I have this personal rule: I never pay for something that's free. Free-to-play game battle passes? No thanks. Premium tiers on free apps? Hard pass. It’s just my principle. But last year, I made a single, glorious exception. And one year later? It was the best decision I’ve made for my digital life. Obsidian is probably my second most-used app, right after my browser. While I don't track my app usage anymore, my gut tells me it's a solid #2. And paying for Obsidian Sync is the reason why.
I run two separate Obsidian vaults, and they're both non-negotiable parts of my life.
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Vault #1: My Academic Brain 🧠 - This holds all my university notes, research summaries, and random musings. I needed instant access whether I was at my desktop, in a café with my laptop, or on the bus with just my phone.
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Vault #2: My Personal Journal ✍️ - Journaling is a habit I feel guilty about skipping. I refused to let "I'm not at my computer" become an easy excuse to break the streak.
For the longest time, I tried to be clever and use a free workaround. I synced my vaults through Google Drive. It was… messy. File conflicts were a nightmare, and version history was basically non-existent. But hey, it was free and it kind of worked.
Then, I switched to an iPhone. Reality check time! 🚨 Google Drive on iOS doesn't keep local file copies. The handy Android app that made my janky setup work? Not available on iOS. The alternatives that did exist all required payment (classic Apple move). I was completely stuck. My seamless note-taking flow was broken.
That's when I seriously looked at Obsidian Sync. It’s a paid service built by Obsidian, for Obsidian. The pricing made me pause. The cheaper plan only supported one vault, but I had two completely separate worlds I didn't want to merge—mixing my academic notes with my personal journal would have ruined my beautiful categorization and graph views.
I took a deep breath and went for the 10-vault Plus plan. At $100 a year, it felt steep for a tool built on a free, open-source app. But then I thought: I use Obsidian way more than my ChatGPT subscription, and that costs money too. Plus, supporting the developers directly felt like the right thing to do.
Fast forward twelve months, and I have zero regrets. Here’s why Obsidian Sync has been a total game-changer for me:
If "seamless" is an overused buzzword, Obsidian Sync is the exception. It makes every other syncing method I've tried feel clunky and outdated. The setup is stupidly simple:
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Create an Obsidian account and subscribe.
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Enable the pre-installed (but dormant) Obsidian Sync plugin.
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Log in, select your vault, and upload it. Your data stays perfectly safe!
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On your other devices, just log in, choose the vault, and pick a local folder.
That’s literally it. You can tweak settings to exclude specific folders (like huge image directories) or plugins per device, but the defaults are spot-on. For example, on my iPhone, I have image syncing turned off to save data and storage since I rarely view images there anyway.
The best part? It’s invisible. A tiny, unobtrusive circle in the bottom-right corner tells you everything: spinning means syncing, a green checkmark means you’re all set. No pop-ups, no alerts, no drama.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you get:
| Plan | Vaults | Storage | Version History | Perfect For... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sync Standard | 1 | 1 GB | 1 Month | The one-vault wonder. Incredible value! |
| Sync Plus 🥇 | 10 | 10 GB | 1 Year | Power users, students with separate vaults, journalers. |
Don’t sweat the storage. Markdown files are tiny! Even with images (which you should compress), you’ll hardly make a dent in 10GB.
The real value isn't in the specs; it's in the peace of mind. I write more now because I never have to think about where my notes are. They’re just… there. On my laptop, my phone, even that one time I booted up Linux on a whim. Before Sync, I only truly trusted Obsidian on my main computer. Now, it’s my universal second brain.
The highest praise I can give Obsidian Sync is that there’s not much more to say about it. Unlike my janky Google Drive saga, it doesn’t create stories or drama. It just works. Quietly. Reliably. In the background.
So, is it worth paying for something you’ll hardly notice? For this level of silent, seamless reliability in a world full of bloated apps and noisy notifications? **Absolutely, 100%. ** It’s the kind of tool that removes friction from your life, and that’s priceless. Breaking my "no pay for free" rule for Obsidian Sync? Best exception ever. 🙌
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