An XDA piece this month walked through moving an entire Obsidian vault onto a home NAS so every device sees the same notes without a subscription. It is a good excuse to revisit the desktop side of that setup: a vault is just a folder of Markdown files, so any transport that moves a folder between machines can replace Obsidian Sync. This guide covers seven Obsidian Sync alternatives we have actually used across Windows, macOS, and Linux, ranked by how much hand-holding they need on a desktop.
Our companion piece covers the mobile side of the same setups. This one focuses on Windows, macOS, and Linux workflows, so the transports and clients are picked accordingly.
Quick comparison
| Transport | Best for | Cost | End-to-end encryption | Setup effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syncthing | LAN-first sync between your own machines | Free | In transit | Low |
| iCloud Drive | Mac users with an existing iCloud+ plan | Bundled | Apple-managed | Very low |
| Google Drive via Remotely Save | Existing Google One accounts | Free up to 15 GB | At rest only | Low |
| Dropbox | Rock-solid conflict handling | Free 2 GB, paid for more | At rest only | Very low |
| Git with Obsidian Git | Version history for your notes | Free | At rest and in transit | Medium |
| Self-hosted LiveSync | Real-time replication you own | Free plugin, hosting costs vary | End-to-end via passphrase | High |
| Resilio Sync | Polished P2P closer to a finished product | Free, paid Pro | In transit | Low |
Why people leave Obsidian Sync
The Obsidian forum and the r/ObsidianMD subreddit come back to three complaints.
Price is the first. Obsidian Sync Standard is $5 per month, Plus is $10, and both bill per vault. Anyone with a personal vault, a work vault, and a shared family vault is paying for three subscriptions to do what Syncthing does for free.
Vault size is the second. Standard caps files and totals at one gigabyte with a year of history. The moment PDFs, large images, or an attachment-heavy Zettelkasten enter the vault, users bump up to Plus.
Principle is the third. Plenty of Obsidian users want their notes encrypted before the file leaves the device and prefer to hold the keys themselves. Obsidian Sync is end-to-end encrypted, but it is still a closed service on someone else’s servers.
The alternatives
Syncthing — best LAN-first sync between your own machines
Syncthing is the default community answer for free vault sync between desktops. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, finds peers automatically over the LAN, and never touches a cloud. Vaults converge in seconds on a home network. For a NAS, install Syncthing as a container and every desktop points at the NAS as the always-on peer.
Where it falls short: No first-party GUI on macOS, so most Mac users install Syncthing Tray or a Menu-bar wrapper. Conflict files appear with a suffix instead of merging silently.
Pricing:
- Free, open source across every platform.
- vs Obsidian Sync: free forever, no recurring cost.
Migrating from Obsidian Sync: Stop Obsidian Sync, install Syncthing on each desktop, point it at your vault folder, accept the shared folder ID on each end. A mid-size vault converges within minutes on a LAN.
Download: syncthing.net · Homebrew: brew install syncthing · Windows installer: SyncTrayzor
Bottom line: The right pick if you own at least one always-on machine (a laptop that lives on the desk counts) and you never want a sync bill again.
iCloud Drive — best for Mac users with iCloud+
iCloud Drive is the least-work option for a pure-Apple setup. The Obsidian macOS app supports the iCloud Drive vault container natively, and Windows users can join via the official iCloud client. Files show up in Finder, in File Explorer, and inside Obsidian on iOS with no plugins.
Where it falls short: No Linux client. iCloud stalls under heavy upload load are still a thing in 2026, and the free 5 GB tier fills quickly with attachments.
Pricing:
- Free 5 GB with any Apple ID.
- iCloud+ from $0.99 per month for 50 GB, tiers up from there.
- vs Obsidian Sync: cheaper if you already pay for iCloud+, useless if a Linux box is in the mix.
Migrating from Obsidian Sync: Move the vault folder into iCloud Drive/Obsidian/ on one Mac, open the vault on the other Macs and Windows machines using the iCloud location. Versioning on macOS handles rollbacks automatically.
Download: icloud.com/download (Windows client) · Built into macOS.
Bottom line: The right pick when every device you sync to runs macOS or Windows and you already pay Apple for storage.
Google Drive via Remotely Save — best for existing Google One accounts
Google Drive does not sync an Obsidian vault natively, but the community plugin Remotely Save fills the gap. Install Remotely Save inside Obsidian on each desktop, point it at your Google account, and the plugin syncs on app open, on a timer, or on demand. Remotely Save also handles Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, and S3.
Where it falls short: Not real-time. Two desktops editing the same note between syncs will conflict. Free tier is 15 GB shared with Gmail and Photos.
Pricing:
- Free up to 15 GB across the whole Google account.
- Google One from $1.99 per month for 100 GB.
- vs Obsidian Sync: cheaper than Sync Standard if you already pay for Google One.
Migrating from Obsidian Sync: Disable Obsidian Sync, install Remotely Save on each desktop, choose Google Drive as the remote, run a first full sync. The first pass takes the longest because every note uploads fresh.
Download: Install the Remotely Save community plugin from inside Obsidian.
Bottom line: The right pick when you already pay Google for storage and you can live with sync on app open rather than continuous.
Dropbox — best for rock-solid conflict handling
Dropbox is the boring, reliable answer. Drop the vault into the Dropbox folder on each desktop and the native client handles the sync. Decades of conflict-resolution work means the “conflicted copy” files it produces are obvious, dated, and easy to merge, which matters more than raw speed.
Where it falls short: Free tier is 2 GB. No end-to-end encryption; everything sits on Dropbox’s servers under their keys.
