Forward vs Obsidian
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Forward
Capture ideas and tasks to be delivered to you at a future date, up to a week in advance. This app acts as a rapid note-taking tool and a time-independent reminder system.
- Quickly capture ideas
- Schedule notes for future dates
- Set reminders up to a week ahead
- Time-independent reminders
- Rapid note taking
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Have a thought you don't need right now? Email it to your future self. forward is part rapid note-taker, part time-shifted reminder. Type what's on your mind, pick the day it matters - now, tomorrow, or any day this week - and it lands in your inbox that morning. All of a day's notes arrive gathered into a single email: one tidy list, not ten pings. Your inbox is the one list you already check - forward simply puts things there on time. WHY IT WORKS • Capture instantly - open the app and type; your note is one tap from sent. • Share from anywhere - push links, text, and ideas into forward from any app. • Schedule by day - notes for the same day travel together, in one email. • Forget on purpose - write it tonight, see it Thursday morning, think about it never in between. NEW IN 1.7 • Dark Mode - follows your system theme, or stays dark for good. • Sign in with your email - no usernames to remember. • More dependable scheduled delivery. A SMALL APP WITH A LONG STORY forward began as a weekend project by Dan Hopwood of drivn.co - an app called Jot, born in 2014. We used it every single day, so when it shut down in January 2017, we bought it and brought it back, renamed for what it does: pushing notes forward to the day you need them. We've been emailing our future selves ever since.
Obsidian
Organize your thoughts and ideas with a powerful knowledge base that utilizes local Markdown files. This app acts as your personal second brain, accessible on your mobile device for seamless note-taking and idea connection.
- Local Markdown file storage
- Customizable toolbar
- Graph view for connections
- Community plugins
- Themes
- iCloud sync
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Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. It is a second brain, for you, forever. Now available on the go for iOS! Features include: - Customizable toolbar - Pull down quick actions - Graph view - Community plugins - Themes - Sidebar pinning for tablet - iCloud vaults
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Obsidian at Free against Forward's $4.99. Obsidian also leads on ratings volume (2.8K vs 5) and chart position (#119 vs unranked). Forward's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 62%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.5). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Obsidian is free to download; Forward costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Forward holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Obsidian has 2.8K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Forward's written reviews are positive against 62% of Obsidian's.
Forward ships an update every 2 weeks, Obsidian every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Forward | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better | 4.5 (2.8K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 61.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 2.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #119 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | westlink | Dynalist Inc. |
Customer experience
Forward
Obsidian
Bugs and requests
Forward
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Obsidian
Reported bugs
3 issues- Sync issues leading to data loss
- Freezing and crashing on mobile devices
- Editing bugs and text input issues
Requested features
5 requests- Improved sorting and organization options
- WYSIWYG editing on mobile
- Better integration with other cloud storage services
- More intuitive onboarding process for new users
- Native mobile widgets and share sheet integration
In-app purchases
Forward
No in-app purchases
Obsidian
No in-app purchases
