I Migrated My 10,000 Notes to All Three PKM Tools. Here's What I Learnt.

Somewhere in the intersection of productivity culture, academic research, and digital hoarding lives the personal knowledge management community—people who believe, with varying degrees of justification, that the right note-taking system will transform their thinking.

I'm one of these people. Over fifteen years, I've accumulated approximately 10,000 notes across various systems: research notes, project documentation, meeting minutes, book highlights, random ideas, half-formed theories, and countless items that seemed important at 2am but revealed themselves as incomprehensible by morning.

When the "second brain" discourse reached fever pitch, I decided to actually test the premise. Not by reading comparisons written by people who'd used each tool for a weekend, but by migrating my entire knowledge base to each major platform and using it exclusively for six weeks.

Notion. Obsidian. Roam Research. Six weeks each. The same 10,000 notes. The same work tasks. The same attempts to build connected knowledge.

Here's what I learned—not just about features, but about fundamentally different philosophies of how digital tools should work.

The Three Philosophies

Before diving into features, understanding philosophical differences illuminates everything else.

Notion represents the all-in-one platform philosophy. One tool for notes, databases, wikis, project management, and collaboration. The database model underlies everything—even pages are entries in hidden databases. Strength: integrated workspace. Weakness: you're building on someone else's foundation.

Obsidian represents the local-first, open-format philosophy. Your notes are plain Markdown files on your computer. The app is just a viewer with powerful features on top. Strength: you own your data forever. Weakness: you're responsible for backup, sync, and longevity.

Roam Research represents the networked thought philosophy. Every note is a node in a graph. Bidirectional links mean connection is primary, hierarchy secondary. Strength: emergent structure from linked thinking. Weakness: the graph can become overwhelming noise.

These philosophies have real implications. Notion users trust a company. Obsidian users trust themselves. Roam users trust the network effect of connections.

Migration: The 10,000-Note Test

Migrating 10,000 notes tested each platform's import capabilities and revealed early friction.

Migration to Notion

Notion's importer handles various formats: Markdown, HTML, Word, Evernote exports, Confluence. The bulk import worked, but structure flattened. My carefully organised folders became an undifferentiated database.

Rebuilding structure required significant manual work. Creating databases for different note types, establishing relations between databases, building views that surfaced relevant content—this took approximately 15 hours before the system felt usable.

The silver lining: the forced restructuring improved organisation. The old folder hierarchy was historical accident; the new database structure reflected actual relationships.

Migration time: 15-20 hours including restructuring.

Migration to Obsidian

Obsidian reads Markdown files from a folder. Migration meant copying files. Done in minutes.

The complication: my notes weren't consistently Markdown. HTML remnants, weird formatting from previous exports, inconsistent heading styles. Cleanup took time—automated scripts handled bulk issues, manual review caught edge cases.

The vault (Obsidian's term for a note collection) was functional immediately but messy. Graph view showed isolated nodes without connections. Building meaningful links required ongoing work during the usage period.

Migration time: 30 minutes to import, 4-6 hours for cleanup, ongoing work to establish links.

Migration to Roam

Roam's import options are limited. JSON and Markdown work; complex formatting doesn't survive well. Bulk import created pages, but the network—Roam's core value proposition—doesn't import. You can't migrate links that didn't exist.

The result: 10,000 pages floating without connections. The graph view that makes Roam compelling showed nothing compelling—just isolated nodes.

Building Roam's value required rebuilding connections manually. Every time I opened an old note, I added links. Over six weeks, the network grew, but starting from isolated import was frustrating.

Migration time: 2-3 hours to import, ongoing significant work to establish connections.

Week-by-Week Experience

Each platform revealed character over time. The six-week period wasn't arbitrary—it's long enough for initial impressions to mature into informed opinions.

Notion: Weeks 1-6

Week 1: The database everything approach felt powerful but overwhelming. Every piece of content required decisions: which database, which properties, which relations. Creating a simple note became a categorisation exercise.

Week 2: Templates reduced friction. Once database structures existed and templates populated common patterns, note creation accelerated. Meeting notes, project briefs, research captures—each had streamlined entry points.

