For years, the default assumption in productivity software has been simple: sign up, log in, and let the cloud handle the rest. Evernote, Notion, OneNote, Apple Notes — all of them require an account, and all of them store your data on someone else’s servers. But a growing cohort of users is pushing back against that model, seeking tools that offer synchronization without surrendering personal data to yet another corporate platform. One recent and detailed account of this shift comes from a writer at MakeUseOf, who documented how they replaced their entire note-taking workflow with a tool that syncs across devices without requiring any account at all.
The tool in question is Obsidian, paired with the Syncthing protocol — a combination that has been gaining traction among privacy-conscious professionals, developers, and writers who want full ownership of their notes. As reported by MakeUseOf, the author had previously relied on a patchwork of apps including Google Keep, Notion, and Apple Notes, each serving a different function but none providing a unified, private, and account-free experience.
Why the Account-Free Model Is Gaining Ground
The frustration with account-based note-taking services is not merely philosophical. It is practical. Every account represents a potential data breach vector, another password to manage, another terms-of-service agreement that can change without notice. When Evernote was acquired by Bending Spoons in late 2022, users watched as the company laid off most of its staff and raised prices, prompting widespread concern about data continuity. Notion, while beloved by many teams, stores all data on its servers, meaning an outage or policy change can lock users out of their own information.
The MakeUseOf writer articulated this anxiety clearly: the goal was not just to find a better note-taking app, but to find a system where the data lived locally, in plain-text files, synced peer-to-peer between devices without any intermediary server holding the keys. Obsidian, which stores notes as Markdown files in a local folder, fits this requirement perfectly. The app itself is free for personal use, and its plugin architecture allows users to extend functionality without relying on proprietary formats.
Obsidian and Syncthing: The Technical Architecture
Obsidian has been available since 2020 and has built a devoted following, particularly among users who value interoperability and longevity of their data. Because notes are stored as plain .md files, they can be opened in any text editor, on any operating system, decades from now — no proprietary database required. The app offers features like backlinks, graph views, templates, and a rich plugin ecosystem, but the core value proposition is that your data is yours, stored on your filesystem.
The synchronization piece is where Syncthing enters the picture. Syncthing is an open-source, peer-to-peer file synchronization tool that connects devices directly, without routing data through a central server. As the MakeUseOf article explains, the author configured Syncthing to keep their Obsidian vault synchronized across a laptop, a desktop, and an Android phone. Changes made on one device propagate to the others whenever the devices are on the same network — or even across the internet via relay servers that cannot read the encrypted data.
What the Setup Actually Replaces
The scope of what the author replaced is notable. According to the MakeUseOf report, the previous system included Google Keep for quick capture, Notion for structured project notes and databases, and Apple Notes for miscellaneous items shared with family. Each of these tools had strengths, but the fragmentation meant that finding a specific note required remembering which app it lived in. Worse, each app had its own export format, making migration painful.
With Obsidian, the author consolidated everything into a single vault. Quick notes, long-form writing, project management via the Kanban plugin, daily journals, and reference material all live in one place. The folder structure is customizable, and Obsidian’s powerful search — including full-text search across thousands of notes — eliminates the need to remember where something was filed. Tags, links between notes, and the graph view provide multiple ways to surface related information, a capability that siloed apps simply cannot match.
The Privacy Calculus in 2025
This shift is happening against a broader backdrop of increasing concern about data privacy and digital sovereignty. In recent months, discussions on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit have intensified around the topic of “local-first” software — applications that prioritize local data storage and treat cloud synchronization as optional rather than mandatory. The local-first movement, which gained intellectual momentum from a 2019 research paper by Martin Kleppmann and colleagues at Ink & Switch, argues that users should not have to sacrifice ownership and offline access for the convenience of collaboration and sync.
The appeal is especially strong in professional contexts. Lawyers, journalists, medical professionals, and researchers often handle sensitive information that they are ethically or legally obligated to protect. Storing such notes in a cloud service governed by the laws of a foreign jurisdiction — or subject to the business decisions of a venture-backed startup — introduces risks that a local-first approach avoids entirely. Syncthing’s architecture, which uses TLS encryption for all transfers and never stores data on any server, addresses these concerns directly.
The Trade-Offs Are Real, But Manageable
No system is without friction, and the MakeUseOf author was candid about the trade-offs. Setting up Syncthing requires more technical knowledge than simply downloading Notion and signing in. The initial configuration — installing Syncthing on each device, exchanging device IDs, selecting which folders to sync — takes time and a willingness to troubleshoot. On Android, the author used the Syncthing-Fork app, which maintains synchronization in the background more reliably than the original Syncthing Android client.
Conflict resolution is another area where this setup demands more user attention. If the same note is edited on two devices before they sync, Syncthing creates a conflict file rather than silently merging changes. This is arguably safer than the automatic merging that cloud services attempt — which can sometimes produce garbled results — but it does require the user to manually reconcile differences. For most personal note-taking workflows, where simultaneous edits are rare, this is a minor inconvenience rather than a serious obstacle.
Obsidian’s Official Sync vs. the DIY Approach
It is worth acknowledging that Obsidian itself offers a paid synchronization service called Obsidian Sync, priced at $4 per month (or $8 for early supporters). This service provides end-to-end encrypted sync through Obsidian’s own servers and is considerably easier to set up than a Syncthing configuration. For users who trust the Obsidian team but want to avoid the complexity of peer-to-peer sync, it is a reasonable middle ground.
However, the philosophical distinction matters to many in this community. Obsidian Sync still involves a third-party server and a paid account. The Syncthing approach, by contrast, is entirely free and keeps data transfers strictly between the user’s own devices. For those who have made a deliberate decision to minimize their exposure to third-party services, the DIY route is not just a cost-saving measure — it is a statement of principle about how personal data should be handled.
A Broader Movement Toward Digital Self-Reliance
The trend extends well beyond note-taking. Tools like Logseq, Joplin, and Standard Notes have all carved out significant user bases by offering local-first or end-to-end encrypted alternatives to mainstream productivity apps. The file synchronization space, too, has seen renewed interest in self-hosted solutions like Nextcloud and Syncthing as users grow wary of Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud’s evolving pricing and privacy policies.
What makes the Obsidian-plus-Syncthing combination particularly compelling is that it asks users to give up very little in terms of functionality. Obsidian’s plugin library — which includes tools for task management, spaced repetition, citation management, and even AI-assisted writing — rivals or exceeds what most commercial note-taking apps offer. And because the underlying data format is plain Markdown, users are never locked in. If a better tool emerges in five years, migration is as simple as pointing the new app at the same folder of text files.
What This Means for the Future of Personal Software
The account described by MakeUseOf is one data point, but it reflects a pattern that software makers would be wise to watch. Users are increasingly sophisticated about the implications of where their data lives and who controls access to it. The success of tools like Obsidian — which has reportedly surpassed one million users — suggests that there is a substantial market for software that respects user autonomy, even if it requires a bit more effort to configure.
For the note-taking industry, the lesson is clear: the next generation of productivity tools will need to compete not just on features and design, but on trust. Users who have experienced the freedom of owning their data outright — of knowing that their notes will survive any company’s bankruptcy, any service’s sunset, any terms-of-service revision — are unlikely to go back to the old model willingly. The era of mandatory accounts and opaque cloud storage is not over, but the alternatives have never been stronger.