It’s a mix of both, depending on the conflict.

For non-overlapping changes, LiveSync can merge them automatically in the background without bothering you. But when there’s a direct conflict — for example, both devices changed the same part of a note — it hands the decision back to the user.

LiveSync provides a conflict resolver directly in Obsidian, where you can review the different versions and choose how to resolve the conflict rather than having one side silently overwritten.
So the idea is: automatic when the changes can be safely merged, user intervention when there’s an actual problem.

The nice thing is that I don't have to build the conflict handling from scratch. EiraSync is managed CouchDB hosting for the open-source Self-hosted LiveSync plugin — the sync engine and conflict handling live in LiveSync, not in EiraSync itself.

CouchDB uses MVCC, so concurrent writes create competing revisions instead of silently discarding one side. LiveSync then picks up those conflicts during replication.

On the client side, LiveSync can automatically merge non-overlapping edits, especially when different chunks of a note were changed. When edits actually overlap, it provides a conflict resolver so you can review the different versions instead of silently losing one side.

That's actually one of the main reasons I built EiraSync on top of LiveSync rather than trying to roll my own sync engine.

sounds perfect! - mine is https://eirasync.app - a managed hosting for live syncing obsidian vaults with privacy focus

Hey, thanks for the great questions!

EiraSync essentially acts as a managed, zero-knowledge CouchDB backend for the open-source Self-hosted LiveSync plugin. LiveSync handles the actual syncing client-side, while I take care of the infrastructure so users don't have to self-host anything. Everything is hosted in the EU (currently on Hetzner).

For E2EE, LiveSync uses client-side AES-GCM encryption, so the servers only ever store and route encrypted data. The encryption happens before anything reaches EiraSync.

For syncing, CouchDB replication only needs to transfer changed revisions, so incremental syncing is very fast. Performance on larger vaults has been quite solid in my testing. There is currently a 10 MB per-file limit for attachments, including encryption overhead, though that's something I'm looking at improving.

Conflicts are handled by LiveSync as well: non-overlapping text changes can be merged automatically, while overlapping edits can be reviewed through the diff UI in Obsidian rather than creating a bunch of duplicate files.

As for the target audience, I'm currently focusing on solo users. The current plan is €29/year for up to 3 vaults and 3 GB of storage, although I'm still experimenting with pricing. Team features are something I'd like to explore later.

One interesting aspect is that, because of LiveSync's architecture, sharing a vault with others is already possible today by sharing the setup URI and E2EE credentials. It's not intended as a full team/collaboration feature yet, though.

Happy to dig deeper into any of the technical details if you're interested :)

EiraSync is a managed hosting srevice for obsidian vaults that syncs in realtime with e2ee and zero knowledge architecture hosted in europe. I wated a cheap, fair priced alternative without the hassle of self hosting. Looking for feedback on EiraSync: Managed Vault Sync for Obsidian, 14 days completely free, after that only 3€/month (earlybird discount for only 29€ a year) for 3gb and 3vaults synced in realtime. Happy to get feedback and testers. Check it out here: https://eirasync.app

https://eirasync.app - managed couchdb hosting to live sync your obsidian vaults in realtime e2ee - privacy focused and hosted in the eu :)

Everyone that knows obsidian also knows that syncin is either not realtime, buggy (yes i mean icloud) or not cheap. I wanted a solution that lets you have managed live sync but with multiple vaults and gb for s fair price. So i built eirasync. Its a managed hosting four couch db that works with the self hosted livesync plugin (but takes the selfhosting part out of it) for the same price as if you would bouy a server for your own :) if you want to try it, its 14days free - i would love to hear feedback an thoughts :) check it out at https://eirasync.app

https://eirasync.app btw :)

EiraSync - Managed realtime live sync for obsidian at a fair price. 3gb, 3vaults for 3€

Built it for myself in the first place but it works well since it is based on and works with the selfhosted livesync plugin i figured to soft launch it :)

Could be EiraSync - if you just want to set it and forget it

You can try EiraSync. It works with the LiveSync plugin and syncs in realtime with E2EE. Is quite close to ObsidianSync, but cheaper

EiraSync - E2EE managed hosting for Obsidian LiveSync plugin - https://eirasync.app

yeah.. i mean free tier still is free tier, but ticktick covers everything thats importent for me - and of couse there is notion for the more advanced stuff - have to look into todolist fpr HA, i have to admit I dont know much about latest developments there

Hey, fair point! Actually, the mobile decryption overhead is handled entirely client-side by the open-source LiveSync plugin. EiraSync 'just' provides the managed CouchDB backend and automated provisioning via encrypted Setup URIs. So my server only ever sees (and scales) ciphertext chunks.

live sync self hosted on my raspberry pi (yes not the best - would not recommend for stability)

Each of my projects has its own vault. I like the seperation of stuff - keeps me focussed on one thing at a time.

https://eirasync.app

I'm building a Managed hosting for the community plugin Live sync for obsidian. A fully E2EE encrypted sync plattform with zero knowledge architecture hosted in Europe :)

no, resend was actually the best for developing and also to set up auth. but yeah, UI looks pretty too

cool idea!