Yes, you can view and edit an Obsidian vault from a web browser — but not with anything made by Obsidian. The app is local, and Obsidian Publish ($8/month billed annually) is read-only. Browser editing is third-party territory, and which tool fits you is decided almost entirely by where your vault is stored: a Chrome extension if it lives in Google Drive, a self-hosted app (Browsidian) if it lives on your own machine, and github.dev or OB Lite if it lives in a git repository.
One more thing the older search results will not tell you: screen.garden, the main commercial service in this space, has announced it is shutting down on 1 September 2026. If you are a screen.garden user, this page doubles as a migration map.
This comparison is published by the team behind OB Lite, a browser editor for git-synced vaults. We have a stake in one row of the table below, so we have sourced every claim in it — including the ones that do not favour us.
The comparison table
Prices, features and status claims below were checked against primary sources on 6 August 2026 — each product's own website, repository or store listing. Every limitation quoted comes from the maker's own material, not from our testing of competitors.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column →
| Option | Cost (Aug 2026) | Where the vault lives | What you get in the browser | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| screen.garden | $4/mo for up to 3 people1-week free trial; annual = 1 month free | Their cloud, synced via an Obsidian plugin | View, create and edit notes; read-only share links | Shutting down 1 Sept 2026Announced on its own site |
| Browsidian | Free, open source | Your own machine or serverNode.js 18+ required | Edit with autosave, wiki-link preview, drag-and-drop file moves | Active82 stars; no license specified |
| Obsidian Vault Editor for Google Drive | Free | A Google Drive folder | Live-preview editing, wiki links, slash commands, Drive version history | ActiveChrome extension; ~40 users; updated Jul 2026 |
| github.dev | FreeAny GitHub account | A GitHub repository | Plain-text editing, branches, commit & pushNo wiki-link preview; notes are just files | ActiveOfficial GitHub feature |
| OB Lite | Read & basic editing freePro is a one-time $6.99 | A GitHub repository | Markdown editor with wiki links; one commit per save via the GitHub API | ActiveOur product — bias declared above |
| Obsidian Publish | $8/mo billed annually$10/mo billed monthly | Obsidian's servers | Viewing only — publishes notes as a website; no editing | ActiveOfficial, but solves a different problem |
Prices and status change — one row on this table is proof of that. If you are reading this well after August 2026, treat the table as a starting point and check the linked sources in the final section.
What "editing in the browser" actually requires
Every tool on this page is answering the same three questions, and seeing them separately makes the choice almost automatic:
- Where does the vault live? Google Drive, a git repository, your own machine, or a vendor's cloud. This is usually already decided by your existing sync setup — and it decides everything else.
- How does the browser reach it? Through a cloud API (Drive, GitHub), through a small server you run yourself, or through a vendor's sync pipeline.
- How do edits get back to your other devices? Via the same sync your desktop already uses — Drive sync, a git pull, or a vendor's engine.
The practical consequence: you do not choose a browser editor first. You look at where your vault already lives, and that leaves you one or two realistic options. If your vault is in Google Drive, the Chrome extension is your route; if it is in a GitHub repository, github.dev and OB Lite are; if it is only on your own disk, Browsidian is the one that can reach it.
A rule inherited from the sync world applies here too: whatever reaches your vault should be the same pipeline your desktop uses, not a second one running alongside it. Obsidian's own troubleshooting documentation names double-syncing as a common cause of files disappearing. Browser editors that write through your existing sync (Drive, git) do not add a second engine; adding a new sync service just to enable browser editing does.
Is there an official Obsidian web app?
No. Obsidian is a local desktop and mobile app, and the official pricing page lists exactly two paid services: Obsidian Sync ($4 per user per month billed annually, $5 monthly), which syncs between installed apps, and Obsidian Publish ($8 per site per month billed annually, $10 monthly), which publishes selected notes to the web as a site.
Publish is the one that trips people up, because it sounds like the answer. It is not: Publish makes your notes readable in a browser — a public or password-protected website with search and a graph view — but there is no editing. If your goal is to open a note from a machine that does not have Obsidian on it, change three lines and have those changes show up on your other devices, Publish does not do that, at any price.
That absence is the reason this entire page exists. Browser editing is a gap the official product deliberately leaves open, and everything below is the third-party ecosystem that grew into it.
screen.garden is shutting down — what happened?
The most complete commercial answer to this question is leaving the market. screen.garden synced your vault to its cloud through an Obsidian plugin and gave you a web workspace to view, create and edit notes, plus read-only share links. Its pricing page lists a single Base plan at $4 per month for up to 3 people ($2 per additional person), with a one-week free trial.
As of our check on 6 August 2026, the screen.garden website carries a notice that the service will shut down on 1 September 2026. We are not going to speculate about why; the notice itself is the relevant fact. What matters is what its users should do with the four weeks in between:
- Confirm you hold a complete local copy of your vault. screen.garden is offline-first by design — your Markdown files stay on your machine — so for most users this is already true. Verify it before the servers go away, not after.
