Obsidian

Last reviewed Aug 26, 2026 · 803 words

Obsidian Sync costs about $4 a month at last check, and every self-hosted replacement costs more of your time than that. Do it anyway if you want notes that never touch a server you do not own. The app is proprietary; the vault is a folder of plain Markdown files, and that is why 3 separate self-hosted sync routes exist and all of them work. The short version: Syncthing if your devices are desktops and Android, Self-hosted LiveSync if an iPhone is involved, Nextcloud if you already run it and can live with sync-on-open.

The vault is just files, and that decides everything

Every note is a .md file. Attachments sit alongside. The only Obsidian-specific thing is the hidden .obsidian folder holding settings, plugins and window layout. This is what makes the app safe to depend on despite the closed source: if Obsidian vanished tomorrow, Logseq or a text editor opens the same folder unchanged. It also means any file-sync tool is an Obsidian sync tool, with one caveat per route below.

Syncthing is best on desktop and Android, and awkward on iPhone

Syncthing between a laptop, a desktop and an Android phone is the setup I run. It is peer-to-peer, needs no server, and syncs within seconds of a save. Two settings prevent the conflicts everyone hits. First, tell Syncthing to ignore the layout files in .stignore:

.obsidian/workspace.json
.obsidian/workspace-mobile.json
.obsidian/cache

Those files change every time you click something, on every device, and they are the source of nearly all sync-conflict files. Second, turn on Staggered File Versioning for the folder, because a plugin that rewrites 200 notes in a loop is a real thing and versioning is how you undo it. The catch is iOS: there is no official Syncthing client, and the third-party Möbius Sync app works but is paid and runs only while foregrounded, so iPhone users get periodic sync rather than instant.

Self-hosted LiveSync is the mobile answer, with a CouchDB to run

Self-hosted LiveSync is a community plugin that syncs through a CouchDB you host, and because it lives inside Obsidian it works identically on iOS, Android and desktop. It also does live, keystroke-level sync with end-to-end encryption if you turn it on. The price is running CouchDB (plan on 200 to 300 MB of RAM) behind HTTPS with the CORS settings the plugin's setup wizard checks for. Reverse-proxy it with Caddy, create the database once, paste the URI into the plugin on each device, and it is the closest self-hosted thing to the official service. Keep the vault under a few GB; CouchDB holds every revision and grows accordingly.

Nextcloud or WebDAV through Remotely Save is good enough for most

The Remotely Save plugin talks to WebDAV, S3, Dropbox and OneDrive from inside Obsidian, so it too works on phones. Point it at a Nextcloud folder and it syncs when you open the vault, on an interval, or on demand, not continuously. For someone who writes on a laptop and reads on a phone, that is plenty, and it reuses infrastructure already running. Do not also mount the same folder through the Nextcloud desktop client on the laptop while the plugin runs on the phone; pick one mechanism per device or the two will fight.

Git is the fourth route, and the one with history

The Obsidian Git plugin commits and pushes on a timer to any remote, including a Gitea on your own box. Desktop support is excellent; mobile support exists but is slow on large vaults. Use it when you want a diffable history of your thinking more than you want real-time sync, or run it alongside Syncthing purely as the backup layer.

The proprietary question, answered plainly

Obsidian is free for personal and, since 2025, commercial use, needs no account, and phones home for nothing but update checks. The open-source alternatives, Logseq, Joplin and SilverBullet, each give up something Obsidian has, mainly the plugin ecosystem and the polish of the editor. The notes apps you own piece weighs those trade-offs; the summary is that Obsidian with self-hosted sync is the pragmatic middle, not the purist's choice.

What I'd do

Syncthing between the computers with the three ignores above and versioning on, and Self-hosted LiveSync only if an iPhone needs live sync; otherwise Remotely Save against Nextcloud for the phone. Nightly restic of the vault folder regardless, because sync is not backup. Total running cost is the CouchDB container if you need it, and the total setup is under 2 hours.