Week 3: The all-in-one promise delivered. Projects lived alongside research alongside wikis. I stopped switching between apps. The unified workspace reduced context-switching overhead.

Week 4: Performance concerns emerged. As database views grew complex, load times increased. The page that pulled from three related databases with multiple filters took noticeable seconds to render.

Week 5: Collaboration features impressed. Sharing pages with clients, commenting on specific content, working in the same space—the multiplayer aspects work well.

Week 6: Data portability nagged. Everything I built existed in Notion's format. Export to Markdown loses database structure. If Notion disappeared or became unaffordable, migration would be painful.

Obsidian: Weeks 1-6

Week 1: The plugin ecosystem was both blessing and curse. Obsidian's core is minimal; plugins add functionality. Which plugins? How many? Analysis paralysis set in before I'd written a single note.

Week 2: Graph view was less useful than expected. With 10,000 notes and nascent connections, the graph was visual noise. Connected notes were buried in sea of isolated nodes. The visualisation that excites demo videos provided minimal actual value.

Week 3: Daily notes workflow clicked. The daily note as entry point—capturing everything today, linking to relevant permanent notes—created sustainable system. Temporal organisation complemented topical organisation.

Week 4: Local-first benefits became tangible. Searching 10,000 notes was instant—no server round-trip. Working offline was seamless. The vault was just files; I could open them in any text editor.

Week 5: Linking workflow matured. As I added backlinks during regular note interaction, the network densified. The graph became useful—showing clusters of related thought, highlighting connection opportunities.

Week 6: Future-proofing felt real. These were my files, in standard format, on my hardware. Obsidian could disappear tomorrow; my notes would remain accessible forever.

Roam Research: Weeks 1-6

Week 1: The outliner-first approach required mental model shift. Everything is a bullet point. Nested structure creates hierarchy. Coming from traditional notes, the adjustment felt restrictive.

Week 2: Bidirectional links sparked unexpected connections. The unlinked references panel—showing pages that mentioned a term without explicit links—surfaced relationships I hadn't noticed. The network was revealing patterns.

Week 3: Daily notes as default entry made sense. Every thought started in today's page, linked to relevant topics. The accumulation of daily pages created longitudinal record of thinking evolution.

Week 4: The graph became valuable. Unlike Obsidian's visual noise from legacy notes, Roam's graph grew organically from active usage. Clusters emerged. Connection density indicated concept importance.

Week 5: Query blocks showed power. Pulling content from across the graph into synthesised views—"show me all items tagged research from pages mentioning AI"—enabled analysis that linear notes couldn't support.

Week 6: Proprietary lock-in concerned me. Roam's format isn't standard. Export options exist but lose the bidirectional links that create Roam's value. The graph is valuable precisely because it can't be exported.

Feature Comparison Matrix

Direct feature comparison across 30 dimensions:

Core Note-Taking

Plain text support: Notion (limited), Obsidian (native), Roam (limited) Rich text formatting: Notion (excellent), Obsidian (via Markdown), Roam (basic) Media embedding: Notion (excellent), Obsidian (good), Roam (basic) Tables: Notion (databases), Obsidian (Markdown tables), Roam (basic) Code blocks: Notion (good), Obsidian (excellent), Roam (good)

Organisation

Folders/hierarchy: Notion (pages), Obsidian (folders), Roam (flat) Tagging: Notion (database property), Obsidian (native), Roam (pages as tags) Linking: Notion (basic), Obsidian (excellent), Roam (excellent) Bidirectional links: Notion (limited), Obsidian (native), Roam (core feature) Graph view: Notion (no), Obsidian (yes), Roam (yes)

Databases and Structure

Databases: Notion (core feature), Obsidian (via plugin), Roam (limited) Views: Notion (table, board, calendar, gallery, timeline), Obsidian (plugin), Roam (no) Relations: Notion (yes), Obsidian (via plugin), Roam (via links) Formulas: Notion (yes), Obsidian (no), Roam (queries)

Search and Discovery

Full-text search: Notion (good), Obsidian (excellent, instant), Roam (good) Search in files: Notion (yes), Obsidian (instant), Roam (yes) Unlinked references: Notion (no), Obsidian (yes), Roam (yes) Queries: Notion (database filters), Obsidian (search operators), Roam (advanced queries)

