Lighthouse vs. Other Plugins
Obsidian has a genuinely good crop of long-form writing plugins now, and none of them are wrong — they’re built for different writers. This page is an honest comparison, not a sales pitch, so you can figure out which one actually fits how you work.
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”| Plugin | Version | Last release | File format | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighthouse | 1.3.0 | Jul 2026 | Plain markdown | Novelists, academics, and technical writers who want a focused, Ulysses-style workspace without leaving Obsidian |
| Longform | 2.1.0 | Mar 2025 | Plain markdown | Writers who want the original, most established scene/project organizer |
| Inkswell | 1.6.0 | Jul 2026 | Plain markdown | Plotters and series writers who want a full planning pipeline — beat sheets, story bible, revision audits |
| Books | 0.2.3 | Jun 2026 | Plain markdown | Writers who want a spine-style chapter organizer with manuscript styling and a research sidebar |
| Folio | 1.1.2 | Jul 2026 | Plain markdown | Screenwriters and long-form writers who need Final Draft (.fdx) export |
| Colophon | 2.3.1 | Jul 2026 | Proprietary .colophon format | Writers who want a word-processor feel and don’t mind leaving plain markdown behind |
| Book Smith | 1.0.5 | Jul 2025 | Plain markdown | Writers who want Pomodoro focus sessions and mobile sync alongside organization |
Versions and release dates reflect each plugin’s GitHub release history as of mid-2026 — check the linked repo for the current state.
Where Lighthouse fits
Section titled “Where Lighthouse fits”If Longform is the established incumbent, Lighthouse is the alternative for people who found it to be more than they wanted to keep track of. That’s not a knock on Longform — it’s a capable, mature tool, and if its model of scenes, drafts, and compile steps clicks for how you think, it’s worth using. But plenty of writers just want something closer to Ulysses: a clean two-pane workspace, a goal ring, a deadline, and nothing else competing for attention. That’s the gap Lighthouse is built for.
A few things set it apart from the rest of the field specifically:
- It’s the only one of these built for academic and technical writers, not just fiction. Lighthouse ships with real CSL citation support — a per-project bibliography, 10 bundled citation styles, and the ability to download thousands more — alongside the usual novel/screenplay use cases. If you’re writing a thesis or coordinating technical docs, none of the other plugins here are aimed at you; Lighthouse is.
- Export goes through Typst, not just Pandoc. PDF output is properly typeset rather than a markdown-to-PDF print job, plus DOCX and EPUB via Pandoc with style presets and paper sizes.
- The workspace fully takes over, then gives itself back. One command replaces Obsidian’s file explorer with the Library/Inspector pair for the duration of a writing session; exiting restores the native explorer automatically. It’s meant to feel like a dedicated app while you’re in it, and like plain Obsidian the moment you’re not.
- Files never leave markdown. Unlike Colophon’s
.colophonformat, everything Lighthouse touches stays a normal.mdfile in your vault — no proprietary format, no lock-in, nothing that breaks if you stop using the plugin.
Where Lighthouse doesn’t try to compete: it has no story-bible or beat-sheet system like Inkswell, no screenplay export like Folio, and no built-in Pomodoro timer like Book Smith. If those are what you need, one of those tools will serve you better.