head to head · open source
Joplin vs Notesnook
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,391 forks, 658 open issues and last shipped today. Notesnook has 14,875 stars, 1,042 forks, 1,012 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Joplin leads on adoption by 283% (56,994 vs 14,875 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Notesnook is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Notesnook 7%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (electron, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Joplin | Notesnook | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 15K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 Notesnook if
- You want the Notesnook feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Notesnook 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 Notesnook
Notesnook An end to end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote. Website About us Roadmap Downloads Twitter Discord Overview Notesnook is a free (as in speech) & open source note taking app focused on user privacy & ease of use. To ensure zero knowledge principles, Notesnook encrypts everything on your device using XChaCha20 Poly1305 & Argon2 . Notesnook is our proof that privacy does not (always) have to come at the cost of convenience. We aim to provide users peace of mind & 100% confidence that their notes are safe and secure. The decision to go fully open source is one of the most crucial steps towards…
read the full Notesnook overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Note Taking & Knowledge Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Note Taking & Knowledge Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or Notesnook more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and Notesnook has 14,875. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and Notesnook free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and Notesnook is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and Notesnook?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and Notesnook in TypeScript. 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 Notesnook?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Notesnook if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.