From r/ObsidianMD 📅 • 📊 9 upvotes • ⭐ 8/10 • 🚀 high
*Analysis generated: Feb 23, 2026*
🔗 Source: View on Reddit
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Summary

A user conducted a detailed speed test on Obsidian startup performance using a large vault (10,000 markdown files from the Zettelkasten-Method repository) under various configurations: flat vs. nested folders, presence/absence of wikilinks, and with/without core plugins enabled. The goal was to measure the impact of vault structure and plugins on loading times on an Arch Linux system.

Key Insights

1. Enabling core plugins adds noticeable overhead, especially when the vault structure changes (e.g., LINKED configuration).
2. Adding 5 wikilinks per note significantly increases the ‘Vault loading’ time (e.g., FLAT ALL PLUGINS: 752ms vs LINKED ALL PLUGINS: 1220ms), indicating link parsing is costly.
3. Vault structure (FLAT vs. FOLDERS) has a moderate impact compared to linking or plugins, suggesting Obsidian’s file system scanning is relatively efficient regardless of depth, provided files are only markdown.
4. The system performs remarkably well on SSD for 10,000 files, with total startup often under 1.5 seconds even in complex configurations.

Enhancement Suggestions

No enhancement suggestions available

Analysis

This is a valuable, self-initiated benchmark providing empirical data on how Obsidian handles large, pure markdown vaults. The breakdown of startup time components (Initialization, Vault loading, Workspace loading, Plugin overhead) is highly informative for power users and developers looking to optimize performance, particularly showing the cost of internal linking.
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*Curated by AI for Paul’s Vault Members*