ThinkTea vs Obsidian
These two are less alike than a feature table suggests. Obsidian is a local-first markdown editor you shape with plugins. ThinkTea is a hosted workspace with media and critique built in. Here is the honest split.
Obsidian is free, stores plain markdown files on your own disk, works offline and has an enormous plugin ecosystem — if you want to own your files and build your own setup, it is excellent and hard to argue with. ThinkTea is hosted, works in a browser with nothing to install, and ships 3D model embeds, video timecode critique and real-time collaboration without assembling plugins. Neither has AI in it.
| ThinkTea | Obsidian | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier; Personal is $5/month. No student discount. | App is free, including for commercial use. Sync $4/user/month annually, Publish $8/site/month annually. Students get 40% off Sync and Publish. |
| Storage | Up to 50 GB held at once on Personal, 250 MB free; optional +50 GB for $2/month. A ceiling on what you hold, not a monthly allowance. | Your own disk, so as much as you have. Sync caps total storage and per-file size on its plans. |
| Where files live | Hosted by us; export to Markdown, images and PDF any time. | Plain markdown files on your own disk. Nothing to export — you already have them. |
| Works offline | No — it needs a connection. | Yes, fully. This is a real advantage. |
| Setup | Sign in and start; nothing to install or configure. | Install, then choose plugins and a theme to get the setup you want. |
| Plugins | None. | A very large community ecosystem — Obsidian’s biggest strength. |
| 3D models in a page | Yes — orbit, zoom, HDRI lighting, built in. | Only via a community plugin, if one fits. |
| Video critique | Comments pinned to an exact timecode, built in. | Not natively. |
| Kanban and planners | Built in. | Via plugins. |
| Real-time collaboration | Free on every plan — live editing, presence, cursors. | No native multiplayer editing. |
| AI | None, on any plan. | None in the core app. |
The honest split
Obsidian’s core promise is ownership. Your notes are markdown files in a folder, they open in any editor, and no company sits between you and them. If that is what you care about, nothing we do beats it, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
ThinkTea’s promise is that the media-heavy parts of creative coursework work on day one. A .glb orbits under real lighting in the page. A critique note sticks to 0:47 of a video and takes you back there when you click it. A classmate edits alongside you with a live cursor. In Obsidian, some of that is plugin territory and some of it does not exist.
Where Obsidian is the better choice
If you want your notes to outlive any particular app, use Obsidian. Files on disk are the strongest possible answer to that, and the app is free.
On cost it is not close. Obsidian is free, and Sync — the paid part most students actually want — is $4/user/month billed annually, or about $2.40 with the student discount. At $5/month we are several times the price of the thing that does notes-that-sync, and we say so plainly.
If you work offline — on a train, in a studio with bad wifi — Obsidian keeps working and we do not.
And if you enjoy building your own setup, the plugin ecosystem is genuinely the best in this category. That is a feature, not a chore, for a lot of people.
Where ThinkTea fits better
Group work is the clearest case. Obsidian has no native multiplayer editing, so a shared project usually means syncing a vault through something else and coordinating who touches what. Live collaboration is built in on every ThinkTea plan, free.
The other case is critique. If your coursework gets reviewed — a shot, a model, a page layout — having the feedback attached to the exact frame or spot beats a comment thread that describes where to look.
Who each one is for
Choose ThinkTea if…
- You want 3D, video critique and annotation without assembling plugins
- You work with classmates in the same document, live
- You want it to work in a browser with no setup
Choose Obsidian if…
- You want to own plain files on your own disk
- You need to work offline
- You want a large plugin ecosystem and enjoy tuning your setup
- You want a capable tool that costs nothing
Questions
Is Obsidian free?
Yes. The app is free with unlimited vaults and all core features, and as of February 2026 commercial use is free too. Sync and Publish are paid add-ons, at $4/user/month and $8/site/month annually, with 40% student discounts.
Does Obsidian have AI?
Not in the core app. Neither product puts AI in your notes, so this is not the axis to choose between them on.
Can Obsidian do real-time collaboration?
There is no native multiplayer editing. ThinkTea includes live collaboration with presence and cursors, free on every plan.
Does ThinkTea work offline?
No. ThinkTea needs a connection; Obsidian works fully offline. If offline access matters, that is a genuine reason to pick Obsidian.
Can I get my work out of ThinkTea?
Yes. Any page, board, kanban, project or entire workspace exports to Markdown, images and PDF, including on the free plan.
Also compared: Notion alternative · vs Standard Notes
Last updated 2026-08-12. Obsidian pricing and features were checked on that date; if something here has gone stale, tell us and we will fix it.