Novlr vs Obsidian Comparison 2026
Both cover writing & scripts. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
A writing app with a free plan that writes
Notes that stay as plain files on your own disk
Why people weigh these two
- Obsidian instead of Novlr
- Obsidian keeps the manuscript as plain files on your own disk instead of in Novlr's hosted account, for a writer who wants to own the files directly.
- Novlr instead of Obsidian
- Novlr is a writing app with a free plan that writes, paid from $8, aimed at the draft rather than the note archive.
At a glance
- Obsidian starts cheaper, at $4.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Novlr | Obsidian | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $8 | From $4 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Not stated |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
Novlr
A writing app with a free plan that writes
Novlr is a distraction-free place to write a book, with goals, streaks and version history around the page rather than on top of it. The free plan is a working writing tool rather than a locked demo. Paying adds the proofreader and the longer history, and it is billed yearly.
Our note
Start on the free plan and only pay when version history or the proofreader becomes the thing you miss. At $8 a month the Starter tier is the cheapest serious writing subscription in the catalog.
Only on this side
- Covers self-publishing
Obsidian
Notes that stay as plain files on your own disk
Obsidian keeps a vault of Markdown files on the local disk and builds links, backlinks and a graph over them. For a creator that means the idea list, the script drafts and the research notes outlive the app: no export, no account, nothing to be locked out of. The app itself is free without a sign-up. Sync and Publish are paid add-ons rather than the product, and a commercial licence is asked for only when notes are used for work at a company.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.