- Remove the screen.garden plugin from Obsidian once you migrate, so a defunct sync pipeline is not still running against your vault.
- Pick a replacement by storage location, not by feature list. If you want to keep a hosted web editor with no server of your own: move the vault to a git repository and use OB Lite or github.dev, or move it to Google Drive and use the Chrome extension. If you are comfortable self-hosting: Browsidian.
There is a broader lesson in the shutdown that applies to every hosted tool on this page, ours included: keep your vault in a storage layer you control — plain files in Drive, a git repository you can clone — so that any editor's disappearance costs you a tool, not your notes.
Browsidian — the self-hosted route
Free, open source, and the only option here that reaches a vault living purely on your own disk. Browsidian describes itself as a browser interface for your local Obsidian vaults: you run a small Node.js server (node server.js --vault /path/to/vault, Node 18 or later), and it serves your vault to any browser that can reach that machine.
The feature set is genuinely Obsidian-shaped rather than generic: Markdown editing with autosave, wiki-link-aware preview, and drag-and-drop file moves. It offers several modes — a server mode that reads and writes files on the host, a browser mode using direct folder access, a demo mode, and Dropbox integration.
Two things to weigh before adopting it. First, self-hosting is the point and the price: the vault is only editable from outside your home if you expose that server to the internet, which means you now own authentication, HTTPS and updates — the same operational bargain as Self-hosted LiveSync in the sync world. Second, as of our check the repository specifies no license, which is worth resolving (or at least noting) before building a workflow on it, particularly for any commercial context.
The Chrome extension for Google Drive vaults
If your vault already lives in Google Drive, this is the shortest path. Obsidian Vault Editor for Google Drive is a free Chrome extension that opens a Drive folder of Markdown files as a vault-like workspace: live-preview editing that hides Markdown syntax, wiki links, slash commands, templates, full-text search, an outline view, and access to Drive's own version history for viewing and restoring old revisions. Files stay in Drive; if a save fails it keeps a local draft.
The honest caveats, all visible on its store listing as of 6 August 2026: it is young and small — around 40 users, last updated 8 July 2026, a single 5-star rating. That is not a criticism of the software; it is a data point about how battle-tested it is, and about the risk of any small extension: Chrome extensions can be abandoned or change hands, so the local-draft behaviour and Drive's own version history are your safety net.
One boundary worth drawing precisely: this extension edits the files in Drive. Getting those edits to your other devices is Drive's job, with all the caveats that folder-level sync always has for Obsidian — Drive syncs files, not notes, so simultaneous edits on two devices resolve as duplicated or overwritten files, and Google Drive is not officially supported for vault sync inside Obsidian on iOS. Our sync comparison covers that side of the ledger.
github.dev — the free editor already attached to your repo
If your vault is in a GitHub repository, you already have a browser editor and may not know it. Press the . key while viewing your repository on github.com and it opens in github.dev, a free, lightweight VS Code environment that runs entirely in the browser. GitHub's documentation confirms it is available to everyone for free: you can edit files, switch and create branches, stage changes, and commit and push — which, for a git-synced vault, means your edits flow to your other devices exactly the way your desktop's obsidian-git pushes do.
The limits, from the same documentation: there is no terminal, you cannot build or run code, and unsaved work lives in the browser's local storage, so GitHub itself recommends committing regularly. For vault purposes the more important limit is different: github.dev is a code editor, not a notes app. Your [[wiki links]] are inert text, there is no preview that resolves them, no graph, no sense that these files are notes at all. It is entirely capable of the three-line fix from any machine; it is joyless for actual writing.
If you cannot install Obsidian on your work computer
A large share of the people searching for browser editing are not on a phone at all — they are on a locked-down work machine where installing Obsidian is either forbidden or requires an IT ticket nobody wants to file. This case has its own logic, so it gets its own section.
The constraint ranks the options for you, by how much installation each needs:
- Nothing to install at all: github.dev and OB Lite both run in a plain browser tab against a GitHub-hosted vault. This is the only tier that works on a machine where you can install nothing.
- An extension, but no application: the Google Drive editor needs Chrome and the ability to add an extension — allowed in many workplaces, blocked in some.
- Effectively unavailable: Browsidian needs a server process, which is exactly what a locked-down machine will not let you run (though a server hosted elsewhere and reached over HTTPS can work, if you have set that up from home).
The obligatory caveat, stated once and plainly: "technically possible" and "allowed" are different questions. Accessing your personal GitHub or Google account from a work machine is against the rules in some workplaces, and personal notes on a monitored machine are visible to that machine. Check your policy before you make your second brain reachable from your employer's hardware — the browser removes the installation barrier, not the policy one.
OB Lite — browser editing built for git-synced vaults
Declared bias, delivered last: this is ours. The gap we built for is the person whose vault lives in a GitHub repository — usually synced from the desktop with obsidian-git — who wants to open it from a browser on a phone or on someone else's computer and have it feel like notes, not like version control.
