head to head · open source
Joplin vs MoeMemos
Joplin has 57,075 GitHub stars, 6,404 forks, 661 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MoeMemos has 916 stars, 82 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 6,131% (57,075 vs 916 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; MoeMemos is written in Swift under MPL-2.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, MoeMemos 9%. 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 | MoeMemos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 916 |
| License | Custom / other | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-08 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 82 |
| 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 MoeMemos if
- You want the MoeMemos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and MoeMemos 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 MoeMemos
Moe Memos ========= Moe Memos is an app to help you capture thoughts and ideas. Use Moe Memos with either a self hosted ✍️memos server or local on device storage (no server required). Note: Current Moe Memos version supports Memos 0.21.0 and Memos 0.27.0 to 0.31.0. Memos updates may introduce breaking API changes. If you are using a version higher than 0.31.0, it is recommended to use Mortis to convert the newer Memos API to the Memos 0.21.0 API and re login in Moe Memos. Installation Moe Memos is available on App Store for free. You can also build this app with Xcode and run on your devices. iOS 18 or higher is…
read the full MoeMemos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or MoeMemos more popular?
Joplin has 57,075 GitHub stars and MoeMemos has 916. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and MoeMemos free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and MoeMemos is licensed under MPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and MoeMemos?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and MoeMemos 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 MoeMemos?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (57,075 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose MoeMemos if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.