Invoice Hana Studio
kempt vs obsidian
Obsidian organizes. Kempt finishes.
Obsidian may be the best thing that ever happened to plain-text notes. Kempt opens the same vault and asks a harder question: what actually gets done.
Free forever. No account needed. Your files stay on your disk.
Choose Obsidian if
- You live in plugins: 5,000+ to Kempt's zero.
- A Markdown checkbox is all the tracking you want.
- You publish, or share a vault. Kempt is single-player.
Choose Kempt if
- Your vault is immaculate. Your to-do list is a graveyard.
- One sentence becomes a dated task. No plugin stack.
- AI you can audit: what it learns is Markdown in your vault.
- It opens your vault in place. No import, no export.
One question decides it: capturing, or finishing. If it is finishing, keep reading.
Side by side
The five differences that matter. The verdict above covers the rest.
| Kempt | Obsidian | |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Built in: Today, Board, Timeline, dates | Checkboxes, plus a plugin stack |
| Your vault | Opens in place. No import | Its native home |
| AI | Optional. Memory is editable Markdown | No first-party AI |
| Version history | Automatic local snapshots, free | 1 to 12 months with paid Sync |
| Sync | Zero-knowledge, recovery code, 90-day history Beta | E2EE, history 1 to 12 months by plan |
Compared against public Obsidian documentation, as of July 2026. Spot something outdated? Tell us.
PLAN WITHOUT PLUGINS
Every life you run, one list each morning.
Areas keep your lives apart. Today lines them up in one list. Type "friday send invoice p2" and it lands, dated and prioritized.
Today every area, one list
Each row is its own .md file. Check one here and status: done is written into that file, so Board, Calendar, and Timeline show it too.
ONE FILE, FIVE VIEWS
A task is a Markdown file. Views are just lenses.
Calendar, Board, Timeline, and Project Map read the same .md files. Check a task anywhere, done everywhere, still legible in Obsidian.
Tuesday, Jul 22 4 tasks
AddQ Overdue 1
Booth time for the festival P1 D+2 family
Today 1
Poster board for Mina family
Upcoming 2
Invoice Hana Studio P2 D-3 freelance
Ship launch notes D-6 side-project
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Ship launch notes
18
19
20
Poster board for Mina
21
22
Call the venue
23
24
25
Invoice Hana Studio
26
27
28
29
30
31
Aug 1
To do 21
Poster board for Mina
New task
In progress 2
Call the venue
Ship launch notes
New task
Done 01
Drag cards here
Invoice Hana Studio
New task
July
20 22 26 28 24
Call the venue
Invoice Hana Studio
Poster board for Mina
Ship launch notes
Area freelance
Goal
Grow freelance
Project Hana Studio
Invoice Hana Studio
To do Done P1 Jul 25
Call the venue
In progress
Project Studio rebrand
Draft the moodboard
To do Aug 3
TURN ON THE AI
An assistant that keeps its notes where you keep yours.
It signs in with your own Claude account and writes what it learns to your vault. Read it, correct it, delete it.
--- area: freelance learned: 2026-07-02 --- Hana Studio pays net-30. Draft the invoice on the 25th. You plan Mondays. You plan Sundays, execute Mondays. edited by you, saved.
edited by you · saved see the real file →
There is no migration
- 1
Point Kempt at your vault
It reads the same plain Markdown folder Obsidian does.
- 2
Everything is already there
Notes, wikilinks, daily notes, and tags simply show up.
- 3
Nothing gets converted
Tasks Kempt writes are ordinary .md files Obsidian can open.
Try it for a week and walk away, and your notes remain where and what they were.
Or do not choose: run both on one vault
Research and link in Obsidian, plan and finish in Kempt. Both treat the folder as the one source of truth. One rule: only one paid sync manages the folder.
Questions people actually search
Is Kempt a replacement for Obsidian?
For some people, no, and we would rather say so. Obsidian is the broader knowledge tool. If your vault is a library, keep Obsidian. If it is a backlog in denial, try Kempt.
Can Kempt open my existing Obsidian vault?
Yes, directly. Both apps store plain Markdown in a normal folder, so Kempt opens the vault in place, wikilinks and tags intact. Keep opening it in Obsidian too.
Does Kempt work on my phone?
Native iOS and Android apps are landing now: the same encrypted vault in your pocket, so you check tasks, scan the calendar, and read notes on the move. Dispatch follows, sending work to your desktop AI from your phone.
Is Kempt free?
Everything local is free forever, no account. AI runs on your own Claude login, no markup. The one paid piece is Kempt Sync (beta), end-to-end encrypted, from $5 a month.
Keep the vault. Change the question.
A signed desktop app for Windows and macOS, free on your disk for good. Point it at the Markdown you already own.