# Syncthing 212 Hacker News commenters recommended Syncthing and 42 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 5 years (6 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free, open-source peer-to-peer sync that keeps files on your own devices without a cloud and runs reliably for years, though mobile support is awkward and devices must be online. ## Why people recommend it - Reliable background sync for years (8 comments): "It's simple to setup and will work forever instead of paying for different providers that might shut down or increase their prices." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47757992)) "Syncthing works very well, its only constraint is that it does need the devices to be often on if you want consistent syncing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546702)) "Over years with >10k files / 100 gb, I've only ever had conflicts when I actually made conflicting simultaneous changes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45802133)) - No cloud, data stays yours (6 comments): "try using Syncthing on iOS to keep your files synced across devices without having them uploaded to servers you don't control" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45995567)) "Syncthing? I'm taking 'offline' to mean 'not requiring the internet', which means you can have plenty of computers!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47674138)) "Syncthing is the only app i need for syncing files to home computer. No clouds, just your phone and computer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917636)) - Syncs phones and computers (6 comments): "Syncthing is the way! Along with the Material Files app from F-droid, I finally get to have a file based workflow on Android." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46495303)) "Syncthing is wonderful, and does a great job of syncing between an Android phone's photos/videos and a laptop." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252679)) "auto-syncs between my desktop, laptop, Android tablet, phone and a generic cloud backup folder with SyncThing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45852552)) - Easy backups to NAS (4 comments): "Syncthing allows for time based backups folder so nothing can really be lost even in the case of ransomware attack." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48411909)) "I use syncthing to a NAS, and the syncthing data being backed up by the NAS along everything else it contains." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49547308)) "You can literally set up SyncThing to stream your on-device backups to your NAS, cloud storage, or whatever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46412733)) ## What people warn about - Mobile clients unofficial or discontinued (5 comments): "Their official client stopped being developed and while there are options it isn't straightforward" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47919069)) "much as I love syncthing, I wouldn't recommend it to nontechnical people" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48184474)) "You can use Syncthing for local E2EE sync, but it won't work on your mobile due to this. It works fantastic machine to machine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47774374)) - Devices must stay online (4 comments): "It sometimes takes a while for them to discover each other, and it of course works better when all the devices are on my home network." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47106890)) "Syncthing works very well, its only constraint is that it does need the devices to be often on if you want consistent syncing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546702)) "there’s no good way to keep syncthing running all the time on iOS, which can lead to sync conflicts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105939)) - Fiddly setup and maintenance (5 comments): "A service running in the background that exposes an "insecure" url for a browser to then open as the only means for GUI interaction with the app is not a great recommendation for everyday users." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46528591)) "Syncthing is definitely (much) more fiddly than using Bitwarden's and Obsidian's ($5/mo) native syncing tools." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45841569)) "maintaining that turned out to be more effort than my tiny attention span can afford these days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47675231)) - Sync conflict files pile up (3 comments): "you're always thinking about if you're going to have to clean up a bunch of sync conflict files later" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47198841)) "there’s no good way to keep syncthing running all the time on iOS, which can lead to sync conflicts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105939)) "Something with less config knobs, that 'just works' and handles conflicts more intelligently." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47620749)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Nextcloud](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nextcloud.md): 154 recommend - [OpenCloud](https://hackerapproved.com/p/opencloud.md): 18 recommend - [Seafile](https://hackerapproved.com/p/seafile.md): 18 recommend - [ownCloud](https://hackerapproved.com/p/owncloud.md): 9 recommend - [Maestral](https://hackerapproved.com/p/maestral.md): 6 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Syncthing", https://hackerapproved.com/p/syncthing/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).