Syncthing vs hosted note sync: which one should carry your notes?

Syncthing and a hosted sync service solve the same problem in opposite ways. Syncthing is free and open source, and it copies files directly between your own devices with nothing stored in the middle. A hosted service keeps a copy on a server, so your devices never have to be awake at the same time.

If your devices overlap in time, or one machine is always on, Syncthing is excellent and costs nothing. If they do not, what a hosted service sells you is availability.

It is not really a privacy decision. Both can be private: Syncthing because no company stores your files, a good hosted service because it only ever holds ciphertext it cannot read. Peer to peer note sync wins on cost and on control. Hosted sync wins on availability, on the phone in your pocket, and on what happens when two edits collide.

How Syncthing works

Each device runs a Syncthing node with its own device ID, a long identifier you paste into the other device to pair them. You mark a folder as shared between chosen devices, and every change travels directly between them over an encrypted connection.

There is no account and no vendor storage. The project runs discovery servers that help two nodes find each other, and relay servers that carry traffic when a direct connection is impossible. Relays see only encrypted bytes, but discovery does announce your device ID and reachable addresses to servers you do not run. You can turn both off and give each device a static address, at the cost of more configuration.

Where Syncthing genuinely wins

It is free, permanently, for as many devices as you own. That is not a trial or a tier. It is also open source, so anyone can read exactly what it does with your files. No closed product, Jotura included, can make that claim.

No company stores your files. There is no account to breach, no subscription to lapse, and no business that can be acquired and changed out from under you. If your notes must never rest on hardware you do not control, Syncthing meets that and hosted sync cannot.

Where peer-to-peer sync costs you

Both devices have to be online at the same time. You write a note on the laptop, close the lid, then open your phone on the train, and the note is not there because the laptop is asleep.

There is a real answer to that. Syncthing supports untrusted devices, which receive only encrypted data. So a cheap virtual server, or a spare box at a friend’s house, can be your always-on member without being able to read anything. That closes most of the availability gap, but it still leaves you administering a server, with no text merging, no shared history, and no ordinary phone app.

Mobile is the second rough edge. The official Syncthing Android app was retired at the end of 2024, and the main community fork had been maintained for years before that, so the handover was uneventful. On iPhone and iPad there has never been an official app. The usual option is Mobius Sync, a paid third-party app built on the Syncthing engine, so the free-forever claim stops at the iOS border.

Conflicts are the third. Syncthing does not merge text. Change the same note on two devices while they cannot see each other and you get your file plus a second file with a conflict marker in the name. You reconcile the two by hand.

Version history is the fourth. Syncthing has optional file versioning you switch on per folder, a genuine safety net. It is also local to each device, so the machine holding your history is the machine that can be lost, stolen, or hit by ransomware.

What a hosted service actually buys

Two things come with every hosted sync service. A device that was offline for a week catches up the moment it wakes, with no always-on machine of your own. And you install a normal app from the phone’s app store instead of maintaining a fork.

After that, services differ enormously, and those differences are what to compare. Plain file sync like Dropbox, iCloud Drive, or OneDrive handles a concurrent markdown edit the same way Syncthing does, by handing you two files. Some note-specific services merge the text instead. History depth and person-to-person sharing vary just as widely.

You pay in money and in trust. End-to-end encryption shrinks the trust part: if the operator never holds a key, a subpoena, a rogue employee, or a breach of the server yields ciphertext. Read how end-to-end encrypted note sync works before you pick a service.

Side by side

What you are comparing	Syncthing	Hosted note sync
Cost	Free	A subscription
Source	Open source	Usually closed
Where files rest	Only your devices	Your devices plus a server
Devices awake at different times	No sync until they overlap, unless you run an always-on device	Each device catches up when it wakes
Mobile	Community fork on Android, paid third-party app on iOS	Normal app store install. Jotura is Android only, with no iOS app
Two edits to one note	Conflict copy you resolve by hand	Conflict copy on plain file sync. Automatic merge on some note-specific services, Jotura Sync among them
Version history	Optional, stored on each device	Server side, depth varies by service
Sharing with another person	Not really its job	Varies. Some offer it, including Jotura Sync. Several popular ones do not
Setup effort	Add each device once, share the folder, tune ignore patterns	Sign in

Running Syncthing with a markdown vault

A markdown vault is an ordinary folder of .md files, so Syncthing carries it with no special handling. The part that goes wrong is editor state. Every editor keeps working files next to your notes, and they change constantly on whichever machine is open. That is how people end up with a folder of conflict copies that have nothing to do with their writing.

Put a .stignore file at the root of the folder and list those directories. For an Obsidian or Jotura vault:

.obsidian
.jotura

.obsidian holds workspace layout and plugin state. .jotura holds per-device sync bookkeeping, the local search index, and the trash that deleted notes move into. Copying either between machines confuses both.

Excluding .jotura has one consequence. A note you delete on the laptop does disappear on the desktop, but the recoverable trash entry does not follow. Restore it on the machine where you deleted it.

Build one more habit: while the machines are apart, edit a given note on one machine at a time. Syncthing will keep both versions safely, then hand you the merge. For the wider set of options, see syncing markdown notes across devices.

What Jotura Sync does instead

Jotura Sync is a paid hosted service: £4 a month or £40 a year, with no free trial. Syncthing is free and open source, and Jotura is closed source. On cost and on auditability Syncthing wins outright, and it would be dishonest to argue otherwise.

Jotura encrypts each note on your device before it uploads anything. The key comes from your passphrase by way of Argon2id, a password-hashing function deliberately slow and memory-hungry, which makes guessing attacks expensive. Every file gets its own key.

It also replaces each file path with a keyed hash, called an HMAC, so the server stores an identifier it cannot turn back into a filename. The server holds ciphertext and nothing else. Your way back in is a BIP39 recovery phrase that only you hold. Lose it and the server copy cannot be decrypted onto a new device, though your local files are plain markdown and stay readable either way.

Concurrent edits merge automatically. Version history runs three years, with attribution. You can share a folder or a single note in an editor or viewer role, and both sides need a Sync subscription.

The command line tool that ships with the app shows sync state:

jotura sync status --json

jotura doctor is the other one worth knowing: it checks the vault’s sync setup and reports queue depth and key-cache state.

One limitation to weigh before anything else: there is no iOS app at all. If an iPhone is central to your note taking, Jotura is the wrong tool no matter how you sync. Pricing detail is on the pricing page, and the app itself is free to download.

How to choose

Pick Syncthing if you own the devices, they are mostly desktops or a laptop plus a machine that stays on, and you would rather pay nothing and trust nobody.

Pick a hosted service if a phone is in your daily loop, or if your devices are rarely awake together. Pick one too for automatic merges, history you did not configure, or sharing. Then judge the service on its encryption rather than its adjectives.

Questions people ask

Is Syncthing safe for private notes? Yes, with one caveat. Your files only exist on machines you paired, and traffic between them is encrypted. The caveat is metadata: discovery and relays involve servers you do not run, and you can switch both off.

Can I run Syncthing and Jotura Sync on the same folder? You can, but do not. Two sync systems writing one directory fight over the same files and produce conflict copies. Choose one owner for the vault.

What happens to my notes if I stop paying for hosted sync? With Jotura, the local files are plain markdown in a normal folder and stay fully usable. Only the syncing stops. Check this for any service you consider. It is the difference between renting a feature and renting your notes.