Share Obsidian Notes to Webpages: Free Plugin?

Updated 6 November 2026 · Standard formula, shown below

Yes, you can share Obsidian notes as webpages using free plugins. The most popular and reliable option is the Obsidian Publish alternative called “Digital Garden� (free and open-source), which turns your selected notes into a static website you can host on Netlify, GitHub Pages, or Vercel. This article explains how it works, what to consider, and answers common questions.

What Does “Sharing to Webpage� Mean?

Obsidian is a local-first note-taking app that stores your notes as plain Markdown files. By default, those files live only on your device (or synced via iCloud, Dropbox, etc.). Sharing to a webpage means making a public or private URL where others can read your notes without needing Obsidian. There are two main approaches:

Full-site publishing – turn a folder of notes into a complete website (like a blog or knowledge base).
Single-note sharing – create a one-off web page for a single note (like sharing a Google Doc link).

Free plugins generally handle the first approach. For single-note sharing, you might use a free service like ShareNote (a plugin that uploads a note to a public pastebin-like service) or simply copy the Markdown and paste it into a Markdown viewer.

How Does the Digital Garden Plugin Work?

The Digital Garden plugin (by Ole Eskild Steensen) is the most mature free option. It works like this:

You install the plugin from Obsidian’s community plugins list (Settings → Community plugins → Browse).
You choose which notes to publish by adding the published property to the frontmatter (e.g., published: true).
The plugin generates a static site using Eleventy (a static site generator) and pushes it to a Git repository (GitHub).
You connect that repository to a free hosting service like Netlify or GitHub Pages.
Whenever you change a published note, you run the “Publish changes� command in Obsidian, and the site updates.

The result is a clean, searchable website with your notes, backlinks, and tag pages. You can customize the look with CSS and even add a custom domain if you own one.

Other Free Plugins and Services

Besides Digital Garden, there are a few other free routes:

Obsidian Publish (paid) – the official service, but it costs money (around $8/month). It’s the easiest, but not free.
ShareNote – a plugin that uploads a single note to a public URL (like a pastebin). It’s free but the URL is not permanent and has size limits.
Obsidian to Hugo/Gatsby – you can manually export your notes and use a static site generator. This is more technical but fully free.
Obsidian Publish alternative: “Publish to GitHub� – you can manually push your vault to a GitHub repo and use GitHub’s built-in Markdown rendering, but that exposes your entire vault unless you’re careful.

Which One Should You Choose?

Your choice depends on your needs:

If you want a full knowledge base or blog – Digital Garden is the best free option. It gives you a professional-looking site with search and backlinks.
If you just want to share one note occasionally – ShareNote or even a simple pastebin is faster.
If you’re comfortable with coding – using Hugo or Eleventy directly gives you more control and no plugin dependency.
If you need password protection or collaboration – free options don’t offer that. You’d need Obsidian Publish or a paid static site host with authentication.

Step-by-Step: Publish with Digital Garden

Here’s a concrete walkthrough (assuming you have a GitHub account and basic familiarity with Git):

Install the Digital Garden plugin from Obsidian’s community plugins.
Create a new empty repository on GitHub (e.g., my-notes).
In Obsidian, open the plugin settings and enter your GitHub repository URL.
Generate a GitHub personal access token (with repo scope) and paste it into the plugin settings.
In any note, add published: true to the frontmatter.
Run the command “Digital Garden: Publish changes� from the command palette.
Go to Netlify (or Vercel) and connect your GitHub repository. Follow the prompts to deploy – it will automatically build the site.
Once deployed, you’ll get a URL like my-notes.netlify.app.

Every time you change a published note, run the publish command again. The site updates within a minute.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

Users often run into a few issues:

Site doesn’t update – Make sure you ran the publish command after editing. Also check that your Git token hasn’t expired.
Images don’t show – Digital Garden only publishes notes, not attachments. You need to set up a separate image hosting (like GitHub raw links or a CDN) or use a plugin that handles attachments.
Broken links – If you use [[wikilinks]], the plugin converts them, but only for published notes. If a linked note isn’t published, the link will be broken.
Build fails on Netlify – Usually due to Node version mismatch. Set the Node version to 18 or 20 in Netlify’s build settings.
Can’t publish because of large vault – The plugin only pushes the generated site, not your whole vault, so size isn’t an issue. But if you have many published notes, the build might take a while.

Costs and Limitations

The plugin itself is free, and hosting on Netlify or GitHub Pages is free for personal use. However, there are limitations:

No built-in password protection – anyone with the URL can view the site.
No collaboration features – it’s a one-way publish (you edit in Obsidian, then push).
You need a GitHub account and a basic understanding of Git.
Custom domains are free if you already own a domain, but you must configure DNS.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I share a single note without publishing my whole vault?

Yes. With Digital Garden, you only publish notes that have published: true in the frontmatter. Other notes remain private. For a quick single-note share, you can use the ShareNote plugin, which uploads just that note to a temporary public URL.

Is Obsidian Publish worth the money compared to free plugins?

Obsidian Publish offers a polished experience with built-in search, page navigation, and optional password protection. It also handles attachments automatically. If you need those features and don’t want to fiddle with hosting, it’s worth the cost. If you’re okay with a little setup, Digital Garden gives you 90% of the functionality for free.

Will my notes be indexed by Google?

By default, your published site is public, so Google can index it. If you don’t want that, you can add a noindex meta tag to the site’s HTML (in the Digital Garden plugin settings or in your Netlify build).

Can I use a custom domain with Digital Garden?

Yes. Netlify and GitHub Pages both allow you to add a custom domain. You’ll need to update your DNS records (usually a CNAME or A record) to point to the hosting provider. Instructions are provided by the hosting service.

What happens if I delete a note from my vault?

If you delete a note that was published, the next time you run the publish command, it will be removed from your site. The plugin tracks which notes are published and updates accordingly.

Can I password-protect my published notes?

Not with the free Digital Garden plugin. For password protection, you would need to use a static site host that supports HTTP authentication (like Netlify’s paid plans) or use a service like Obsidian Publish. There are also third-party tools that add client-side encryption, but they’re not integrated into the plugin.

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