Coffee Pad vs Obsidian
Obsidian is vastly more powerful and will do anything you can be bothered to set up. Coffee Pad is what you use when you do not want to set anything up.
The short version
Obsidian: End-to-end encrypted
Files live on your own machine, and Obsidian Sync — the paid add-on — is end-to-end encrypted with AES-256. Without Sync there is nothing on anybody's server to encrypt, which is its own kind of privacy.
Side by side
| Feature | Obsidian | Coffee Pad |
|---|---|---|
| End-to-end encrypted | Yes, on Obsidian Sync | Yes |
| Where files live | Local markdown files you own outright | Ciphertext rows in your own Postgres database |
| Task management | Community plugins — powerful, and your job to assemble | Built in, and all there is |
| Setup | A vault, plugins, and opinions | Sign in, choose a passphrase |
| Sync price | Sync from $4 per month billed annually | Free, invite-only |
| Export | They are already plain files | Your data, decrypted in the browser |
When Obsidian is the right answer
- You want plain files on disk that will outlive every app, including this one.
- You want linking, graphs, dailies and a system you have tuned yourself.
- You already have a vault. Adding a task plugin is much less work than moving.
When Coffee Pad is
- You bounced off Obsidian because configuring it became the hobby.
- You want a to-do list that is the same on every machine with no vault to sync.
- You want to open a tab and write one thing down.
Questions people actually ask
- Is Obsidian Sync end-to-end encrypted?
- Yes. Obsidian Sync encrypts with AES-256 and describes it as end-to-end. Without Sync, your notes never leave your device at all.
- Can Obsidian replace a to-do app?
- With community plugins, comfortably — many people run their whole system in it. The cost is that you assemble and maintain it yourself.
- Why use Coffee Pad instead?
- Because there is nothing to assemble. If you enjoy building the system, Obsidian wins; if building the system is what stops you using it, this might not.
Where this came from
Everything above about Obsidian is taken from its own documentation, checked in . Products change; if you are reading this much later, check the source before believing it.
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