Nomendex vs Obsidian

We love Obsidian

Let's start here: we're big Obsidian fans. The creator behind Nomendex was a Roam Research user during COVID, then switched to Obsidian. Even developed a plugin for it. But there was always something that felt a little bit missing.

Unopinionated to a fault

Obsidian has a really strong and valid opinion — which is that they don't want to have opinions. That's a cool approach, and it's served them well. But the downside is that users who need a little more guidance struggle to get value out of it.

People end up asking how to do things. How to set something up. How to use AI in their vault. Instead of just opening the app and getting to work, there are hurdles to clear first.

The plugin problem

Backing up your vault using free resources like GitHub? You need to figure that out yourself. AI capabilities? Built by the community.

It's genuinely impressive that Obsidian has such a strong community. AI-powered software development has only made that stronger. But there's a catch: it's hard for community developers to monetize plugins. That leads to a lot of plugins that get abandoned — left by the wayside when the maintainer moves on.

The result is an unreliable experience. You find a plugin that does exactly what you need, depend on it, and then it stops working after an update.

Files over app, but opinionated

We believe in the files-over-app philosophy. Your notes are markdown. You own them. No lock-in.

But where Obsidian gives you the building blocks and leaves it to you to assemble a working workspace, Nomendex takes an opinionated starting point. You can open the app and immediately get to work — backup, sync, and AI built in from day one.