The fatigue of cloud-based notes
Most note-taking apps today revolve around accounts, servers, and subscriptions. You sign in, sync to a cloud, and hope your notes stay safe. But sooner or later, you realize — your writing doesn’t actually live on your computer. It lives somewhere else. What if your notes could simply exist as files again — portable, readable, and entirely yours?
How Obsidian uses the file system as its foundation
Obsidian takes a refreshingly old-school approach: your notes are plain .md files inside a folder.
Everything — links, tags, search — runs locally by scanning those files.
That design choice unlocks powerful advantages:
- ✅ Data ownership: your notes live on your disk, not on a company server.
- ✅ Flexible sync: use iCloud, Dropbox, or Git if you want — or none at all.
- ✅ Offline access: no internet, no problem.
- ✅ Performance: reads and writes are just filesystem operations, not database queries.
It’s simple, transparent, and empowering — the opposite of vendor-locked cloud apps.
The philosophy behind file-based notes
A good note-taking app should disappear while you’re thinking. Plain Markdown and local folders aren’t nostalgic—they’re durable, transferable, and future-proof. Your notes remain readable decades later. Any editor can open them. There’s no hidden database or export anxiety.
The filesystem becomes your database — one you fully control.
Mdit’s take: simplicity first
Mdit follows the same local-first philosophy as Obsidian, but with even less friction. No accounts. No onboarding maze. Just open a folder and start writing.
Each note is a Markdown file you already own. You can open it in Finder, VS Code, or any text editor. Mdit focuses on clarity and flow — so you can spend less time managing and more time writing.
Just open a folder. Start writing. Own your notes.