The Power of Small Contributions: Supporting Obsidian and its Community

Obsidian's CEO Makes the Case for Supporting Quality Software

Recently, Steph Ango, the CEO of Obsidian, wrote an article entitled, "Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash." It's a quick and excellent read.

In summary, he discusses the importance of supporting small software companies. They provide tremendous value, but of course, they need financial support to continue to operate.

Big companies vs Indie Developers

One of the challenges is that big companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft almost give away their software because they subsidize it in other ways, whereas small companies can't do that. However, there can be a hidden price tag.

For example, these companies might use tracking and other more intrusive things we don't want. They can own our data to some degree because we use their services.

Tools like Obsidian are made by a small team, and the tool they produce doesn't have any tracking built in. All files are stored locally. Their tool for personal use is free. You only start paying for it if you use it in a commercial setting or one of their add-on services. This is how they support themselves, but the small team remains focused on building a very quality product and adding functionality that's core to its mission and purpose.

In his article, Steph discusses that people have lost perspective on paying for software. They're just obsessed with free, but at the end of the day, nothing is truly free. There's always a price tag.

For example, do you want all of your data to be owned by somebody else? In some cases, that's okay, but in other cases, it may not be the wisest thing in the long term.

Second, how do these companies subsidize what they're doing? Unfortunately, it leads to a lot of tracking and potential invasion of privacy. If you're dealing with sensitive data, it's also alarming to think about what they might have access to.

Trivial spending vs Value spending

In his article, he talks about how we spend money on trivial things but are repulsed by the idea of spending money on software. For example, how many people buy coffee daily at Starbucks, spending $4 or $5 or $6? Some do that twice a day, but then they see a high-quality app on the App Store that's $5 with a lifetime usage, and they don't want to spend it because it's $5. It's ridiculous.

The real concern is supporting these small software developers. Many of them aren't getting rich, but it helps as a motivation to continue their work on these tools that we depend on.

In the Obsidian world, there are over 1,000 free plugins, which is terrific and one thing that draws many people to use Obsidian. However, these plugins can be abandoned because the developer no longer needs that feature or the demand for new functionality is too high. Yet, there must be a stronger motivator to keep these indie developers working on their apps and plugins.

Now, don't get me wrong. A lot of these individuals give generously of themselves. They do it freely for the benefit of others. They like to be helpful, but we need to remember that, in some cases, this is not sustainable over the long term. Many of them ask for modest contributions. "Buy me a cup of coffee" or "Support my work on GitHub." These small things can be a real motivator to keep them going.

We should all consider what tools are essential and whether we are willing to provide some form of support. For example, with Obsidian, I subscribed to their sync service and bought a license even though I'm not a commercial user. It wasn't expensive, and it's a lifetime license.

For those plugins that I frequently use and see tremendous value from, I make sure to contribute to the work of the plugin author. Often, I'll buy them a cup of coffee or send them $10 or $20. I do this about once a month. It's not a lot of money, but it helps. Nobody will get rich off what I'm giving, but it's a way for me to help others tangibly.

So what can we do?

• Consider the tools you're using and how to support the tool maker. For example, if you use Obsidian, even though it's free, could you buy one of their licenses or use one of their services to support them? For example, they have a catalyst license, which gives you early access to new features and starts at $25.

• Think about the plugins that you use every day, sometimes for hours. Have you done something tangible to help the plugin author continue? For example, making financial contributions. Something small means a lot to them.

• While I have focused on plugins, let’s not forget the work of theme authors. They deserve our support as well.

• If you're a developer, could you contribute code to their project to help them maintain and add new functionality? This is also greatly appreciated.

• Alternatively, if you're a good writer, consider writing articles that promote their tools or help them with their documentation.

• Additionally, we can support the great content creators creating education videos (such as Danny and Nicole) and those writing articles (such as those at the Obsidian Observer)

A plugin may be free, but you need to think about whether free is truly free. It isn't.

If those indie developers lose motivation to continue, those plugins we depend on will disappear. If you are an Obsidian user, think about what it could mean.

Imagine the Dataview developer decides he can no longer justify the hours and weekends he puts into that plugin. Or what if the developer of Excalidraw also comes to the same conclusion? Life without these two tools, at least for me, would be a negative game-changing situation for my use of Obsidian.

Support the Dataview project at https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview

I've personally made it a goal to contribute a minimum of $5 to $10 a month to these plugin authors. Also, when I find outstanding software like Obsidian, I will buy a license even though their terms may not require it of use because I want to support their work.

I am thankful to the Obsidian team for also building into their tool the ability for indie developers to include a link for getting support, and this link shows up in the community plugin form in settings.

Find ways easily from within Obsidian to support indie devs

In other words, finding ways to support these indie devs is easy.

I really like this article from Steph Ango, and I'm glad he wrote it. It took courage because they're also a software company that needs to generate a profit, but he did it tactfully and politely.

In conclusion, while many tools and plugins may be free, supporting the developers behind them is essential to ensure their continued existence.

Make it a goal to contribute $5-$10 a month to plugin authors and buy licenses for excellent software like Obsidian as a gesture of support. Stefan Ango's article was an important reminder of the value of supporting small software companies and developers.