Sync your reMarkable without a Connect subscription.
Connect and Tagged Sync are not really rivals: one links your tablet to reMarkable's own web tools, the other drops your notes into an Obsidian vault as files. But if the reason you were about to subscribe is “I want my handwriting on my computer, and searchable”, there is a cheaper way to get exactly that — and this page says plainly where it is not enough.
How do Connect and Tagged Sync compare, fact by fact?
| No subscription | With Connect | With Tagged Sync | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | €3.99 a month, or €39.90 a year. 50-day free trial. | The plugin is free. Pro is €24 once, and optional. |
| Handwriting to typed text | Included | Included | Included — read on your own machine, no account, no key. |
| Searching your handwriting | Not included | Included | Included — your vault searches the transcript like any other note. |
| Storing notes in the cloud | “Limited” | Unlimited | Not applicable — the notes are files on your own disk. |
| Where the notes end up | reMarkable's apps and website | The same, plus Word, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Slack and Miro | Your Obsidian vault: Markdown, with the page as a PDF beside it |
| Editing from a computer or phone | Not included — reading only | Included | Not applicable — nothing is ever written back to the tablet |
| Papers from a reference manager | Not included | Not included — the integrations named are Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Slack, Miro and the calendars | Included — a command sends a Zotero paper to the tablet; with Pro your marks go back as Zotero annotations |
| Working without reMarkable's servers | No | No | Yes, with Pro: over the cable or your own Wi-Fi |
What is Connect actually for?
Most of what a subscription adds has nothing to do with Obsidian. It converts a document into a notebook you can write on, builds a meeting note out of a calendar entry, summarises handwriting into a browser note with next steps, sends pages to Slack or Miro, unlocks templates, and lets the phone and desktop apps edit rather than only read. If any of that is what you want, no plugin replaces it, and this one certainly does not try to.
Turning handwriting into typed text is not the dividing line, which is worth saying because it is widely assumed to be. reMarkable's own table lists that conversion as included without a subscription. What the subscription adds on that front is searching your handwriting — and unlimited cloud storage instead of what they themselves call limited.
Where do the two overlap?
Search your handwriting, and have the notes somewhere other than the tablet. Those are the two things people usually mean when they ask whether they need Connect for it. A vault gets you both by a different route: the transcript is written into a Markdown file, and your editor's own search runs over it, along with every other note you keep.
The difference in kind matters more than the difference in price. A subscription keeps your notes in someone's account, reachable through their apps. A vault keeps them as files in a folder you chose, which stays readable if any of the companies involved — theirs or mine — stops existing.
What can Tagged Sync do that Connect cannot?
Connect wires the tablet into file stores, chat boards and a calendar. A reference manager is not on that list at any tier, so a paper from Zotero gets onto the device the way any other file does: you put it there, and whatever you highlight on it stays on the device.
That loop is closed here since 1.8.0. A command finds the paper in your library and uploads it; after a sync the vault note carries the item's key and links straight to it, and Pro turns the marks you made into annotations inside the Zotero item, in the colour you used. The Zotero page sets out both halves.
Can I use a reMarkable without a subscription?
Yes. Without Connect the tablet still turns handwriting into typed text, sends files to Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, shares its screen, and shows your notes in the phone and desktop apps for reading. That is reMarkable's own list of what works without one.
What goes is searching your handwriting, editing in the apps, and cloud storage beyond the documents you have recently used. Every note stays on the tablet either way; what that storage limit means for a sync is under “Do I have to choose?” below.
What does each one cost?
€39.90 a year for as long as you keep it, against €24 once. Over five years that is €199.50 against €24 — and it is only a fair comparison for the two rows above. For the calendar integration, the Slack export or editing from a phone, there is nothing on this side to compare with, at any price.
Do I have to choose?
No. Tagged Sync's ordinary route reads your reMarkable account, and any account with cloud sync switched on is enough — Connect changes nothing about how it works. Subscribers and non-subscribers get the same sync from this plugin.
There is one thing to know if you do not subscribe. reMarkable calls free cloud storage “limited”, and their support pages put a number on it: a document you have not opened for about 50 days stops syncing to the apps and stays on the tablet. Anything that reads your account, this plugin included, can only fetch what the account is still syncing. The way out is not a subscription — it is reading the tablet directly, which is part of Pro and does not go near their servers.
When is Connect the better buy?
- You want to write on your notes from a phone or a laptop, not only read them.
- You live in Word, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Slack or Miro, and want the tablet wired into them.
- You want meeting notes built from your calendar, or the AI summary in the browser.
- You do not use Obsidian. Everything here lands in a vault; without one there is nothing to land in.
- You keep a lot on the device and want the cloud copy unlimited.
Where does Tagged Sync fall short?
My own limits, in the same spirit:
- Obsidian on the desktop only. No mobile version, and no editing back to the tablet — ever, by design.
- Outside macOS, handwriting needs a local AI server you run yourself before any text appears.
- Reading the tablet directly needs Developer Mode on a Paper Pro or a Paper Pure, and switching that on erases the device.
- One maintainer, and support is a GitHub issue or an email — not a company with a help desk.
Try it before you subscribe.
The plugin is free in the community store and works with the account you already have. Pro is €24 once, with a 14-day trial that needs no key and no email.
Desktop only — Obsidian for Mac, Windows or Linux. Doesn't open? See it on obsidian.md, or in Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → search Tagged Sync.
reMarkable Connect is a subscription sold by reMarkable AS. Tagged Sync is not affiliated with, endorsed by or supported by reMarkable AS, and this page compares a subscription with a plugin, not one company with another. The first two columns were taken from reMarkable's own pricing comparison on , and are reviewed with every release of this site; the 50-day figure is from reMarkable's own support documentation. Spotted an error? Email support@hochbichler.com and I will fix it.