Truth Truth vs Obsidian
Obsidian is the power tool of personal notes: local Markdown files, backlinks, and a plugin ecosystem that can do almost anything. Its philosophy is that the value comes from the links you create — so you spend your time deliberately connecting notes, maintaining your vault, and choosing the right plugin stack. Truth Truth takes the opposite bet about where your time should go. You write fragments and nothing else; the linking happens on its own as a mind map of recurring people, projects, and themes; and an insight engine reads recent notes back to you with evidence. If you enjoy tending a vault the way a gardener tends a garden, Obsidian is genuinely wonderful. If you want the thinking to compound without the gardening, that is precisely the job Truth Truth was built for.
Side by side
| Obsidian | Truth Truth | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Install, pick plugins, learn linking | None — write your first note |
| Format | Local Markdown files | Notes in your account, Markdown export |
| Linking | Manual — you create the links | Automatic — the mind map links for you |
| Structure view | Graph of the links you made | Mind map of detected people, projects, themes |
| Insights from notes | Via community plugins | Built-in, evidence-backed, on a schedule |
| Extensibility | Enormous plugin ecosystem | Deliberately none |
| Syncthing/backup | Files are yours (iCloud, git…) | Account export, 30-day recovery |
| Platform | Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android | iPhone, iOS 17+ |
| Price | Free (paid sync/Add-ons) | Free |
Choose Obsidian if
- You want your notes as plain files on your own disk, forever.
- You enjoy building the system: plugins, themes, vault structure.
- Deliberate linking is the thinking practice you want.
- You need cross-platform desktop editing.
Choose Truth Truth if
- You would rather write than curate a vault.
- You want connections surfaced without linking everything by hand.
- You want the notes read back — insights, not just storage.
- Your capture happens on your phone, in the moment.
The honest summary
These tools share a belief — that notes should connect — and disagree about who does the connecting. Obsidian's answer is you, empowered by backlinks and a thousand plugins; it rewards people who enjoy being their own systems architect. Truth Truth's answer is the app: detect the recurring people and themes, draw the map, write the insight, quote the evidence. One is a workshop; the other is a service. Neither is wrong. Choose based on which one you want to spend your evenings with.
Questions people ask
Can I keep my Obsidian notes?
Yes. Obsidian notes are plain Markdown files; Truth Truth exports Markdown too, so text moves freely in both directions.
Does Truth Truth have plugins?
No — and that is deliberate. The mind map and insight engine are built in, so there is nothing to configure and nothing to break.
Is the graph like Obsidian's graph view?
Obsidian's graph shows links you created between notes. Truth Truth's mind map clusters recurring people, projects, and themes it detects — and its insights quote the notes behind each claim.
Why is there no desktop app?
Truth Truth is iPhone-first because capture happens in the moment. The web has the free insight demo; everything else lives in the app.
See it on your own notes
Answer three questions and Truth Truth writes your first insight — free, no account needed, about two minutes. Your notes stay yours.
Three sentences in, one insight outFree · No credit card · iOS 17+