APPLE’S MobileMe is great for syncing data between multiple computers and devices, and while I personally decided to cough up the AU$119 to save me some time and frustration, let’s face it, the service definitely isn’t cheap. It’s probably only worth it if you plan to use all the included functionality of the service.

If you own a Mac or several with OS X 10.5 Leopard, and only have a need for limited data syncing such as your Address Book contacts, calendars, tasks and Safari bookmarks, then here’s an alternative that is currently in beta, and completely free for the moment.

It’s called Fruux and it’s a client/server solution that installs as a system preference pane on each Mac that you would like to keep in sync. It’s developed natively for the Mac with Cocoa/Objective-C and uses Apple’s Sync Services framework that is already integrated into the OS, as well as the Keychain for storing account details. It uses SSL encryption when transferring data during syncing, so you can put your mind at ease where security is concerned.

Whilst I’m very happy with the way MobileMe works for my particular needs, I decided to disable it for a little while and use Fruux as my sole contacts and calendar syncing service to see just how well it works. For the record, I installed it on my iMac and MacBook Air to sync data between the two.

Setup was a breeze, involving nothing more than downloading the preference pane, installing it, and creating a new account from within the preference pane itself. The first sync didn’t take long to complete, quickly moving all of my data into the cloud.

With the ‘Always keep synchronized’ box checked, a change or addition made to my local contacts and calendars was synchronised straight away. Strangely, automatic syncing didn’t happen when adding a bookmark to Safari. Unchecking the box will allow for manual syncing only, if you’d prefer to limit the amount of connections that take place, or just don’t have the need for automatic syncing.

Unfortunately, data changes are not reflected straight away on other computers as they are with MobileMe using its push service. With Fruux, other than local changes to data which sync straight away, automatic syncing to and from the cloud only happens on a timer every hour, so keeping multiple Macs in sync in real-time isn’t possible. There is also no way (at least for the moment) to increase the frequency of automatic syncing. You’ll need to click ‘Synchronize Now’ on the second Mac in order to update the data before the hour. This isn’t a problem if you’re only using one Mac at a time.

That said, I’m comparing a free service that still has beta status to one that costs AU$119 per annum, which perhaps goes to show how highly I think of Fruux for the simple fact that it can even compete with MobileMe at all. Fruux works exactly as advertised. Syncing is fast and efficient, without any fuss. Their motto “Just Sync, No-frills!” really does apply. I couldn’t think of an easier way to sync data between several Macs. Fruux definitely nails it.

In addition to its simple automatic and manual syncing, there’s also a log of all previous syncing activity, and the ability to replace all data on the server with that on your computer, or vice versa.

While MobileMe has support for file syncing via iDisk, Fruux doesn’t have this functionality, but the developers recommend using Box.net or Dropbox alongside Fruux to create a full syncing solution for your data.

As it’s still in beta, there are plenty of new features that the Fruux team plans to release in future updates such as a web application to access your data from any computer, preferences syncing, and social syncing. There’s also an iPhone and iPod Touch client in the works, making Fruux’s future look very bright indeed. You can check out the future plans for Fruux on the roadmap.

If you’re in need of a simple, no-frills contact/calendar syncing service for your Macs, definitely give Fruux a try. Just remember to keep a backup of your data for the moment, which is good practice to do for anything with beta status.

Update 02/12/2008: Dominik from Fruux has stated that since Fruux currently doesn’t support push syncing, they “plan to circumvent this by adding more ‘sync moments’, like syncing on login, syncing on screensaver disable, syncing on system wake, and so on.”  This sounds like one of the best implementations to keep a user in sync rather invisibly and at the most relevant points during computer use.