I forgot to cancel my recurring annual subscription to Roam Research last month. I got the notification, but I did not look at my email in time. So, I was charged $154.00 for the annual fee.

I had not used Roam Research much since switching to Obsidian back in January. However, because I just renewed it again, I sat down and tried to think how I could use both? My solution? I am switching everything back from Obsidian to Roam Research (for now).

Here are a few reasons why? First, I love the automatic outlining feature in Roam. Yes, I turned on the nested outline in Obsidian, but I really like that bullets are automatic in Roam and the vertical bullet outlines are helpful for longer note taking sessions. Second, I find the Daily Notes much more intuitive and usable in Roam compared to Obsidian. I just put everything in the Daily Notes, everything. I found myself creating and having to navigate to different pages I created using backlinks in Obsidian. Maybe I didn’t understand how to best use backlinks in Obsidian, but they seem easier to reference with Roam. Lastly, I really missed all the / forward slash shortcuts with Roam. My favorites are /current time, /wordcount, and /pomodoro.

A couple of things I will miss with Obsidian. First, the price. It is free, but I did pay some money, can’t remember how much to support the developers. Second, I like that each backlink is turned into it’s own markdown file and it is saved to my secured location instead of the web.

I don’t plan to get rid of Obsidian, I may use it for some more limited purpose that I have not quite figured out yet. But for now, Roam Research is back and I am really enjoying it once again.