The topic This free Obsidian sync setup is better than Obsidian Premium is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
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Obsidian Sync is the official Obsidian service that lets you sync your Obsidian notes between devices. However, it’s a monthly subscription that costs $5 or $10 a month, depending on the feature tier you pick. Now there are workarounds that let you sync Obsidian notes between devices, but they’re either too complicated to set up or have too many moving parts prone to failure, or both. I’d like to show you a free Obsidian sync system which is just as convenient and robust as Obsidian Sync, while giving you more control and features.
The way Obsidian sync works is that it keeps all your notes on a remote server and Obsidian apps copy to their local storage from that server. You can do exactly that for free thanks to a free and open-source Obsidian plugin called Obsidian Git.
Obsidian Git uses a GitHub repo to store your Obsidian vault, which you can clone into your Obsidian vault on any device. You can either sync changes manually or set the plugin to automatically sync changes (like new notes or edits made to existing notes.)
There are two Obsidian Sync tiers: the $5 a month subscription only lets you sync one vault between devices, and it’s limited to 1GB of storage. It gives you a version history going as far back as 30 days. Any version history after that cut off is permanently deleted. The second tier costs $10 a month and lets you sync up to 10 vaults at a time and keeps version history for at least 12 months before deleting it.
The Obsidian Git plugin lets you sync as many vaults as you like. It integrates powerful Git versioning directly into your Obsidian vault. The history is stored forever, and you get the standard free 15GB of storage on GitHub.
You can define exactly which notes to sync, so you get total and granular control over the vault snapshots. Also, Obsidian Sync automatically resolves version conflicts, but with Obsidian Git you have access to Git’s diff and merge tools.
The Obsidian Git plugin also frees you from Obsidian as a closed-source platform. Git is a free and open-source tool, and keeping your notes in a simple GitHub repo means you can clone it on any device and use any editor to work with your files. With Obsidian Sync, you’re locked into their platform because your files and version history are not accessible outside the Obsidian app.
Obsidian app installed on your desktop. If you’re on Linux, make sure you’re using the AppImage version of Obsidian, not a Flatpak or Snap.
Start by creating a private GitHub repo. Log in to your GitHub account and hit the “New” button to create a new repository for your vault. Give it any name you want, select Private under Choose Visibility and click Create Repository. Make sure you’ve selected “private” as the repo
Next, we’ll create an authentication token, so that Git can talk to GitHub. Click your GitHub profile icon and go to Settings. Scroll down to Developer Settings and open Personal Access Token. Select Tokens (classic) > Generate a new token > Generate new token (classic). Enable repo under scope. Then hit Generate. Copy the token it generates and save it somewhere safe (you won’t be able to see it once you close this GitHub page.)
Creating new Github repositories is a core part of many people’s workflow, especially when starting new projects.
Look for your target Obsidian vault inside a file manager. Right-click inside that folder and click Open a terminal here to launch a terminal.
Run the following commands. Substitute the placeholders with your personal access token, username, and the GitHub repo name you chose.
Now we’ll install the Obsidian Git plugin on all target devices. The process is identical on all platforms. Open Obsidian and go to Community Plugins and look for “obsidian git.” Install the plugin and enable it.
Open the Obsidian Git plugin settings to configure the syncing process. The plugin can automatically sync your vault notes at regular intervals like 5 or 10 minutes. There’s also an auto backup feature that syncs changes a few seconds after you stop typing or making edits.
You can manually commit changes and sync them with the repo. Inside Obsidian, press Ctrl+P to open the command palette. You’ll see a whole list of Git commands. Hit commit-and-sync to manually sync all the changes and edits.
You can set the plugin to automatically pull any changes when you open Obsidian.
Obsidian Git will automatically keep all your notes synced between devices where you have Git set up. You have total control over what gets synced and how without any limits on the number of synced vaults or version history.