Obsidian vs Kite
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
Kite
Consolidate your notes, calendar, to-do lists, habit tracker, and journal into a single, private application. Plan your day, organize thoughts, and build routines without needing an account or cloud storage. Everything is stored securely on your device.
- Rich-text notes with organization
- Integrated calendar with month, week, day views
- Task management with reminders
- Habit tracking with progress visualization
- Daily journaling with mood tracking
- Personal and Work profiles
- Wi-Fi sync with desktop versions
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Kite is your notes app, calendar, to-do list, habit tracker and journal in one clean, fast app. Stop jumping between five apps to plan your day. Everything you write stays on your phone. No account, no sign-up, no cloud, no ads, no tracking. NOTES • Rich-text notes with headings, bold, italics and lists • Organize with folders, search everything instantly • Pin important notes to the top; swipe to pin or delete • Lock private notes • Link notes to calendar events and tasks, and place them anywhere in a note • Checklists and numbered lists with levels and progress counts • Built-in spell check • Export notes as Markdown CALENDAR • Month, week and day views • See your schedule at a glance and plan ahead • Holidays for 21 countries TASKS • Separate lists for groceries, work, errands and more • Due dates, steps, priority, repeating tasks and reminders • Check items off as you go HABITS • Build a routine one day at a time • Tap a circle each day you keep a habit and watch your week fill in • Month view to see your progress over time • Start fast with ideas like drinking water, reading or walking JOURNAL • Write daily entries and track your mood • Keep your streak going and see your entries by month • Lock your journal so only you can read it MADE FOR REAL LIFE • Separate Personal and Work profiles • Light, dark or match your device • Sync with Kite on your Mac or PC over your own Wi-Fi, no cloud needed • Automatic backups and a backup file you can save anywhere • Trash to recover deleted notes and journal entries SIMPLE PRICING • Try every feature free for 14 days • Then unlock Kite forever with one purchase. No subscription. Kite is for people who want one dependable, private place for their thoughts, plans and routines, without the clutter.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Kite at 100% against Obsidian's 62%. Kite also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 weeks). Obsidian's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (2.8K vs 4). On price, ads 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
Both are free to download. Kite sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Obsidian asks for nothing beyond the download.
Kite 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 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 62% of Obsidian's written reviews are positive against 100% of Kite's.
Obsidian ships an update every 3 weeks, Kite every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Obsidian | Kite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (2.8K ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 62.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2.8K — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #116 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dynalist Inc. | Munaz Prasla |
Customer experience
Obsidian
Kite
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
Kite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Obsidian
No in-app purchases
Kite
- 14-day TrialFree
- Unlock Kite$4.99









