Affordable E2EE Notes Sync Without Obsidian's $96/Year Price Tag
Obsidian is the gold standard for local-first note-taking but its Sync service costs $8/month ($96/year) to sync simple markdown files. Users call this hard to justify when Notion syncs for free. Free alternatives exist (Joplin with WebDAV, Anytype with P2P) but each has significant UX tradeoffs. The demand is for Obsidian-quality writing experience with encrypted cross-platform sync that's either free or a small one-time purchase.
Don't build another note-taking app. Build a reliable cross-platform E2EE sync service for Obsidian vaults specifically. The editor is already great. The sync is the pain point. Use CRDTs for conflict resolution, encrypt client-side, and charge $2/month or $20/year. Undercut Obsidian Sync by 75%. Support Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. The iOS piece is the hardest (Apple's file system restrictions) and the most valuable.
landscape (5 existing solutions)
The note-taking space has a clear tradeoff: Obsidian's editor and plugin ecosystem are unmatched but sync costs $96/year. Free alternatives sacrifice either editor quality (Joplin), familiarity (Anytype), or features (Standard Notes free tier). Nobody has matched Obsidian's writing experience with built-in free or cheap E2EE sync. The closest path is likely a sync service built on Syncthing or CRDTs that works reliably across all platforms including iOS.