Trends in Obsidian as Determined By 15 Most Downloaded Plugins

Here’s a list of the top 15 plugins by download from the Obsidian Community plugins function in the Obsidian settings. I’ve also put links to all the documentation sites — handy right?

This post has a brief overview of each plugin, whether I use it or not and then …

… here’s the juicy bit, by looking at the percentage increases of the number of downloads over the last few days, we can tell what people are up to in Obsidian!

Being the top downloaded plugins, these top plugins are some of the work horses of Obsidian — changes here reflect the some of the more consistent use cases because they are based on tried and tested additions to the standard install.

(Numbers last updated: 01.06.23; plus 3 day percentage increase)

1. Excalidraw (828,742; +0.9%) — Zsolt Viczian

“Edit and view Excalidraw drawings.”

It’s no wonder the legendary drawing software ‘Excalidraw’ is in number 1 spot. This one is hugely popular, very easy to use and makes very nice, professional looking drawings. And it uses a handwriting-style font which I can’t help but love.

I must admit, I don’t use this one. Have I tried it? Yes. But here I’m exercising my ‘identify a use case scenario before installing random plugins’ — I haven’t yet identified a scenario where I need to use it yet. But I will … just you wait.

2. Dataview (794,615; +1.2%) — Michael Brenan

“Advanced queries over your vault for the data-obsessed.”

Given how Obsidian is used by most people — to store and retrieve information — it’s no surprise how popular this plugin is. Enter some simple code to create extensive, customised tables of notes and tasks. One of the power house plugins of Obsidian.

I find this one essential in sorting through research papers in my Obsidian vault. It makes up one of the three essential plugins for my PhD. I use it only at the most basic level though

3. Advanced Tables (781863; +0.6%) — Tony Grosinger

“Improved table navigation, formatting and manipulation.”

Tony has done a lot to improve the basic table functionality of Obsidian including how to navigate between rows and columns. There is the option to sort columns, change alignments and even export to a .csv file. If you want to work with any tables, this plugin is virtually essential.

However tables in Obsidian are not a strong point whatsoever. I have this one installed but I don’t use it. Not because the plugin is bad but because I just avoid doing tables. I don’t find the tables experience a pleasant one…

4. Kanban (678,144; +0.8%) by mgmeyers

“Create Markdown-backed Kanban boards in Obsidian.”

A very popular plugin based around the project management ‘Kanban’ method.

For those who like to see tasks categorised into separate progress boards, this will be a plugin you will be interested in. It’s not one I use as I use ‘Projects’ instead which also has similar (though not the same) functionality.

5. Calendar (626,283; +0.7%) — Liam Cain

“Simple calendar widget for Obsidian.”

Creates a little monthly calendar for you Obsidian sidebar. Makes daily and weekly notes easily navigable. Each date can also have dots underneath to track writing on those daily notes.

Although I don’t use Obsidian for task management, I find the calendar essential for navigating daily notes quickly. I have also setup the weekly note option as my weekly review template (although I see the weekly and monthly options have been transferred to the ‘Periodic Notes’ plugin).

6. Advanced Slides (532,575; +1.1%) — MSzturc

“Create Markdown-based presentations in Obsidian.”

If you want to create PDF or HTML presentations using Obsidian, then this is a plugin for you. It makes it very easy to create Markdown presentations with a live view, themes and annotations to fine tune design.

This is not a plugin I have used as I tend to head for Powerpoint. I’d be curious to try it one day, but until that day…

7. Templater (519,416; +0.6%) — SilentVoid

“Create and use templates.”

A very popular template creation plugin. I’s great for creating customised templates and note auto-fill options. If you like a structured vault and regularly work on notes which require similar formats, this would be worth investigating.

I’m going to be completely honest here and say, the templater plugin is currently beyond my computer skills as I haven’t used it, nor taken the effort to learn how to use it. I don’t typically use templates. I should for my blog post pipeline for example, but this is one of those plugins which, as a non-computer expert, requires me to have a few hours of focus time to get to grips with and use efficiently. Until I can justify that time spent on something I will actually need/use, I won’t try this one out.

