sync      sync all resources from state file (repos, releases and chart deps)
apply     apply all resources from state file only when there are changes

sync

The helmfile sync sub-command sync your cluster state as described in your helmfile ... Under 
the covers, Helmfile executes helm upgrade --install for each release declared in the 
manifest, by optionally decrypting secrets to be consumed as helm chart values. It also 
updates specified chart repositories and updates the dependencies of any referenced local 
charts.

For Helm 2.9+ you can use a username and password to authenticate to a remote repository.

apply

The helmfile apply sub-command begins by executing diff. If diff finds that there is any changes
sync is executed. Adding --interactive instructs Helmfile to request your confirmation before sync.
An expected use-case of apply is to schedule it to run periodically, so that you can auto-fix skews
between the desired and the current state of your apps running on Kubernetes clusters.

I went through the Helmfile repo Readme to figure out the difference between helmfile sync and helmfile apply. It seems like unlike the apply command, the sync command doesn't do a diff and helm upgrades the hell out of all releases . But from the word sync, you'd expect the command to apply those releases that have been changed. There is also mention of the potential application of helmfile apply to periodically syncing of releases. Why not use helmfile sync for this purpose? Overall, the difference didn't become crystal clear, and I though there could probably be more to it. So, I'm asking.