If you don't want to pay then just use syncthing. It's free and cross platform.

If you only use iOS and a Mac then iCloud will work fine. It’s only a problem on Windows where the iCloud implementation is buggy.

I am all Apple so I use iCloud. Works like a charm. No issues at all

I purchased sync. I agree it is a little on the expensive side.

The one thing you can do is just use git and turn on the push and pull. It seems to be very reliable this way. Though you won't be able to use it on the phone as far as I have been able to figure out.

You can use "Remotely Save" community plugin.

I currently use Syncthing and it works with the exception of syncing to my iPad (and I imagine iPhone but I have an Android)... need to figure out something else for that. I did see someone somewhere mention CouchDB combined with https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync so I might try that and see if it works.

With rclone you can use any cloud (or just sync directly via WiFi when at home) to store your vaults

I see there's a variety of options. To add one more option: I use the extension Self-hosted live sync : it's very nice and easy to handle (though you have to be technically interested to set it up)

If I didn't have a work Windows machine, I'd still be using iCloud to sync.

There is an education and non-profit discount that knocks 40% off Obsidian Sync, if you happen to qualify.

I had mine backing up to a GitHub repository. I ended up abandoning it and just taking notes in a text editor. Gonna try org mode in vim with a plugin and see if I like that better. Main complaint is that I have 200k commits from obsidian

@nieceandtows I’m in the Apple ecosystem so I’ve been using iCloud for the same reason of the cost. My vault is relatively small and simple though. I’m assuming that once it starts to get larger and more complex I’m going to have to buck up for Sync.

I use Remotely Save with my Vault, synced to a local NAS that I connect to via WebDAV (but you can use sources like OneDrive, S3, etc.). Apart from some minor conflicts like deleted folders reappearing, it’s pretty stable.

I did a roll-your-own solution with private GitHub repo and a script to push changes and pull them from other machines. I update things on my main desktop, my laptop, and my Android phone this way, no extra costs incurred.

I use git as it even has a native interface; you only need to init the vault as a repo yourself. Then you can host that repository wherever you want, be it your own VPS, your local server, your local computer, a Git hosting service (e.g. github, gitea).

So to speak, what you get by Obsidian sync for your money is not having to deal with the hassle on hosting it yourself.