head to head · open source
Joplin vs notes
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,391 forks, 658 open issues and last shipped today. notes has 4,263 stars, 385 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 1,237% (56,994 vs 4,263 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; notes is written in C++ under MPL-2.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, notes 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 | notes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-05-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 385 |
| 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 notes if
- You want the notes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and notes 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 notes
Notes Notes is an open source and cross platform note taking app that is both beautiful and powerful. Website: notes foss.com Screenshots Features Overview Native app (written in C++ with Qt). Turn your Markdown tasks into a beautiful Kanban board. Fast and beautiful. Fully open source and cross platform (Linux, macOS, Windows). Completely private tracks nothing. Folders and tags. Organize your ideas hierarchically using nested folders and universally using tags. Markdown Support. Format text without lifting your hands from the keyboard. Different themes. Switch between Light, Dark, and Sepia. Feed View. Select…
read the full notes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or notes more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and notes has 4,263. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and notes free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and notes is licensed under MPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and notes?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and notes in C++. 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 notes?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose notes if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.