Sync vs SaaS

With my recent decision to stick with Obsidian, it got me thinking about the two types of products that I use:

• Those that sync files to and from my computer.
• Those that live entirely in the cloud as a SaaS (“Software as a Service”)

Sync

The two main sync tools that I use are Obsidian and Anki. Both sync to the cloud for access from multiple computers, but all of the data that you use lives directly on your device. When you open either product, it can go out to their servers to make sure you have the latest files on your device, but then you work from those local files.

The downside is that it can sometimes take a little while to sync. I have over 8,000 notes in Obsidian and many thousands of cards in Anki. Day-to-day, they each only need to sync a few files and I’m good to go in a few seconds, but if I get a new device that initial sync can take a few minutes.

The great thing is that if you don’t have an internet connect, they still work perfectly. In addition, if something were to happen to either provider, you’d still have a copy of your content.

SaaS

The other side are SaaS products where everything lives in the cloud, such as Gmail. As of right now, I have a total of 538,492 emails in my Gmail account (though zero in my inbox). Having…