Free alternatives to Obsidian Sync

Five free gigabytes and excellent Apple plumbing; everyone else gets a side door.

Versus paying: It is Apple-centric and lacks Obsidian Sync's vault-aware version history, deleted-file recovery, selective vault syncing and end-to-end-encrypted service across all supported platforms.

Setup: Enable iCloud Drive in Apple-device settings; install iCloud for Windows from the Microsoft Store

Watch for: An Apple Account is required, free storage is shared with all iCloud data, and Android/Linux have no native iCloud Drive sync client

Your own cloud, complete with the privilege of maintaining your own cloud.

Versus paying: It can sync the folder, but it is not Obsidian-aware, does not provide the same conflict handling and version recovery by default, and makes you operate the cloud service.

Setup: Nextcloud All-in-One Docker stack or a supported web-server/PHP/database installation, plus sync clients

Watch for: A practical deployment needs an always-on host, Docker or a full PHP/database stack, domain and TLS, storage planning, backups, and upgrades

36,300 GitHub stars (checked Aug 6, 2026)

Syncs the vault directly between computers; iPhones remain the awkward relative.

Versus paying: It has no central always-available history or recovery service, devices need overlapping availability to propagate changes, and iPhone/iPad support depends on third-party clients.

Setup: Install a native package or binary on every device, exchange device IDs, and share the vault folder

Watch for: Every device needs a client and pairing, at least one peer must be online to receive changes, and there is no official iOS client

87,300 GitHub stars (checked Aug 6, 2026)