Obsidian Web Clipper Alternative: PageSaver vs the Official

I build PageSaver, a browser extension that saves web pages as PDF, image and Markdown. So take this with that in mind: if all you want is to clip an article straight into your Obsidian vault, the official Obsidian Web Clipper is the right tool, and I'll say why below. But if you came here looking for an Obsidian Web Clipper alternative, you probably hit one of the gaps it leaves, and those gaps are exactly where PageSaver is useful.

What the official Obsidian Web Clipper does well

The Obsidian Web Clipper is free, open source under the MIT license, and runs almost everywhere: Chrome and other Chromium browsers, Firefox (including Firefox Mobile), Safari on macOS, iOS and iPadOS, and Edge. It saves to your vault locally, and Obsidian says it doesn't collect data or usage metrics.

It is also flexible. You can highlight passages and save only those, write templates per website with variables, filters and logic, and use the Interpreter to pull data out of a page with plain-language prompts. Page metadata lands in your note as Obsidian Properties, and you pick the vault and folder before you click Add to Obsidian.

If that covers your workflow, keep using it.

Why people look for an Obsidian Web Clipper alternative

The first gap is images. Obsidian's own docs are direct about it: "Images are not automatically downloaded when you use Web Clipper." Clipped images point at their original web URLs, so they break if the site moves them and don't show offline. The fix is to run Download attachments for current file in Obsidian after each clip. Some people also report clips coming through with no images at all on certain sites, which a regular on the Obsidian forum called a bug.

The second gap is how the clip reaches Obsidian. By default the content goes through the clipboard, and if that fails you switch to Legacy mode, which saves through an obsidian:// URI and, per the troubleshooting page, limits how many characters you can clip. On Linux you may also need to register the Obsidian URI handler before anything opens.

The third isn't a bug at all: the clipper makes notes, not files. If you also want the page as a PDF to send to someone, or a full-page screenshot that keeps the layout, you need another tool anyway.

What PageSaver does differently

PageSaver puts the formats side by side in one popup: Save as PDF, Save as Image (a full-page capture, including what's below the fold), Save as PDF (Reader Mode) and Save as Markdown. You can save the same article as Markdown for your vault and as a PDF to share, without switching extensions.

Save as Markdown is free on every plan, and it doesn't count toward the 15 free PDF and image saves you get each month. It uses the same article extraction as Reader Mode, turns relative links and image paths into full URLs so they still work outside the site, and keeps math written in MathJax, KaTeX or MathML as LaTeX ($...$ and $$...$$), which Obsidian renders.

The part built for Obsidian users is Save as Note. Instead of a file, the article goes into a private library in your PixelsTech account. Each note gets a category and a few tags automatically, and you can read it on any device. When you want the notes in Obsidian, select up to 100 at a time and click Export to Obsidian. You get a zip with one folder per category and one .md file per note, and each file starts with Obsidian properties. A note in a Databases category, for example, starts like this:

---
title: "How Postgres Uses Indexes"
source: "https://example.com/postgres-indexes"
created: 2026-11-06T09:15:00
category: "Databases"
tags:
  - "postgres"
  - "performance"
type: article
---

File names are cleaned up so they work on every OS and don't use the characters Obsidian reserves for links (#, ^, [, ], |).

Obsidian Web Clipper vs PageSaver

Two rows decide it for most people. If you want clips to appear in your vault the moment you save them, and you like templates, the official clipper wins. If you want the PDF or screenshot too, or you'd rather collect articles first and move them into Obsidian in batches, PageSaver fits better.

How to save web pages to Obsidian with PageSaver

For a single page:

1. Install PageSaver for Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
2. Open the article, click the PageSaver icon and choose Save as Markdown.
3. Move the downloaded .md file into your vault folder.

For a reading library you move into Obsidian later:

1. Sign in to your PixelsTech account. Save as Note needs one, because that's where the notes are kept.
2. On any article, click the PageSaver icon and choose Save as Note, or right-click the page and choose PageSaver → Save as Note.
3. Open PageSaver → Notes in your account, tick the notes you want (or Select all) and click Export to Obsidian.
4. Unzip the download into your vault folder. The notes show up under PageSaver Notes, one folder per category.

If you want the images stored in your vault rather than linked, open a note in Obsidian and run Download attachments for current file, the same command Obsidian recommends for its own clipper.

FAQ

Is PageSaver free?

The extension is free to install, and Save as Markdown is free with no monthly limit. Normal PDF and full-page image saves share a free allowance of 15 a month; paid plans remove the limit. Save as Note gives you 5 notes for free, and Pro and the Permanent License make notes unlimited.

Does PageSaver write directly into my Obsidian vault?

No. Export to Obsidian downloads a zip that you unzip into your vault folder. There is no live sync with Obsidian today.

Are images saved with the note?

Not as files. Both tools write images as links to the original site, and PageSaver's Obsidian zip contains only the .md files. Run Download attachments for current file in Obsidian to copy the images into your vault.

Does PageSaver upload my Markdown?

After a Markdown save, PageSaver uploads a copy to pixelstech.net so it can open the file in a new tab under a random link. Notes are stored in your PixelsTech account, where only you can see them. If you need everything to stay on your machine, the official clipper is the better choice.

Which browsers does it support?

Chrome, Edge and Firefox. There's also a PageSaver Mac app for pages a browser extension can't capture, and it saves PDF or Markdown too.