What is the best self-hosted note sync?

Q: What is the best self-hosted note sync?

Syncthing if you want your existing files synchronised between devices with no server and no subscription. SiYuan if you are willing to change apps in exchange for first-class sync built in. Trilium if you want a server-side knowledge base rather than a folder of files.

Best Self-Hosted Note Sync

Sync is the wire, not the application, and people conflate the two constantly.

Updated 2026-10-03 · 6 options compared

The short answer

Syncthing if you want your existing files synchronised between devices with no server and no subscription. SiYuan if you are willing to change apps in exchange for first-class sync built in. Trilium if you want a server-side knowledge base rather than a folder of files.

Sync is the wire, not the application, and people conflate the two constantly. Obsidian's files are plain Markdown on your disk — that means almost any synchronisation tool can carry them, and the question is not which note app to switch to but which wire you are willing to operate. This is the page for that decision, and it is deliberately separate from the note-taking list because the right sync answer is often to keep the app you already like.

6 options at a glance

Comparison of the 6 self-hosted options ranked on this page
#	Tool	License	Setup	Best for
1	Syncthing	MPL-2.0	Beginner	Synchronising Markdown note folders between devices, serverless.
2	Nextcloud	AGPL-3.0	Intermediate	Notes synchronised through a server you already operate.
3	SiYuan	AGPL-3.0	Beginner	Choosing an app and getting sync as part of the product.
4	Trilium Notes	AGPL-3.0	Intermediate	A shared knowledge base across devices with trivial backup.
5	Seafile	AGPL-3.0	Intermediate	Large documentation repositories that many people sync.
6	Rclone	MIT	Intermediate	Scheduled one-way or two-way sync to any storage backend.

Which one should you pick?

There are three architectures and each fails differently. Device-to-device tools like Syncthing have no central server and no quota but require devices to be online together, which matters if you edit on a phone and a laptop that rarely overlap. Server-based tools like Nextcloud, Seafile and rclone always have an authoritative copy but give you something to operate and back up. Native-sync apps like SiYuan and Trilium make sync a product feature rather than a configuration, at the price of living inside their data model. Pick the failure mode you can live with.

What actually decides it

Conflict handling is the whole game. Sync tools that silently overwrite are worse than no sync. Test deliberately: edit the same note on two devices while both are offline, then let them connect, and check what survives.
Do not sync a database you also have open. Running a sync client over an application's live database — as opposed to plain files — is a reliable way to corrupt it. Sync directories of files, not working data stores.
Git is a legitimate option for notes. If your notes are Markdown, a private repository gives you version history, conflict markers that are readable, and off-site backup in one move. It is not real-time, but for a solo writer that rarely matters.
Sync is not backup. A deletion propagates in seconds. Whatever wire you choose, something else must hold a copy that a deletion cannot reach.

All 6 options, in order

Syncthing

Best for: Synchronising Markdown note folders between devices, serverless.

The best fit for the common case of a folder of Markdown files that needs to be on three machines. Continuous, encrypted, peer-to-peer, no account, no quota, no central server to maintain. It has versioning and conflict handling built in, and it works when the internet does not — which is exactly the property you want underneath the notes you will depend on for years.

Files & Sync MPL-2.0 Beginner ★ 89,064

Replaces: Dropbox, Resilio Sync, Google Drive

Full review of Syncthing →

Nextcloud

Featured

Best for: Notes synchronised through a server you already operate.

If you already run it for files, adding your notes folder is a directory entry and it synchronises well. The advantage of a server-based copy is that a device being offline does not stall anything, and the authoritative version is somewhere you control. The cost is that you are now operating the thing holding your notes.

Files & Sync AGPL-3.0 Intermediate ★ 36,966

Replaces: Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive

Full review of Nextcloud →

SiYuan

Best for: Choosing an app and getting sync as part of the product.

Sync is a first-class feature of the application rather than something you assemble, which removes an entire class of configuration problems — and it is free where Obsidian's equivalent is a subscription. The trade is that your notes live in SiYuan's block model rather than as plain files, so switching away later is a real migration.

Productivity & Notes AGPL-3.0 Beginner ★ 46,582

Replaces: Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research

Full review of SiYuan →

Trilium Notes

Best for: A shared knowledge base across devices with trivial backup.

A server-hosted knowledge base with its own sync and a packaged desktop client, so several devices share one authoritative tree without any configuration outside the app. Its single-file-SQLite store makes backup a file copy, which is the simplest backup story in this category.

Productivity & Notes AGPL-3.0 Intermediate ★ 38,108

Replaces: Evernote, Obsidian Sync, Notion

Full review of Trilium Notes →

Seafile

Best for: Large documentation repositories that many people sync.

When a notes folder becomes a documentation repository with thousands of small files, sync engine quality starts to matter and Seafile's delta synchronisation is notably more efficient than a general-purpose file sync at that scale. Overkill for personal notes, well judged for team documentation.

Files & Sync AGPL-3.0 Intermediate ★ 15,293

Replaces: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive

Full review of Seafile →

Rclone

Best for: Scheduled one-way or two-way sync to any storage backend.

The scriptable option: sync or bisync a notes directory to S3, WebDAV, a remote server, or dozens of other backends on a schedule. Not real-time, and not a product — but for someone who wants their notes continuously pushed to a second location with a cron job and no daemon, it is five lines of configuration.

Files & Sync MIT Intermediate ★ 60,041

Replaces: Dropbox, Google Drive, rsync

Full review of Rclone →

How these compare to what you are using now

Obsidian Sync

Well built and private, but a subscription — and the vault is the one dataset you can least afford to lose access to over a billing problem.

Best Self-Hosted Note Sync

6 options at a glance

Which one should you pick?

What actually decides it

All 6 options, in order

Syncthing

Nextcloud

SiYuan

Trilium Notes

Seafile

Rclone

How these compare to what you are using now

Obsidian Sync

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