head to head · open source
Joplin vs Anarlog
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,390 forks, 652 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Anarlog has 9,746 stars, 824 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 485% (56,994 vs 9,746 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Anarlog is written in Rust under MIT. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Anarlog 8%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Joplin | Anarlog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 9.7K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 824 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Joplin if
- You weight community size — 57K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Anarlog if
- You want the Anarlog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Anarlog fits your workflow better
About Joplin
Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, can be copied, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor. The notes are in Markdown format. Notes exported from Evernote can be imported into Joplin, including the formatted content (which is converted to Markdown), resources (images, attachments, etc.) and complete metadata (geolocation, updated time, created time, etc.). Plain Markdown files can also be imported. Joplin is "offline first", which means you…
read the full Joplin overview →
About Anarlog
Note: The team is now building char . The anarlog community application remains open source, MIT licensed, and maintained as the local first meeting notetaker in this repo. Source visible enterprise components are commercially licensed. anarlog The privacy first AI meeting notepad. Open source, local first, and yours to fork. Granola, rearranged. Website • Docs • Download • Discord • r/anarlog • @anarlogapp • Status anarlog is an open source alternative to Granola. It takes notes in your meetings without sending a bot to join the call: it listens to your device audio, can transcribe on your machine, and keeps…
read the full Anarlog overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Note Taking & Knowledge Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Note Taking & Knowledge Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or Anarlog more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and Anarlog has 9,746. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and Anarlog free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and Anarlog is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and Anarlog?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and Anarlog in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Joplin or Anarlog?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Anarlog if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.