I’ve been using Obsidian since soon after it launched in beta, but I’m feeling FOMO lately (that’s Fear of Missing Out). Why do you prefer logseq to Obsidian?
This is not a direct answer, but it is short and to the point:
- The bad news:
- You are missing out (this is covered in many places).
- If you move to Logseq, you will be:
- missing Obsidian for some time
- fearing of missing out on Obsidian for even longer
- The good news:
- You don’t miss too much either way.
- The things in common seem to be more than the differences.
- Both apps support plugins that already (or will) minimize the differences.
- It is possible to use Logseq together with Obsidian.
- Same files, compatible for the most part.
- This is the beauty of standard formats.
- This is highly suggested for longtime Obsidian users.
- Same files, compatible for the most part.
- You don’t miss too much either way.
- Personal highlight:
- The above writing style fits better to Logseq.
- It is much more than a writing style.
- The above writing style fits better to Logseq.
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That’s a silly question for me 
because it assumes something that isn’t true.
It assumes someone moved from Obsidian to Logseq. Which I didn’t do.
Obsidian came later for me.
I love Logseq for the out of the box way it works. I dislike using plugins to get a tool to work for me.
That said, I have recently started using Obsidian for writing. Long form writing is not something I liked doing in Logseq.
So I now use both. Obsidian for long form writing and Logseq for everything else.
I think the difference in tools largely come from personal preference.
It’s a long video, but a very interesting discussion. It might help with the FOMO
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I’ve found LS about 5 minutes after I found Obsidian. I’ve played with both for a moment (and org-mode), but went with LS because:
- outliner makes more sense to me,
- task management felt better,
- open source is a nice bonus
Obsidian has significantly better and more polished UI/UX. But oh well, beta is beta.
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I’ve been using Logseq for a few days only. My experience with Obsidian is longer (a few months). I find that with Logseq it’s easier to document short bursts of thoughts and tasks. I like the flat approach of an outliner, because I don’t have to face the dilemma of having to decide if a note “belongs” to one folder or another or maybe to both.
I’m sure that over time I’ll find shortcomings with Logseq, but it’s to be expected. I found shortcomings with Obsidian too. However, it should be noted that what I saw as shortcomings in many cases would be due to my lack of expertise or technical knowledge of the program concerned rather than because the program itself doesn’t provide out of the box what I’m looking for. Another point to note is that one must be realistic. I shouldn’t expect a program to do everything. For example, if something is better handled in a spreadsheet, then I should use a spreadsheet rather than devise a complex way to do it inside Logseq or Obsidian.
Having said the above, owing to my transitional stage from Obsidian to Logseq, and my own FOMO I’m keeping both programs updated with my daily notes. Hopefully this should not last more than a couple of weeks. I’ll not be adding any new tasks in Obsidian from now on, but I’ll be adding them to Logseq instead.
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When at the end of April I decided to give Logseq a serious chance after a 3-year stint with Obsidian, I had your question in my mind to and was yandexing to find the answer.
All the explanations I found were only a partial answer. Now, 2 months on, I have found my own answer, which is still evolving.
Since everyone is unique, I think it is important to, if you are interested in Logseq, give it a serious go (say 4-6 months) and develop your own views rather than let others define them for you.
1 thing to bear in mind is that there is no perfect app. Even if you think you have found it (e.g. Logseq), sooner or later you will discover its shortcomings. Even a much more mature app like Obsidian with its gazillion plug-ins and fantastic out-of-the-box features is not perfect, and never will be. Nothing in life is perfect.
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Obsidian is a proprietary closed-source Markdown editor with plugins that add a lot of features but make you quickly depend on other people maintaining their tools.
Logseq is Free/Libre Open Source software that can be improved independently from the company, it is not a Markdown editor but it stores content as Markdown files with its specific syntax. It has a lot of built-in features, many of them are general enough to be combined in many different workflows. Logseq has plugins but it is harder to depend on them because the built-in features already cover a lot and you can definitely create complex workflows without plugins.
If you need a FLOSS Markdown editor that is more or less like Obsidian I suggest Zettlr. You can set it to work with a folder of Markdown file and in a subfolder you can store a Logseq graph: this way you can have a overview of all your Markdown files, including those created by Logseq.
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I tend to write everything in Logseq’s daily pages, I write my client’s names and then any task or comment indented
Then I can go to each of my client pages and all the references will be there, sorted by day and readable without the need to zoom in, but must importantly, editable, so I can check pending task or add sub-notes or additional indented bullets without changing to another page.
I haven’t been able to do it in Obsidian where it’s difficult to see a whole block, and they are not editable from where they are referenced, you need to go to the original place where they are to check the lists of modify them.
I also use a lot of the queries @Siferiax has posted around. Those make my task management really useful.
In the other hand, I love Obsidian vertical tabs, it has way more plugins and I think is better suited for long texts. But in my day to day 90 of the time I work in Logseq.
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So many good points in this thread. I’m grateful for the community.
I’ve noticed from using Logseq that I’ve found long-form writing a little harder.
I also use WordPress and notice that I don’t like doing long-form writing there…
…and everything is based in blocks.
I’m a long-time Evernote user and enjoy writing in pages…
…and I’m testing Obsidian too…