head to head · open source
Joplin vs Butterfly
Joplin has 57,014 GitHub stars, 6,393 forks, 656 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Butterfly has 2,089 stars, 159 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 2,629% (57,014 vs 2,089 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Butterfly is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Butterfly 8%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (android, note-taking), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Joplin | Butterfly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 159 |
| 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 Butterfly if
- You want the Butterfly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and Butterfly 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 Butterfly
Butterfly 🎨 Take notes, draw freely, and organize ideas across an endless workspace 🎨 Website • Download • Crowdin • Matrix • Discord • Mastodon • Bluesky • Linwood • Contribute Think visually. Keep your canvas yours. Butterfly is an open source app for people who think better with space around their ideas. Instead of writing everything from top to bottom on a fixed page, you get an endless workspace where you can place notes, sketches, diagrams, images, and documents wherever they make sense. Use it for class notes, meeting notes, research, math, worksheets, planning, whiteboarding, storyboards, product…
read the full Butterfly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or Butterfly more popular?
Joplin has 57,014 GitHub stars and Butterfly has 2,089. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and Butterfly free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and Butterfly is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and Butterfly?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and Butterfly in Dart. 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 Butterfly?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (57,014 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Butterfly if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.