head to head · open source
Joplin vs itsnotes
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,390 forks, 652 open issues and last shipped yesterday. itsnotes has 43 stars, 5 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 132,444% (56,994 vs 43 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; itsnotes is written in JavaScript under MIT. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, itsnotes 12%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (note-taking, obsidian), 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 | itsnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 43 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 5 |
| 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 itsnotes if
- You want the itsnotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and itsnotes 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 itsnotes
itsnotes A self hosted Google Keep alternative. It sticks to the familiar masonry layout but overhauls how you actually navigate and organize a large amount of notes. Instead of an endless wall of text, the feed is broken down by month markers. There are quick search panels for colors and tags, a basic folder implementation, and a proper list view. It also handles data import natively, so moving off Keep or importing text files is straightforward. Try the demo → Features: Better navigation: The timeline has month markers to break up the list. There are quick access panels for colors, tags, saved searches, and a…
read the full itsnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or itsnotes more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and itsnotes has 43. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and itsnotes free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and itsnotes is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and itsnotes?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and itsnotes in JavaScript. 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 itsnotes?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose itsnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.