head to head · open source
Joplin vs GitJournal
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,390 forks, 652 open issues and last shipped yesterday. GitJournal has 4,246 stars, 317 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 1,242% (56,994 vs 4,246 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; GitJournal is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, GitJournal 7%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | GitJournal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-05-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 317 |
| 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 GitJournal if
- You want the GitJournal 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 GitJournal 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 GitJournal
Mobile first Markdown Notes integrated with Git Summary GitJournal is a note taking app focused on privacy and data portability. It stores all its notes in a standardized Markdown + YAML header format (optional). The notes are stored in a Git Repo of your choice GitHub / Gitlab / Custom provider. This means you can easily self host or host your notes in one of the many Git providers. Screenshots Migrating from Existing Apps Google Keep Day One Classic Narrate Simplenote Contributing Please feel free to open an issue for any bug or feature request. Additionally, you can vote on existing Issues by reacting with a…
read the full GitJournal overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or GitJournal more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and GitJournal has 4,246. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and GitJournal free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and GitJournal is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and GitJournal?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and GitJournal 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 GitJournal?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose GitJournal if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.