Skip to content
Independently verified · Quarterly re-audit
EU VETTED
Alternatives to

European alternatives to Obsidian.

Local-first knowledge graph by a small Canadian-led team.

ALTERNATIVES
3
CLOUD-ACT · NONE
3
WITH BSI C5
0
FREE TIER
3

DISCLOSURE   Some links on this site are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Compliance scores and editorial rankings are never influenced by affiliate relationships.

WHAT YOU'RE LEAVING

What are you leaving behind with Obsidian?

Listed for transparency. Every product on this page is benchmarked against this baseline.

Obsidian US-incorporated

Local-first knowledge graph by a small Canadian-led team.

SCORE
1.0/5
OWNERSHIP
US-OWNED
CLOUD ACT
DIRECT
HOSTING
Likely AWS · US
SCHREMS II
Default SCC + supp.
SIDE-BY-SIDE

How do the 3 European alternatives to Obsidian compare?

All 3 alternatives ranked by compliance score, benchmarked against Obsidian.

Product Score Owner CLOUD Act Cert. Pricing Action
Obsidian
benchmark · US
1.0/5
SOC 2
no EU framework
Freemium your current
Joplin
France
Freemium
€3 / mo
View profile →
Anytype
Germany
Freemium View profile →
Nuclino
Germany
SOC 2
Freemium View profile →
TOP PICKS

Which are the closest Obsidian alternatives?

Ranked by feature parity + compliance score. Migration friction is weighted higher than feature breadth.

Joplin
France · Founded 2016
★ #1 PICK

Open-source E2EE note-taking app by French developer Laurent Cozic (2016); Joplin Cloud hosted in France; €2.99/mo; self-sync to any EU storage.

SCORE
4.0
FROM
€3/mo
CLOUD ACT
NONE
Anytype
Germany · Founded 2019
★ #2 PICK

Berlin-based local-first peer-to-peer E2E-encrypted knowledge OS (Anytype, 2019); Any Source Available License; data lives on user device.

SCORE
3.0
FROM
CLOUD ACT
NONE
Nuclino
Germany · Founded 2015
★ #3 PICK

Munich-based founder-owned lightweight team wiki (Nuclino GmbH, 2015), all-German hosting, SOC 2 Type II, 12,000+ teams incl. NASA, MIT.

SCORE
3.0
FROM
CLOUD ACT
NONE
METHODOLOGY

How we verified each row above.

For every product we read the public DPA, sub-processors document, hosting region declaration, and corporate ownership records. Each is timestamped. Compliance score is editorial, re-verified quarterly. We never accept self-attestation.

Reviewed by the EU Vetted editorial team · Editorial guidelines

Read methodology →