Every Obsidian sync option works fine on a desktop. Ask the question honestly — do I need this vault on my phone? — and most of the free options fall away immediately.
Obsidian Sync, the official option
| Standard | Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual | $4/mo | $8/mo |
| Monthly | $5/mo | $10/mo |
| Synced vaults | 1 | 10 |
| Storage | 1 GB | 10 GB, upgradeable to 100 GB |
| Max file size | 5 MB | 200 MB |
| Version history | 1 month | 12 months |
| Devices | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Sync is end-to-end encrypted with AES-256, and Obsidian is unusually blunt about what that means: “We’re not able to recover your password, or any encrypted data for you.” Lose the encryption password and the remote vault is gone. Not delayed, not recoverable through support — gone.
That claim is not just marketing. Two independent security audits have been published — Cure53 in October 2024 and Trail of Bits in December 2025 — with 5 and 11 findings respectively, remediations validated by the auditors. Three issues remain open, including deterministic file-hash encryption and the lack of cryptographic binding between file paths and content. That is a rare thing to be able to say about any encrypted product, and worth more than a marketing badge.
The free options, and what actually breaks
| Option | Cost | The failure mode |
|---|---|---|
| iCloud Drive | 5 GB free | Apple-only. Silent overwrite on conflict — users report a stale file from one device replacing a newer note with no conflict copy and no warning. Obsidian’s own docs warn iCloud on Windows “may lead to file duplication or corruption.” |
| Google Drive | 15 GB free | Unsupported on iOS per Obsidian’s docs. Files get offloaded unless marked available offline, and Obsidian then sees them as missing. |
| OneDrive | 5 GB free | Also unsupported on iOS. Same offloading problem unless the vault is set to “always keep on this device”. |
| Syncthing | Free | Excellent on desktop. But the official Android app was discontinued in late 2024 (community fork only), and there has never been an official iOS client. |
| Git | Free | Fine on desktop. The obsidian-git maintainer labels mobile “highly unstable” — HTTPS only, no rebase, and it may crash on clone or run indefinitely on larger vaults. |
| Remotely Save | Free core; PRO for more backends | Works on mobile. Its own README opens with “ALWAYS, ALWAYS, backup your vault before using this plugin.” |
Three details that bite regardless of which you choose
- The .obsidian folder. Syncing it keeps plugins and settings identical everywhere, which sounds good until two devices with different plugin sets start fighting. Obsidian’s docs suggest excluding it if you want per-device settings — decide deliberately rather than by default.
- Never run two sync services on one vault. Obsidian says this explicitly and it is the documented recipe for conflicts and corruption. If you are switching from iCloud to Sync, turn the first one off properly.
- Conflict handling is the whole game. Obsidian Sync and git both keep versions. iCloud and Drive resolve by overwriting. Remotely Save’s free tier asks you to pick “newer or larger” — there is no merge; smart merge is a PRO feature.
Mobile, honestly
On iOS the free field is small: iCloud works if you are all-Apple, Remotely Save works with a bring-your-own-bucket setup, and the third-party Syncthing client (Möbius Sync) manages roughly one to two hours of sync activity a day because of Apple’s background limits, with a 20 MB file cap on its free tier. On Android, Syncthing still works through the community fork and Google Drive is fine with files marked offline.
If you are on iOS with a vault you care about, $4 a month is a reasonable price for not thinking about this again. That is not a sponsored line — it is what the failure modes above add up to.
What changed recently
- Obsidian became free for work in February 2025 — the commercial licence is now optional. Most write-ups older than that are wrong about this, including ones that still tell teams they owe $50 per user per year.
- Syncthing discontinued its official Android app in late 2024, which materially weakens it as a recommendation for anyone syncing to a phone.
- The two Sync audits were published together in May 2026.
The short answer
- Desktop only, all platforms: Syncthing. Free, fast, no cloud involved.
- All-Apple and casual about it: iCloud Drive, with “Keep Downloaded” turned on.
- You want version history and no thinking: Obsidian Sync Standard at $4/mo.
- Large vault with attachments: Sync Plus — the 5 MB file cap on Standard is lower than most people expect.
- You already live in git: obsidian-git on desktop, and something else on the phone.
Whatever you pick, the structure of the vault matters more than the pipe it travels down — a vault that survives a year is worth more than a perfect sync setup.
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