Data Ownership

File format: Notion (proprietary), Obsidian (Markdown), Roam (proprietary) Local storage: Notion (no), Obsidian (yes), Roam (no) Export options: Notion (limited), Obsidian (native files), Roam (JSON/Markdown) Data portability: Notion (medium), Obsidian (excellent), Roam (poor)

Collaboration

Real-time collaboration: Notion (excellent), Obsidian (via plugin), Roam (limited) Comments: Notion (yes), Obsidian (no), Roam (no) Permissions: Notion (granular), Obsidian (file-based), Roam (all or nothing) Sharing: Notion (public pages, workspaces), Obsidian (Publish), Roam (graphs)

Platform Availability

Web app: Notion (yes), Obsidian (no), Roam (yes) Desktop apps: Notion (yes), Obsidian (yes), Roam (no) Mobile apps: Notion (good), Obsidian (good), Roam (limited) Offline support: Notion (limited), Obsidian (full), Roam (limited)

Extensibility

Plugin ecosystem: Notion (limited), Obsidian (vast, 1000+), Roam (moderate) Custom CSS: Notion (no), Obsidian (yes), Roam (limited) API: Notion (yes), Obsidian (plugins), Roam (limited) Templates: Notion (excellent), Obsidian (community), Roam (community)

Pricing Analysis

Cost matters, especially for tools you'll use indefinitely.

Notion Free: 5MB file upload limit, 7-day page history. Adequate for personal use. Notion Plus: £8/month billed annually. Unlimited file uploads, 30-day history. Notion Business: £15/user/month. Advanced collaboration, 90-day history.

Obsidian Personal: Free. Full features for personal use. Obsidian Sync: £8/month. Cross-device sync with encryption. Obsidian Publish: £8/month. Public note publishing. Obsidian Commercial: £50/year. Required for commercial use.

Roam Research Pro: £15/month billed monthly, or £165/year (approximately £13.75/month). Roam Believer: £500 for 5 years (£8.33/month equivalent).

Annual cost comparison for typical individual use: Notion Plus: £96 Obsidian (free + Sync): £96 Roam Pro: £165-£180

Obsidian without sync service is free—if you manage your own sync via Dropbox, iCloud, or similar. Many users do this successfully.

The Roam "Believer" plan offers significant savings for committed users, but requires 5-year commitment to a tool that might not exist in 5 years.

Learning Curve Assessment

How long until productive usage?

Notion: Medium initial curve, steep depth. Basic usage in hours. Database mastery takes weeks to months. Most users never use advanced features.

Obsidian: Steep initial curve, gradual depth. Plugin selection and configuration front-loads complexity. Once configured, daily usage is straightforward. Depth exists for those who want it.

Roam: Very steep initial curve, continuous depth. The outliner model and graph thinking require mental model shift. Most users who quit do so in first two weeks before the paradigm clicks.

My experience: Notion felt productive fastest. Obsidian required configuration investment before value emerged. Roam felt awkward until around week three, then clicked significantly.

Mobile Experience Comparison

Mobile usage reveals practical differences.

Notion Mobile: Polished apps for iOS and Android. Full feature parity with web. Performance adequate. Quick capture works well. Database interactions feel cramped on phone but work.

Obsidian Mobile: Good apps for iOS and Android. Some plugins don't work on mobile. Sync requires Obsidian Sync or self-managed solution. Quick capture requires plugin configuration.

Roam Mobile: Web app only (no native mobile). Usable but not optimised. Quick capture is painful. Most Roam users don't use mobile regularly.

For users who need mobile capture, Notion wins clearly. Obsidian works with setup investment. Roam is genuinely problematic.

Who Should Choose Which

After six weeks with each, clear patterns emerge for different user types.

Choose Notion If:

You need an all-in-one workspace replacing multiple apps. Collaboration and sharing are important. Database thinking appeals to you. You want polished experience without configuration investment. You're comfortable with cloud-dependent, proprietary system. You work in teams that need shared knowledge bases.

Choose Obsidian If:

Data ownership and longevity matter. You want full control over your system. Offline access is important. You enjoy configuring and optimising tools. You prefer local-first software philosophy. You want your notes accessible forever, regardless of company fate.

