Syncing bytes is easy, many solutions exist (and syncthing / syncthing-fork is good at it).

Syncing by merging changes and resolving possible conflicts is a much harder task. Theoretically git has all the right bits, including the pluggable diffing and merging. In practice, I haven't seen it seriously used in this capacity.

This is to say nothing about files you only want on one node but not on another (heavy stuff lives on server and laptop, but not mobile, etc.)

This is why special-case syncing tools that know how to sync semantically are indispensable.

Syncthing on mobile is a little clunky because of OS limitations on background processes. Basically the reason I pay for Obsidian's own sync addon

I use syncthing together with wireguard to keep my vaults synced across devices.

Syncthing works well on Android for photos, music, movies, and downloads. Not so much for notes. You'll end up with conflicts, and there aren't many great ways to merge changes on mobile.

I can think of a number of other notes syncing that's better -- probably even Evernote's. As a happily paying Obsidian Sync customer, I'll drop some reality, so new people aren't caught off-guard.

- Obsidian Sync is pretty slow.

- Obsidian Sync doesn't happen in the background, at present. That means, if you just made a bunch of updates in Obsidian, or you haven't opened the Obsidian mobile app in a while, you're in for a wait.

- Obsidian Sync occasionally has sync errors that involve manual interaction.

That said, it's fine and the overall Obsidian experience makes it worth it (well, if you can swing a discounted price).

I love Obsidian Sync as well but to be devil's advocate, it doesn't "just work" as a lot of people claim. It's still a bit rough around the edges. For example, it doesn't sync settings or starred files immediately. I've also noticed it dropping some text if I edit the same file on multiple devices simultaneously (or even in quick succession before sync is able to catch up). I'm sure these issues and more would exist with a 3rd party syncing solution but Obsidian sync still needs some work before it's perfect.

I went for the paid syncing because I want it to "just work" while still having the futureproof way of storing the data locally in an accessible way.

So far it has worked absolutely flawless. If I change a file it's changing on my connected device in seconds. Not exactly like working on a shared google doc but close enough that I would even use it as a hack to quickly share links between my mobile and my desktop

I’m using Working Copy on iOS with the setup described in the post. It’s working like a charm for me