Obsidian vs AXIS
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Obsidian
Organize your thoughts and ideas with a powerful knowledge base that stores your notes as plain text Markdown files. Access your personal second brain on any device, with extensive customization options and community-driven plugins.
- Local Markdown file storage
- Customizable toolbar
- Graph view
- Community plugins
- Themes
- Sidebar pinning
- iCloud vaults
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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
AXIS
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Every day, you open six apps and stitch them together. A planner. A calendar. A timer. A sleep tracker. A focus app. A content feed. None of them know the others exist. AXIS is the stitch. One app that plans your day, schedules it on your calendar, holds you to the work, feeds you knowledge during your rests, and tracks your sleep debt so tomorrow is better than today. TODAY Three tasks, in order, already on your calendar. Each one chosen by an AI that read your goals last night and matched them against your energy windows, your sleep debt, and the hours you already gave away. Tap the first task. The screen turns black. The work begins. PLAN You speak one goal. The AI decomposes it into four weeks, this week, and today — with specific deadlines built from your available hours and your chronotype peak. Not "next week." Wednesday, April 30, by 6pm, because you have three free hours on Tuesday and two on Wednesday. LOCK IN Full-screen. Timer. A sound you chose is playing. An emergency exit exists — it costs a Face ID and goes in your weekly review. Every early exit is logged. The AI uses that data to calibrate your next session. RECOVER Five minutes. One card. A real idea — not a notification, not a feed. A neuroscientist's finding about what happens to your memory after one bad night. A decision framework used by people who make decisions for a living. The Stoic technique Marcus Aurelius wrote about when Rome felt like too much. One hundred fifty cards at launch. You scroll inside our walls, not theirs. BODY Sleep debt, calculated from your last seven nights and your chronotype target. Shown on the Today screen every morning. When your debt is over 90 minutes, AXIS reduces your Deep Work allocation and adjusts your schedule automatically. The alarm does not let you snooze — it asks you to breathe for 90 seconds, state your intention for the day, and walk to another room. Then it stops. THE DIFFERENCE The AI plans. Deterministic math schedules. Apple Calendar is the source of truth. HealthKit tracks sleep debt. Five apps, one spine. PRICING Free: Today, Plan, three locks per day, first 20 cards. Founding (one-time): US$49.99 — AXIS Pro for life, no renewal. Pro: US$14.99/month or US$99.99/year. Everything — unlimited locks, all 150 cards, all music categories, sleep tracking, cross-device sync. Most committed users choose annual. AXIS is not for everyone. It is for people who want to do more with their day and have given up on willpower as a strategy. Subscriptions: AXIS Pro is an auto-renewing subscription — US$14.99 per month or US$99.99 per year. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel in Account Settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://chml0811.github.io/axis-web/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Obsidian at none against AXIS's 3. Obsidian also leads on chart position (#116 vs unranked) and device support (3 vs 1). AXIS's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks). On price and ads 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
Both are free to download. AXIS sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. Obsidian asks for nothing beyond the download.
Obsidian ships an update every 3 weeks, AXIS every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Obsidian | AXIS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (2.8K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 62.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2.8K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Best chart rank | #116 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 84 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dynalist Inc. | LEO CHAN |
Bugs and 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
AXIS
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Obsidian
No in-app purchases
AXIS
- AXIS Pro Monthly$14.991 Month
- AXIS Pro Annual$99.991 Year
- AXIS Pro Founding$49.99









