Glean vs Obsidian — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Obsidian starts at $5/mo. Glean uses custom pricing — request a quote to compare.
AI-powered enterprise search across Slack, Google Drive, Notion, Salesforce, Jira and 100+ workplace apps. Pricing: Enterprise-only, quote-based; reported starting around $40-50/user/mo for mid-market, scaling with volume. Powers workplace AI assistants at companies like Databricks, Reddit, Sonos, Deutsche Telekom.
Local-first knowledge management tool positioned as the alternative to Notion and Roam for people who don't want their notes trapped in a SaaS database. Distinctive for storing everything as plaintext markdown files on your own disk (no vendor lock-in) plus a massive community plugin ecosystem. Personal use is free forever; Sync ($4/mo) and Publish ($8/mo) are optional add-ons. Popular with researchers, writers, and privacy-conscious knowledge workers.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | Glean monthly | Glean annual | Obsidian monthly | Obsidian annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | — / App | — | — | Free | Free |
| Entry paid | — / Sync | — | — | $5 | $4 |
| Pro / power | — / Publish | — | — | $10 | $8 |
| Enterprise | Enterprise / — | Custom | Custom | — | — |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
Glean is worth it if… mid-market and enterprise companies (500+ employees) whose employees waste hours per week searching across siloed apps for information. Reported starting ~$40-50/user/mo for mid-market puts a 500-employee deployment at $250-300K/year.
Obsidian is worth it if… solo knowledge workers (researchers, writers, developers, PMs) who want offline-first, local-file, plain-Markdown note-taking with a huge plugin ecosystem — particularly if you value data ownership over collaboration. Free forever for personal use; Sync (paid) adds cross-device encrypted sync; Publish adds one-click static site publishing.
Bottom line: Choose based on how you want to pay — Glean is per seat, Obsidian is freemium.
Choose Glean over Obsidian if…
Choose Glean if…
- You want fixed-price predictability (per seat, custom pricing).
- You match the profile Glean is built for: mid-market and enterprise companies (500+ employees) whose employees waste hours per week searching across siloed apps for information.
- You need a general-purpose productivity option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose Obsidian if…
- You want fixed-price predictability (freemium, from $5/mo).
- You match the profile Obsidian is built for: solo knowledge workers (researchers, writers, developers, PMs) who want offline-first, local-file, plain-Markdown note-taking with a huge plugin ecosystem — particularly if you value data ownership over collaboration.
- You need a general-purpose productivity option rather than a vertical-specific one.
At a glance
| Glean | Obsidian | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Entry price | Custom | $5/mo |
| Enterprise available | Yes | No |
| Pricing model | Per Seat | Freemium |
| Last verified | September 20, 2026 | September 11, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 20, 2026. Tracked daily.