Free Obsidian add-ons can replace four paid note and task apps

A writer at How-To Geek says free add-ons for the note-taking app Obsidian replaced several of his paid apps. The swaps cover task lists, Notion-style databases and Roam-style linked notes. Two of the paid apps have clear price tags: Todoist Pro at about $60 a year and Roam at $165 a year.

What replaces what

The Tasks plugin is open source and gathers checkboxes from across your Obsidian notes into one searchable list. It tracks due dates, start dates, priorities and repeating tasks. It stands in for Todoist Pro, which costs $5 a month.

The make.md plugin adds table, Kanban board, calendar and gallery views inside Obsidian. That is the Notion-style part. Notion's paid plans run $10 to $24 per user per month. For Roam, which costs $15 a month, the article pairs Obsidian's links between notes with its Canvas tool, an open-ended visual workspace.

Why people like it

Your information stays in ordinary files on your own computer. Tasks are written as plain text in your notes. make.md keeps your notes and their details intact even if you remove the plugin. Canvas saves layouts in an open format, so your idea maps do not depend on one company's app. The author also says everything runs quickly and works offline.

What you give up

Each swap has a cost, and the article is open about it.

• Tasks only runs while Obsidian is open, so there are no push notifications.
• Adding tasks on a phone is clunkier than in Todoist, and you cannot share or assign tasks.
• make.md has no live editing with others, no permissions and no web publishing.
• Obsidian works with pages, not Roam's block-by-block items, so heavy Roam users may find it clunky.

Who it fits

This setup suits people who work mostly alone and pay for several note or task apps. Teams that share lists or edit together in real time would lose features they likely depend on. Large vaults can also slow down with complex database views in make.md. Before canceling anything, list the features you actually use and check each one against the trade-offs above.