If you’re curious about everything Obsidian and research, I’ve just started a new free newsletter called Brain STREAM and I’d love to have you on board!

8. Outliner (473,389; +0.7%) — Viacheslav Slinko

“Work with your lists like in Workflowy or Roam Research.”

This plugin allows you to work with lists in a more complex fashion than base Obsidian. If you’re familiar with working with outline editors, Outliner may help you feel more at home.

As someone who struggles to outline thoughts and just dives straight into writing, I don’t use this plugin.

9. Tasks (473,312; +2.2%) — Martin Schenk and Clare Macrae

“Task management for Obsidian.”

If you want to manage your task workflow in Obsidian, then I would recommend this plugin. It has some powerful features which make task management much easier, such as recurring dates, task filtering, priority status and overall status, amongst other features. Tasks search blocks allow you to find the tasks you need.

Personally, I don’t manage tasks in Obsidian. I might do one day.

10. Obsidian Git (446,918; +1.0%) — Vinzent and Denis Olehov

“Backup your vault with Git.”

A plugin which works with a Git repository to back up your vault with all the options for backwards and forwards movements of files.

Currently I have my vault backed up using Google Drive so this is not one I use, however many people do due to the ability to see their file history with change logs.

11. Admonition (403,453; +0.6%) — Jeremy Valentine

“Admonition block-styled content for Obsidian.”

If you like to have shiny call out boxes and text to stand out in different sections, you might need the extra custom types functionality provided by this plugin.

Callouts are well supported in base Obsidian and are enough for me. I don’t really use them. They are one of those things which, if I had time, I would use regularly to beautify my notes, specifically the ‘My Summary Section’ in combination with ‘Citations’. But for now bold text works fine for me.

12. Style Settings (392,374; +2.8%) — mgmeyers

“Offers controls for adjusting theme, plugin, and snipper CSS variables.”

Tweaking with the variables offered by different themes requires the Style Settings plugin. Some themes will not work without it.

If you want to customise the look of your vault, this plugin is almost essential. I try not to spend too much time in here as it’s very easy to get carried away. I had great fun creating my theme in here though, including the legendary rainbow folders used by AnuPupuccin.

If you’re curious about the most popular themes, I have ‘out the box’ images for each one in this post.

13. Minimal Theme Settings (374,564; +0.6%) — kepano

Conversely to the above plugin, Minimal Theme Settings supports the most popular Obsidian theme; Minimal. It allow some simple tweaks for you to make the most of this theme.

I don’t use Minimal, so I have no requirement of this one.

14. Sliding Panes (Andy’s Mode) (359,130; +0.2%) — death_au

“Sliding Panes (andy Matuschak Mode) as a plugin.”

If you like to stack your pages side-by-side and have them glide across the page, then you’ll want this plugin. I’m sure this was added as a core feature but I can’t seem to find it anywhere so maybe I am imagining it…

I personally don’t get on with this type of window switching but I know that some love it!

15. Quick Add (310,947; +1.1%) — Christian B.B. Houmann

“Quickly add new notes or content to your vault”

QuickAdd allows you to create quick short cuts and hotkeys to insert templates and data into your notes. As the name suggests — add stuff quickly. If you regularly use specific formats and are looking for some automation, QuickAdd is worth a look.

I don’t currently use QuickAdd as I’m not organised enough to set any of these things up. I kinda wing it, you know… I think it would work well for things like tasks and meetings, neither of which I use Obsidian for.

Current Trends

Now the eagle-eyed among you will have seen which plugins had the highest rate of increase in downloads of these 15 most popular plugins.

Looks like the current trends of what people want to do with Obsidian, judging by plugin downloads are:

• Task management
• Playing about with style settings: (maybe no thanks to my post on the most popular and trending Obsidian themes!! Ha!) No seriously I think it is to do with the rise of the AnuPpuccin theme which needs it. Since I wrote that blog post, AnuPpuccin has risen from 33rd to 19th most popular downloaded theme.

Cool stuff! Until next time! Remember my newsletter… ⬇

If you’re curious about everything Obsidian and research, I’ve just started a new free newsletter called Brain STREAM and I’d love to have you on board!