Kalend is the better app overall, scoring 9.6 to 9.3. Kalend wins on 5 of the 5 scores, Obsidian on 0.
People who want tasks, habits and a journal in one private, free app
Writers, students and researchers building a long-term personal knowledge base
Score by score
The details
| Feature | Kalend | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Productivity & Notes | Productivity & Notes |
| Category rank | #1 of 10 | #2 of 10 |
| Developer | The Big Head | Dynalist Inc. |
| Pricing | Free | Free + paid plans |
| Usable for free | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone & iPad | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | — | ✓ |
| Mac | — | ✓ |
| Windows | — | ✓ |
| Linux | — | ✓ |
Strengths and weaknesses
Kalend
- Four planning tools in one app, with nothing locked
- No account; syncs through your own iCloud
- Habit streaks forgive a missed day
- iPhone and iPad only, no Android, Mac or web app
- No shared lists or team features
Kalend folds a to-do list, a calendar, a habit tracker and a journal into one native iPhone and iPad app, and asks nothing for it. There is no account and no company server: everything syncs through your own iCloud and works offline. It is not as deep as Todoist or Things for complex projects, but for planning a normal day it covers a lot of ground for free.
Full Kalend review
Obsidian
- Notes are local files that stay yours forever
- Fast and fully usable offline
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Steep learning curve with many setup choices
- Official sync and publishing are paid add-ons
Obsidian stores your notes as plain Markdown files on your own device, so you own them outright and they work offline. Backlinks, graph view, Canvas and Bases turn a folder of notes into a connected knowledge base, and a large library of community plugins adds almost anything else. It is free for personal and work use. The catch is the learning curve, and syncing between devices costs extra unless you set it up yourself.
Full Obsidian review
