian Publish hosts a subset of your vault as a static website accessible via a subdomain (yoursite.obsidianpublish.com) or custom domain. Published notes retain wiki-style links, backlinks, and the interactive graph view that Obsidian is known for. The published site supports themes — you can apply CSS customization to match your brand. Password protection is available for private sharing. Navigation, search, and tag-based browsing work on published sites. The service handles markdown rendering, including code blocks, math (LaTeX), and embedded content. Limitations: there's no built-in commenting system, no analytics, and no SEO controls like custom meta tags or sitemaps. You can't publish individual pages selectively within a shared folder — it's all or nothing per folder. The publishing interface is basic compared to dedicated site builders. Version history on the published site is limited.
Pricing
Obsidian Publish costs $10/month per site, billed annually with no monthly option available. This includes hosting, custom domain support, password protection, SSL, and unlimited pages. There's no tiered pricing — every site gets the same features. A 14-day free trial is available with no credit card required. Obsidian the app is free for personal use; Commercial licenses cost $50/year per user. The Sync add-on (separate from Publish) costs $4/month. No lifetime deals or discounts are offered. The $10/month is per published site, so users with multiple vaults pay per vault.
Final Verdict
Rated 4.2/5, Obsidian Publish is best for knowledge workers, researchers, and writers who already use Obsidian and want to share their linked notes as a public website with minimal setup. The graph view and bidirectional links on the web are unique. Drawbacks: at $10/month it's expensive for what is essentially static site hosting, there's no commenting or analytics, and the lack of SEO features limits discoverability. Non-Obsidian users should use a static site generator like Astro or Eleventy instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Obsidian Publish worth it in 2026?
Only if you're an Obsidian power user who wants to share a digital garden with linked notes and graph view. The convenience of one-click publishing from your vault is real. But $10/month for static hosting with no analytics, no SEO, and no commenting is steep. A static site generator like Eleventy or Astro with Netlify free hosting achieves more for less.
How much does Obsidian Publish cost?
Obsidian Publish costs $10/month per site, billed annually only — no monthly option. Every site gets the same features: custom domain, SSL, password protection, and unlimited pages. A 14-day free trial is available. The Obsidian app itself is free for personal use.
What are the best Obsidian Publish alternatives?
Quartz is a free open-source alternative that publishes Obsidian vaults to GitHub Pages with graph view and backlinks. Digital garden setups with Eleventy or Astro offer more customization. Notion Publishing is easier but lacks bidirectional links. For simple docs, MkDocs or Docusaurus work well.
Does Obsidian Publish offer a free trial or free plan?
Obsidian Publish offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. There is no free plan. After the trial, you pay $10/month per site billed annually. The Obsidian app itself is free for personal use, but publishing always requires a paid subscription.