Pricing:
- Free 2 GB.
- Plus from around $11.99 per month for 2 TB billed yearly.
- vs Obsidian Sync: pricier per month, but the storage covers far more than a vault.
Migrating from Obsidian Sync: Install the Dropbox client, move the vault into the Dropbox folder on one desktop, wait for the other desktops to pull it, open the vault from the Dropbox path in Obsidian.
Download: dropbox.com/install
Bottom line: The right pick when you have been burned by silent sync failures before and you want the most conservative client on the market.
Git with Obsidian Git — best for version history
Git turns the vault into a repository with a full commit log. The Obsidian Git community plugin auto-commits on save, auto-pulls on app open, and auto-pushes on a timer, so day-to-day you barely notice it is there. The vault sits on GitHub, GitLab, or a self-hosted Gitea, and the audit trail goes back to the first commit.
Where it falls short: Merge conflicts in notes look like merge conflicts in code, with markers in the text. Not ideal for very large binary attachments.
Pricing:
- Free across all components.
- A private GitHub or GitLab repo is free at any reasonable vault size.
- vs Obsidian Sync: free, and gives you a commit log Obsidian Sync does not.
Migrating from Obsidian Sync: Initialize the vault as a Git repo on one desktop, push to a private remote, clone on each other desktop, install the Obsidian Git plugin, turn on auto-pull and auto-push.
Download: git-scm.com · Install the Obsidian Git plugin inside Obsidian.
Bottom line: The right pick when you want a commit history alongside your notes and you already think in branches.
Self-hosted LiveSync — best real-time replication you own
Self-hosted LiveSync is the community plugin closest in feel to Obsidian Sync itself. It uses a CouchDB backend that you run on a NAS, a small VPS, or a home server, and replicates vault changes in real time across every desktop that opens the vault. End-to-end encryption is on by default, keyed by a passphrase you choose.
Where it falls short: You have to run the CouchDB server yourself. Setup is the most involved on the list. Conflicts can compound if a desktop stays offline for days.
Pricing:
- Plugin is free and open source.
- Hosting costs vary: zero on a home server, a few dollars a month on a small VPS.
- vs Obsidian Sync: cheaper than Sync Plus and the only option here with true real-time replication.
Migrating from Obsidian Sync: Spin up CouchDB (a Docker one-liner on any NAS), install Self-hosted LiveSync in Obsidian, paste the connection string and passphrase on each desktop, run an initial replication.
Download: Install the Self-hosted LiveSync plugin from inside Obsidian under Community plugins.
Bottom line: The right pick when you want every keystroke on every desktop in near real time and you are comfortable running a server.
Resilio Sync — best polished P2P
Resilio Sync is the commercial descendant of the protocol Syncthing forked from. The Windows and macOS desktop clients are more polished than Syncthing’s, NAT traversal is more forgiving, and the share model uses link-based keys that are easy to hand off to a second machine.
Where it falls short: Closed source. Selective sync and larger team shares sit behind paid tiers.
Pricing:
- Free for personal use.
- Home Pro from around $59 one-time; Family and Business tiers add more shares.
- vs Obsidian Sync: free for a single vault, one-time paid tier still beats a recurring bill.
Migrating from Obsidian Sync: Add the vault folder as a Resilio share on one desktop, accept the share key on the others, let it index. Existing files match by hash, so the first sync mostly verifies rather than re-uploads.
Download: resilio.com/individuals
Bottom line: The right pick when Syncthing is the right shape but you want a finished-feeling client.
How to choose
Pick Syncthing if at least one of your desktops is on most of the time and free-forever matters.
Pick iCloud Drive if every desktop in your sync graph runs macOS or Windows and you already pay Apple.
Pick Google Drive through Remotely Save if you already pay Google One and you can live with periodic sync.
Pick Dropbox if silent sync failure would ruin your week and you want the most conservative client available.
Pick Git with Obsidian Git if you want a commit log and you already speak Git.
Pick Self-hosted LiveSync if you want the real-time feel of Obsidian Sync and you own a machine that can run CouchDB.
Pick Resilio Sync if Syncthing is right in shape but its Windows or Mac client keeps misbehaving on your setup.
Stay on Obsidian Sync if you actively want zero configuration, official end-to-end encryption, and no home server to think about.
FAQ
Is Obsidian Sync worth it in 2026?
If you want plug-and-play sync with end-to-end encryption and no infrastructure, yes. If you already run iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or a home server, you have free or near-free alternatives that match it on every dimension except convenience.
Can I use Syncthing to sync my Obsidian vault across desktops?
Yes. Point Syncthing at the vault folder on every desktop, share the folder ID, and the vault syncs over the LAN or the public discovery protocol. A NAS or always-on desktop as one of the peers makes convergence faster.
What is the cheapest Obsidian Sync alternative?
Syncthing and Git are both free with no recurring cost. Self-hosted LiveSync is free as a plugin and free to host on a machine you already own. iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox are free up to their storage tiers.
Does Obsidian Sync encrypt my notes?
Yes. Obsidian Sync uses end-to-end encryption by default, with the key derived from a password you set. Self-hosted LiveSync also supports end-to-end encryption. Syncthing and Resilio Sync encrypt in transit only. Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud encrypt at rest under the provider’s keys.
Can I keep my vault on a NAS and sync from there?
Yes, and it is a common setup. Install Syncthing, Resilio, or a CouchDB container on the NAS, point every desktop at it, and the NAS becomes the always-on peer that keeps the mesh converged. It also makes desktop-to-mobile sync trivial once a phone joins the same share.
