The topic I uninstalled these 4 Obsidian plugins and my vault instantly became easier to manage is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
When I first got into Obsidian, I also got into the plugins at the same time. That’s just what you do – every setup video, Reddit thread, or “here’s my vault” post had a plugin list at the end. So I built mine too. But the vault started feeling more like a project I was managing on top of my actual projects. Which is kind of the opposite of what I wanted when I picked Obsidian over something like Notion to begin with.
A few years in, I finally went through my plugin list properly. Some of these I hadn’t used in months. Some were doing jobs that Obsidian now handles natively. A few, to be honest, I just never fully figured out and kept around out of some vague sense that I probably should be using them. Here’s what I uninstalled, and why my vault has been better without them.
Dataview is one of the most downloaded Obsidian plugins ever, and the appeal is obvious – you write SQL-like queries in your notes and pull data from across your whole vault into dynamic tables, reading lists, project views, whatever you need. For people who want Obsidian to work more like Notion with structured databases and live rollups, it genuinely delivers on that. This is also why power users seem to love it.
My usage of it was significantly less impressive. I had a couple of tables set up that I checked maybe twice before forgetting they existed. The query language is fine, but it’s not something I ever fully internalized – every time I needed to tweak something, I was half-Googling the syntax again. And then Obsidian shipped Bases, which is a native core plugin that does the same job with a visual GUI instead of a query language. No syntax to remember, and it’s noticeably faster. It also lets you edit data directly in the table view, which Dataview couldn’t do. Dataview’s developer has largely moved on at this point anyway – the plugin still works, but Bases is all I need now. For power users with complex setups, Dataview still makes sense. For me, with my two dusty tables, it was a no-brainer.
Templater is one of those plugins where you read the feature list and immediately think you need it. There are dynamic variables, auto-inserting dates and file names, running scripts on note creation – the PKM crowd swears by it, there are entire template libraries built around it, and it has millions of downloads. It’s actually genuinely powerful if you’re building out complex note systems with conditional logic.
In practice, what I actually used it for was inserting a date at the top of a note.
The rest of Templater’s capabilities were sitting there completely untouched, and I was never touching its more advanced functions that require writing JavaScript either. What actually replaced it for me was a combination of things I already had – mainly a solid folder structure and tags. But I also recently found two other, more manageable plugins that handle the auto-sorting for me…
QuickAdd plugin lets you set up a template choice that creates a note with a defined name format and drops it straight into the right folder in one action. That’s essentially the part of Templater I would have actually used, just handled somewhere else. And the Auto Note Mover plugin routes notes automatically with tags. So yes, while I now have two more plugins instead of just the one Templater, they’re much quicker to set up and use. That’s the whole reason I started using Obsidian anyway – speed and ease of use.
The Kanban plugin is well-built and it looks good. Trello-style drag-and-drop boards inside your vault, columns for To Do, In Progress, Done, and everything linked directly to your notes. For people managing multiple projects visually and wanting everything in one place, it makes sense on paper. It should make sense for me because I’m visually-oriented.
But I already use a separate task manager with a kanban view for actual work tracking. So installing Kanban in Obsidian just gave me a second place to put tasks – which meant two places to check and two things to keep in sync, which I was never going to do consistently. For most of what I was reaching for the plugin to do, a basic markdown checklist is just fine. Checkboxes work, they’re fast, and they don’t require me to maintain a board.
Pixel Banner is a plugin I installed when I tried to replicate the Notion feel inside Obsidian because it adds header images to your notes, so you can get that dashboard style. It’s cute, but again, it’s just not necessary, and it contradicts the reasons I started using Obsidian in the first place – simplicity. Forty notes all needing images that look good is maintenance, not note-taking. But I still recommend it to those who would like to add a visual element to their notes, it comes with a lot of customizations too.
None of this is a knock on these plugins – they’re popular for a reason, and for the right vault setup they’re legitimately useful. My vault just isn’t that vault. I want somewhere quick to open, write something down, and close. The more things I had installed, the more the app felt like something I needed to tend to. Stripping it back meant I actually open it now, which might be the case for you too if you value frictionless workflows.