head to head · open source
Joplin vs MiaoYan
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,390 forks, 652 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MiaoYan has 8,721 stars, 522 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Joplin leads on adoption by 554% (56,994 vs 8,721 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; MiaoYan is written in Swift under MIT. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, MiaoYan 6%. 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.
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Side by side
| Joplin | MiaoYan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 522 |
| 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 MiaoYan if
- You want the MiaoYan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and MiaoYan 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 MiaoYan
English 简体中文 MiaoYan Lightweight Markdown note taking app for macOS Features Fantastic : Local first, no data collection, split editor & preview, wikilink backlinks, LaTeX, Mermaid Beautiful : Minimalist design, three column layout, dark mode, macOS 26 glass, distraction free Fast : Swift 6 native, better performance than Electron based apps Simple : Lightweight, version history, keyboard shortcuts, auto formatting Installation 1. Mac App Store (paid, automatic updates): 2. Homebrew : 3. GitHub Releases : download the latest DMG from GitHub Releases (macOS 11.5+) All three options share the same codebase and…
read the full MiaoYan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or MiaoYan more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and MiaoYan has 8,721. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and MiaoYan free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and MiaoYan is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and MiaoYan?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and MiaoYan in Swift. 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 MiaoYan?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose MiaoYan if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.