Perspective vs Obsidian
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Perspective
Transform your data into engaging visual stories. Move beyond static slides to interactive presentations that captivate your audience. Seamlessly integrate various data sources to create dynamic narratives.
- Interactive data visualization
- Engaging presentation style
- Data-driven storytelling
- Multi-format data import
- Touch gesture controls
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Perspective. Where Data meets Story USERS LOVE PERSPECTIVE My default presentation tool... A brilliant piece of software —Ben Bajarin, Analyst, Tech.pinions Hell of a good demo —John Gruber, Author, Daring Fireball Post-Powerpoint storytelling with data —Charles Arthur, Technology Editor, The Guardian A feat of data visualization and data storytelling —Ryan Singer, Designer, Basecamp Some of the exciting new tools for productivity… —Steven Sinofsky , Partner, Andreessen Horowitz a16z WHY PERSPECTIVE Bring your stories to life Go beyond slideware, bring your data to life and breathe fresh life into your presentations. Ideas in Motion Stop boring your audience with bullet points. Engage them. Use touch gestures to reveal data, zoom in to focus, or highlight key data points. Create a Conversation Show, Don't tell. Presenting with Perspective is more like having a conversation enhanced by data as opposed to a "pitch". No Data Left Behind Bring all your data: slides, spreadsheets, images, PDFs, cloud data, video.
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 rating: Perspective at 5.0 against Obsidian's 4.5. Perspective also leads on review sentiment (73% vs 62%) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.6). Obsidian's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and ratings volume (2.7K vs 5). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Perspective holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Obsidian has 2.7K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of Perspective's written reviews are positive against 62% of Obsidian's.
Perspective ships an update every 5 weeks, Obsidian every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Perspective | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better | 4.5 (2.7K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 73.1% of reviews — better | 62.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 2.7K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #142 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 118 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | pixxa.com | Dynalist Inc. |
Customer experience
Perspective
Obsidian
Bugs and requests
Perspective
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
Perspective
No in-app purchases
Obsidian
No in-app purchases
