Obsidian Sync Alternatives

Every thread that asks this question gets the same five answers, and none of them explain the tradeoff you are actually choosing between. Here they are with the catch stated up front.

Engram is one of the six. We built it, so read our row with that in mind. The other five are real options and we say where they beat us.

The short version

Option	Cost	Mobile	Real-time	End-to-end encrypted	The catch
Remotely Save	Free	Yes	No	Optional	Manual or timed sync, so conflicts are yours to sort out
Syncthing	Free	Android yes, iOS no	Yes	Device to device	No official iOS client, needs a paid third-party app
Obsidian Git	Free	Painful	No	Depends on your host	Merge conflicts in a text editor on a phone
Self-hosted LiveSync	Free plus a server	Yes	Yes	Yes	You run the server and the backups
iCloud or Google Drive	Free tier	Partly	No	No	Silent conflict files, and iCloud is unusable on Android
Obsidian Sync	$4/mo annual	Yes	Yes	Yes	Costs money, Obsidian only
Engram	Free to 10,000 notes	Yes	Yes	No on hosted	2 devices on Free, and only 2,000 notes are searchable

Remotely Save

A community plugin that pushes your vault to S3, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or WebDAV. Free, open source, and the most common recommendation on the forum. It also supports optional end-to-end encryption, so your cloud provider holds ciphertext rather than your notes.

The catch is that it is not continuous. You sync on a button press or on a timer, which means two devices can drift apart between runs. When they do, you resolve it yourself. For a single writer who remembers to hit sync before switching devices, this is fine and costs nothing.

Pick it if you want zero cost, already have cloud storage, and edit on one device at a time.

Syncthing

Peer-to-peer file sync, open source, no central server, genuinely excellent software. Continuous, so it does not have the drift problem.

The catch is iOS. There is no official iOS client and there has not been one for years. The workaround everyone names is Möbius Sync, a paid third-party app. On Android and desktop, Syncthing is hard to beat for free. Note also that it syncs files, not vault intent: it has no idea what a note is, so conflicts surface as duplicate files rather than a merge.

Pick it if you are on desktop and Android and you are comfortable with peer-to-peer networking.

Obsidian Git

Commits your vault to a git repo on a schedule. Free, and you get real version history, which most of these do not.

The catch is mobile. The plugin runs on phones through a JavaScript git implementation and it is slow on large vaults. A merge conflict means resolving git conflict markers inside a note on a phone screen. If that sentence sounds fine to you, this is a good option; for most people it is the reason they went looking for something else.

Pick it if you want version history for free and you mostly write at a desktop.

Self-hosted LiveSync

Real-time, end-to-end encrypted, works on mobile, free apart from whatever you run it on. It reached 1.0 in July 2026 and it is the closest free thing to first-party Sync.

It used to mean running a CouchDB, which is why most write-ups still say so. It now also supports S3-compatible object storage including MinIO, and peer-to-peer over WebRTC with no server at all, so the setup cost is a lot lower than its reputation.

The catch is that you own the operation of it. Whichever backend you pick, the hosting, credentials, TLS and backups are yours, and the setup guides are long because the plugin is configurable rather than opinionated.

Pick it if you want real-time encrypted sync with nothing to pay and do not mind owning the backend.

iCloud or Google Drive

The default that people try first because it needs no plugin.

The catch is that file sync services do not understand Obsidian. Two devices editing the same note produce a conflicted copy sitting in your vault, often unnoticed for weeks. iCloud does not exist on Android. Drive on iOS does not sync in the background reliably. It works until it does not, and the failure is quiet.

Pick it if you have one device and want to skip the question entirely.

Obsidian Sync

First-party, real-time, end-to-end encrypted, with version history from one to twelve months by tier. $4/mo billed annually for Standard.

There is no catch beyond the price and the scope. It syncs Obsidian vaults between Obsidian installs, does that job properly, and is made by the people who make your editor. It is not the only end-to-end encrypted option here, since Remotely Save and Self-hosted LiveSync both offer it and Syncthing never hands your files to a third party at all, but it is the only one that gives you encryption without configuring anything. See our full comparison.

Pick it if you want encrypted sync and nothing else, and $48 a year is worth not thinking about it.

Engram

Real-time sync with 3-way merge, plus a web app you can edit in, plus a server side index that lets Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor read and write your notes over MCP. Free tier syncs up to 10,000 notes.

Four catches, all real:

• Free is capped at 2 devices, with a 24 hour cooldown on swapping one. Every free option above this is unlimited-device. If you write on a desktop, a laptop and a phone, Free does not cover you and the paid tiers do.
• Not end-to-end encrypted on hosted. Semantic search needs the server to read your text in order to index it. Notes are encrypted at rest with per-user keys, and you can self-host the whole stack if you want the strong version, but the hosted service is not E2E.
• The free tier indexes 2,000 notes, not 10,000. Everything syncs, but only the oldest 2,000 are searchable. A 6,000-note vault on Free syncs completely and then cannot find two thirds of itself. Free also allows 20 AI searches a day.
• No version history and no live co-editing yet. Obsidian Sync has the first, Relay has the second.

What the others on this list cannot do, because none of them have a server that understands your notes: answer a question from your vault while Obsidian is closed, from your phone, or from a browser.

Pick it if sync was never the whole problem and you want the vault readable by the AI tools you already use.

How to actually choose

Answer these in order and stop at the first yes.

1. Do you need end-to-end encryption? Obsidian Sync if you want it to work out of the box, Self-hosted LiveSync or Remotely Save if you want it free and will configure it. Not Engram’s hosted service, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
2. Is iOS in your device list and is cost the binding constraint? Remotely Save. Syncthing will fight you.
3. Do you want real-time sync without paying? Self-hosted LiveSync. Its WebRTC mode needs no server, so this no longer assumes a homelab.
4. Do you want version history above everything? Obsidian Git, or Obsidian Sync if you want it to be pleasant.
5. Do you want an AI to answer from your notes, including with Obsidian closed? That is the one thing on this page only Engram does.

If none of those land, you probably do not have a sync problem yet, and the right move is to keep using what you have.