What OB Lite does
OB Lite reads and writes your GitHub-hosted vault over the GitHub API, from any browser, with nothing installed and nothing running in the background. Wiki links work, Markdown renders, and each save becomes one commit — checked against the remote first, so it never fights the obsidian-git setup on your desktop. Reading and basic editing are free; the Pro unlock is a one-time $6.99, not a subscription.
Where it does not belong, in the same plain terms as everyone else's caveats: OB Lite only works with vaults in a git repository — if your vault lives in Google Drive or only on your own disk, the extension or Browsidian are the right rows of the table, not us. And within the git row, github.dev is free and official; the case for OB Lite over it is wiki links, Markdown that renders as notes, and an editor designed for a phone screen. This is the setup we run daily ourselves: obsidian-git on the desktop, vault in a private GitHub repository, browser through OB Lite everywhere else.
Which one should you pick?
By situation, since the storage location has usually already decided most of it:
Your vault is in Google Drive
The Obsidian Vault Editor for Google Drive extension, if you can use Chrome. It is free and edits in place; just treat Drive's version history as your safety net while the extension is young.
Your vault is in a GitHub repository
github.dev for free, official, occasional edits; OB Lite when you want wiki links, rendered Markdown and a phone-sized editor on top of the same repository. Reading and basic editing are free on both, so trying both costs nothing.
Your vault lives only on your own machine
Browsidian is the only browser route that reaches it — free and open source, at the cost of running (and, for outside access, securing) a small server. If that cost reads as too high, moving the vault into Drive or a git repository first widens your options to everything above.
You are migrating off screen.garden
Before 1 September 2026: verify your local copy, remove the plugin, then pick by where you want the vault to live next. A git repository plus OB Lite or github.dev is the closest functional replacement for "hosted web editing with no server of my own"; Drive plus the extension is the other no-server route.
You only need people to read your notes, not edit them
Obsidian Publish, at $8 a month billed annually. It is the official product, it is polished, and it is the one case on this page where the official answer fully covers the need.
FAQ
Can I edit my Obsidian vault from a web browser?
Yes, but not with an official Obsidian product — the app is local and Obsidian Publish is view-only. As of August 2026 the practical routes are the Obsidian Vault Editor for Google Drive extension for Drive-stored vaults, the self-hosted open-source Browsidian for vaults on your own machine, and github.dev or OB Lite for vaults in a git repository. Where your vault is stored decides which route is yours.
Is there an official Obsidian web app?
No. The official pricing page lists Obsidian Sync ($4/month billed annually) for syncing between installed apps and Obsidian Publish ($8/month billed annually) for publishing notes as a read-only website. Neither edits notes in a browser, so browser editing is entirely third-party territory.
What happened to screen.garden?
screen.garden's own website announces that the service is shutting down on 1 September 2026. Until then its Base plan is $4 per month for up to 3 people. Users should confirm they hold a current local copy of their vault, remove the plugin after migrating, and choose a replacement based on where they want the vault to live — Google Drive, a git repository, or a self-hosted server.
How can I use my Obsidian vault on a work computer where I cannot install software?
A browser editor is usually the only route. If the vault is in a GitHub repository, github.dev and OB Lite run in a plain browser tab with nothing to install; if it is in Google Drive, the Chrome extension works where extensions are allowed. Check your workplace's policy on personal cloud accounts first — the browser removes the installation barrier, not the policy one.
How do I edit a GitHub-hosted Obsidian vault in the browser?
Press the . key in your repository on github.com to open github.dev — a free VS Code-style editor that edits, commits and pushes, but treats notes as plain text with no wiki-link support. OB Lite works against the same repository over the GitHub API with wiki links and rendered Markdown, one commit per save; reading and basic editing are free.
Is editing an Obsidian vault in the browser free?
Mostly, as of August 2026. Browsidian is free and open source, the Google Drive extension is free, github.dev is free for any GitHub user, and OB Lite is free for reading and basic editing with a one-time $6.99 Pro unlock. The one paid commercial service, screen.garden at $4/month, shuts down on 1 September 2026.
Sources and method
Every price, feature and status claim above was read from a primary source — the vendor's own site, repository or store listing — on 6 August 2026. We did not take claims from other articles; as far as we could find, no other comparison of these tools exists yet, which is partly why we wrote this one. The screen.garden shutdown date comes from the notice on its own website on that day. If you spot something that has gone stale, tell us and we will correct it and change the date at the top.
- screen.garden (features and shutdown notice) — screen.garden/for-individuals, pricing — screen.garden/pricing
- Browsidian — github.com/blamouche/browsidian
- Obsidian Vault Editor for Google Drive — Chrome Web Store listing
- github.dev web-based editor — docs.github.com
- Obsidian pricing (Sync and Publish) — obsidian.md/pricing
- Obsidian Help, sync troubleshooting (double-syncing) — obsidian.md/help/sync/troubleshoot