Which apps can open an Obsidian vault, and what breaks

The short answer

Here is the list, in Obsidian's own words, with the syntax each one uses:

• Internal links, written [[Link]]
• Embed files, written ![[Link]]
• Block references, written ![[Link#^id]]
• Defining a block, written ^id at the end of a paragraph
• Callouts, written > [!note] on the first line of a blockquote

Everything else is standard. Headings, lists, tables, code fences, footnotes, and LaTeX math are CommonMark, GFM, or KaTeX, and they render the same anywhere that supports them.

When an app does not know one of the five, it does not usually corrupt anything. It shows you the raw text. A [[Meeting notes]] link sits on the page as those exact characters, unclickable. An ![[Diagram.png]] embed shows as that string rather than the image. Callouts fare best of the group, because > [!note] is a legal blockquote in plain Markdown, so you get a normal quote block with [!note] on its first line. Block definitions are the ugliest, since a stray ^a1b2c3 hangs off the end of a paragraph with no explanation.

The real risk is not rendering. It is writing. An editor that reformats Markdown when it saves, or that reorders and requotes your YAML frontmatter, changes files you did not mean to change, and you may not notice for weeks.

How they compare

Checked against each app's own site and documentation in August 2026. Apps change, so verify the current version before you move a vault you care about.

App by app

Obsidian

The baseline, and worth stating plainly: nothing else matches it for depth. Plugins, canvas, graph, mobile apps, and Bases all live here, and the five extensions above are its own, so they all work. If you can install software and you are happy with the app, there is no portability problem to solve. The reason people look elsewhere is usually a locked-down work computer, a Chromebook, a borrowed machine, or wanting a second tool that reads the same folder without a second copy of the notes.

NoteLoom

NoteLoom opens the vault folder in a Chromium desktop browser through the File System Access API and reads and writes the real .md files, with no upload and no account. It handles all five extensions: [[wikilinks]] with autocomplete and a backlinks panel, ![[embeds]], block references in both the [[Note#^id]] form Obsidian writes and the shorter [[Note^id]], and callouts across all 13 types with their aliases, folding, and custom titles. Trailing ^id markers stay hidden while you read and edit. There are three views on the same note: Source mode, Edit mode, and Reading view. On top of the folder it adds full-text search, tags, and a graph.

The limits are real and worth knowing before you try it. It runs in the desktop versions of Chrome, Edge, and Arc, because the File System Access API is where it is available. There is no plugin ecosystem. The file tree lists .md and .markdown only, so your .canvas boards and .base files stay on disk untouched but do not appear, and neither does the .obsidian folder. This is the site's own tool, so read this paragraph as the maker's description and check the others on their own terms.

Logseq

Ask which Logseq first. In 2.0 the project split in two. Logseq OG is the file version, where Markdown files stay canonical, so it opens a folder of notes and you can still edit those files in other apps. The database version makes its own database canonical and exports to Markdown instead of treating your files as the source of truth, which turns opening a vault into an import rather than a shared folder. Logseq is an outliner either way, so your notes become blocks, and long prose written in Obsidian can feel oddly chopped up.

[[links]] are native to both apps and carry over. Embeds and callouts do not: Logseq uses its own embed syntax and calls callouts admonitions, which is why conversion tools exist that rewrite wikilinks, embeds, and callouts from one dialect to the other. Good fit if you want block-level structure and daily-notes-first workflow, less good as a drop-in reader for an Obsidian vault.

VS Code and vscode.dev

Already installed on a lot of machines, and vscode.dev opens a local folder in a Chromium browser with no install. Its Markdown preview is built on CommonMark, so it renders your headings, tables, and code fences correctly and none of the Obsidian five. Wikilinks and YAML frontmatter both need extensions before they show as anything but raw text, which is exactly why those extensions exist. What you get instead is multi-file search, Git, and every text-wrangling tool you already know. A reasonable choice when the vault sits next to code, or when you want to grep 2,000 notes rather than read them.

Typora

Typora is a pleasant single-window Markdown writer with a folder sidebar, and it renders standard Markdown as you type. It has no native support for [[wikilinks]]. Its documentation covers standard [label](src) links only, the feature request has been open on its issue tracker for years, and the workaround is a community plugin. For writing a document it is lovely. For navigating a linked vault it is not the tool.

A plain text editor

Notepad, TextEdit, nano, whatever is on the machine. Nothing renders, so you see # before headings and ** around bold, and every one of the five extensions shows as the characters you typed. That is not a failure, it is the proof: your notes really are plain text, and you can always read them with the most basic tool available. Good for confirming a file's contents on a machine where you can install nothing at all.

The parts of a vault that are not Markdown

A vault usually holds more than notes, and this is where portability actually stops. Obsidian lists .md, .base, and .canvas as its own file types, alongside images, audio, video, and PDF.

• The .obsidian folder holds settings, themes, hotkeys, workspace layout, and community plugins. It is configuration, not content. Most other apps skip hidden folders entirely, which means they leave it alone rather than break it.
• .canvas boards use the JSON Canvas format. The file is readable JSON, which is more than most proprietary whiteboards give you, but a Markdown app will not draw the board.
• .base files are Bases, Obsidian's database views. They are not Markdown and do not render elsewhere.
• Attachments are just files. Images, PDFs, and audio sit in the folder and open in whatever the operating system uses.

If a canvas or a base is load-bearing in your workflow, no amount of Markdown compatibility will carry it across. Worth knowing before you plan a move rather than after.

How to choose

• You can install software and want the deepest tool: Obsidian. Nothing here is a reason to leave it.
• You cannot install anything on this machine: open the folder in a Chromium browser.
• You want an outliner and block-first structure: Logseq, and decide OG or database before you start.
• The vault lives next to code: VS Code, or vscode.dev if you cannot install it.
• You just need to check what is in one file: any text editor on the machine.

If the browser option is the one worth testing, mounting the vault folder and opening a note with a few [[links]] in it tells you most of what you need in about a minute.

Works in the desktop version of Chrome, Edge, or Arc.

Related reading

• Are Obsidian notes just Markdown? covers the file format question on its own, including what the non-standard extras actually are.
• Open an Obsidian vault without Obsidian walks through doing it rather than comparing the options.
• Edit Obsidian Markdown in another app without breaking it goes deeper on the writing risk: what a careless editor mangles on save.
• Browser-based, local-first Markdown editors compares the tools that open any local folder, not only vaults.
• Is there an Obsidian web version? answers the question this comparison keeps running into: there is no editable official web app, so what opens the vault instead.