Engram vs Obsidian Sync

What is the difference between Engram and Obsidian Sync?

Obsidian Sync is first-party sync for Obsidian vaults: end-to-end encrypted, versioned, made by the people who make the app. Engram syncs your vault too, then does the part Sync does not: it indexes your notes and serves them to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any other MCP client, from a hosted endpoint you can reach on a phone.

Sync was step one. This is the step after it.

Side by side

	Obsidian Sync	Engram
Price	$4/mo annual ($5 monthly) Standard, $8/mo annual ($10 monthly) Plus	Free, $7/mo Starter, $14/mo Pro
Sync across devices	Yes, real-time	Yes, real-time, with 3-way merge
End-to-end encrypted	Yes	No on hosted, see below
Version history	Yes, 1 to 12 months by tier	Not yet
Search your vault from an AI	No	Yes, over MCP
Server-side search index	No	Keyword, semantic, hybrid
Web app with an editor	No	Yes, CodeMirror 6 with full Obsidian-style rendering
Shared vaults for a team	Yes, without live co-editing	Not yet
Self-host	No	Yes, whole stack
Works with non-Obsidian clients	No	Yes, web app and 16 documented AI clients

The encryption difference, stated plainly

Obsidian Sync is end-to-end encrypted. Engram’s hosted service is not. If end-to-end encryption is your requirement, Obsidian Sync is the better product and you should use it.

Here is why ours is not, because the reason matters: semantic search requires the server to read your note text in order to embed it. A server that cannot read your notes cannot index them. That is a real tradeoff and we took it deliberately in one direction.

What we do instead, on the hosted service:

• Notes are encrypted at rest with per-user 256-bit data encryption keys, AES-256-GCM, with per-field AAD binding. In production each user’s key is wrapped by AWS KMS and bound to that user by encryption context.
• Paths, folder names, and tags are not stored in plaintext. They are encrypted and HMAC-indexed so we can filter on them without reading them.
• We do not sell your notes and they are never training data.

And if you want the strong version: self-host. Then the server reading your notes is your server, and they never leave your hardware. That option existing is what keeps the hosted promise honest.

Can I use both?

Yes, and it is a reasonable setup. They are not mutually exclusive: Obsidian Sync moves files between your Obsidian installs, Engram indexes the vault and exposes it to AI. Some people run Sync for their device fleet and Engram for the AI and web access.

If you would rather pay for one thing, Engram’s sync is real-time with 3-way merge conflict resolution and works across desktop, mobile, and the browser.

When Obsidian Sync is the better pick

Be honest with yourself about which of these you are:

• You need end-to-end encryption. Use Obsidian Sync. This is not close.
• You need version history. Sync has it by tier. We do not ship it yet.
• You want sync and nothing else. Sync is cheaper at $4 and it is excellent at the one job.
• You are already happy. If nothing about your setup annoys you, an AI layer is a want, not a need.

When Engram is the better pick

• You want Claude or ChatGPT to answer from your actual notes, including from your phone with your laptop closed.
• You want search that understands meaning, not just substring matches.
• You want to read and edit your vault in a browser without installing Obsidian.
• You want the option to run the whole thing on your own hardware.

What we do not claim

We are not going to tell you our search ranks better than something else, because we have not measured it against anything and publishing a number we cannot defend is how comparison pages become embarrassing. What we will say is what the system is made of, above, and let you try it on your own vault.

We also do not ship live co-editing or team vaults yet. Obsidian’s shared vaults exist today and ours do not.

Summary

Different jobs that overlap on one feature. Obsidian Sync is encrypted file sync from the people who make your editor. Engram is a memory layer that happens to sync, aimed at making the vault answerable by whichever AI you use. If the AI part is worth $3 more per month than Sync Standard, take Engram. If it is not, Sync is a very good product and we will still be here later.