Obsidian Web Clipper
Obsidian Web Clipper is free and open source. It’s a browser extension that saves web pages, highlights and metadata as Markdown notes in your Obsidian vault.
If you already work in Obsidian, it’s a very good tool: templates, local files, links between notes.
But it’s made for Obsidian. It’s a way to take notes, not a reading list.
Two different habits
- With Obsidian Web Clipper, you keep a page as a note, to work with it later.
- With wallabag.it, you save an article to read it later in a clean view, on the web, on your phone or on your e-reader.
You can use both: wallabag.it to read, Obsidian for the notes you really want to keep.
What wallabag.it does
- It saves the whole article, not just the link. If the page disappears, you still have it.
- You read on the web, on Android, on iOS, and on Kobo or PocketBook e-readers. Offline too.
- Tags, search, highlights and annotations.
- You can export everything whenever you want: PDF, ePUB, mobi, JSON, CSV…
- It’s hosted in Europe. No ads, no tracking: it’s paid for by subscriptions.
- It’s the open-source wallabag, the project I started in 2013. If you’d rather host it yourself, you can.
Prices
| Service | Per year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| wallabag.it | 11 € | Open source, hosted in Europe |
| Obsidian Web Clipper | Free | Browser extension, needs an Obsidian vault |
| Obsidian Sync | Optional, paid | To sync your vault between devices |
wallabag.it costs 11 € a year. There’s also 4 € for 3 months, or 30 € a year if you want to support the project a bit more. You can try it free for 14 days, no credit card needed.
I don’t see Obsidian Web Clipper as a competitor, it’s a good tool. If what you want is a reading list without setting up a vault, wallabag.it is simpler.