Obsidian alternative

Native on Mac, iPhone and iPad. Sync included. No plugins to look after.

Your Markdown notes, in an app made for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Obsidian Sync, Obsidian’s optional paid service, costs $48 to $96 a year billed yearly, and a vault in iCloud Drive syncs free once you set it up. Varlig syncs through your own iCloud with nothing to set up, and has backlinks, version history and a calculator built in.

Get Varlig Free Varlig and Obsidian, side by side

What comes with you

Your Markdown notes, folders of them included
Pictures in standard Markdown image links
Front matter, kept as written
Hashtags, which become Varlig tags

Move in three steps

Find your vault in Finder. It’s a folder of ordinary Markdown files, and Varlig only reads it.
In Varlig on your Mac, choose File › Import Notes… and choose the vault’s folder. On iPhone and iPad, use Import Folder… in a note list’s … menu.
Check the review, choose Keep original dates if you like, and import. Varlig makes copies, so your vault stays as it was.

Varlig reads your notes as Markdown. Pictures embedded the Obsidian way, as ![[photo.png]], arrive as text, and links between notes and anything a plugin adds may need tidying afterwards, so look through a few notes first.

Varlig and Obsidian, side by side

Feature	Varlig	Obsidian
Sync between your devices	Free, through your own iCloud	Obsidian Sync from $48 a year, billed yearly, or a vault you sync yourself through iCloud, Syncthing or Git
The app	Free; Varlig Pro from $2.99 a month	Free, for work too
Calculator in your notes	Built in, with units, currencies and dates	Not built in
Markdown	Yes, in Varlig’s library; export as files any time	Yes, as plain files in a folder (your vault)
Plugins	None: what you need is built in	Community plugins
Where it runs	Mac, iPhone and iPad	Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android
Publishing notes to the web	Published snapshots with Varlig Pro, on Mac	Obsidian Publish, $96 a year

Checked October 2026. Prices in US dollars, as each app lists them; they may change.

Questions about switching from Obsidian

Does importing change my vault?

No. Varlig only reads your vault’s files and makes copies in its own library, so the vault stays as it was.

Do my plugins come across?

No. Varlig reads your notes as Markdown, so whatever a plugin adds, such as a query, arrives as the text you wrote. Templates, daily notes, backlinks and reminders are built into Varlig.

Can I go back to Obsidian later?

Yes. Export your notes from Varlig as Markdown files at any time, for free, and open the folder in Obsidian as a vault.

Write the plan.
Varlig does the sums.

Get Varlig Free

Import, iCloud sync and shared notes are free in Varlig. Varlig Pro adds power tools when you want them.