Choose Roam If:

Networked thought excites you conceptually. You're doing research or creative knowledge work. You want to discover connections between ideas. You're willing to invest significant learning time. You don't need mobile or collaboration features. You trust that the company will survive long enough to matter.

Avoid Each If:

Notion: You're concerned about data portability or require offline access. Obsidian: You want immediate productivity without configuration or need real-time collaboration. Roam: You need mobile, team collaboration, or aren't committed to the paradigm shift.

The Hybrid Approach

After testing all three, I landed on a hybrid approach—which may be the real lesson.

Notion: Team wiki and project management. The collaboration features are necessary for shared knowledge. Individual notes don't live here.

Obsidian: Personal knowledge base. Long-term notes, research, ideas, and permanent thinking. The local files mean these notes survive regardless of which apps come and go.

Roam: Experimental. When I want networked thinking for specific research projects, Roam's graph is genuinely superior. But the lack of data portability limits commitment.

This hybrid approach costs more (multiple subscriptions) and requires maintenance (keeping systems synchronised conceptually). But it leverages each tool's genuine strengths without forcing compromises.

Migration Guides

If you're moving between platforms, here's what to expect.

Notion to Obsidian

Export Notion workspace as Markdown (Settings → Export). Import into Obsidian vault.

What survives: Text content, some formatting, embedded images. What breaks: Database structure, relations, views, Notion-specific blocks. Effort required: Moderate restructuring for any database-heavy content.

Notion to Roam

Export as Markdown. Import to Roam.

What survives: Text content. What breaks: Everything structural. Databases, hierarchies, formatting. Effort required: Significant. Roam needs links built; Notion structure doesn't translate.

Obsidian to Notion

Copy Markdown files to Notion using import or paste.

What survives: Text, basic formatting, headings. What breaks: Obsidian-specific syntax, plugin-dependent features, internal links may need updating. Effort required: Moderate. Database structure needs building from scratch.

Obsidian to Roam

Import Markdown to Roam.

What survives: Text content, basic formatting. What breaks: Folder structure (Roam is flat), Obsidian-specific features. Effort required: Moderate to high depending on how link-heavy your Obsidian vault was.

Roam to Notion

Export Roam as Markdown. Import to Notion.

What survives: Text content, daily note pages. What breaks: Bidirectional links (become broken), block references, queries. Effort required: High. The graph structure—Roam's value—doesn't translate.

Roam to Obsidian

Export as JSON, convert to Markdown using community tools.

What survives: Text, page structure, links (as text, needing cleanup). What breaks: Block references, queries, graph structure as visual. Effort required: Moderate with good conversion tools, high manually.

Key Takeaways

Three tools represent three philosophies: Notion (all-in-one platform), Obsidian (local-first ownership), Roam (networked thought). Philosophy matters more than feature lists.

Migration testing 10,000 notes revealed that Notion restructures forcibly but thoroughly, Obsidian imports instantly but requires cleanup, and Roam imports poorly because the graph can't be imported—only built.

Six weeks of exclusive usage showed Notion excels at collaboration and all-in-one integration, Obsidian excels at longevity and ownership and instant local search, and Roam excels at discovering connections and networked thinking.

Pricing ranges from free (Obsidian personal) to £180/year (Roam). Notion's free tier is generous. Obsidian without sync is completely free.

Learning curves differ significantly: Notion is medium, Obsidian is steep initially then gradual, Roam is very steep with paradigm shift required.

Mobile experience varies dramatically: Notion excellent, Obsidian good with setup, Roam problematic.

Data portability matters long-term: Obsidian (excellent, you own the files), Notion (medium, export loses structure), Roam (poor, the graph is the value and can't export).

The optimal approach may be hybrid—using each tool's strengths for appropriate use cases rather than forcing one tool to do everything poorly.

Choose based on your actual needs: collaboration needs favour Notion, ownership needs favour Obsidian, networked thinking needs favour Roam. The "best" PKM tool is the one that matches how you actually think and work.

Chaos complements any PKM tool by handling task and action management—the "what to do" that PKM tools capture but don't help you execute. Knowledge management and task management are related but distinct problems.