head to head · open source
Joplin vs reflect-open
Joplin has 56,547 GitHub stars, 6,314 forks, 650 open issues and last shipped today. reflect-open has 1,530 stars, 123 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped today. Joplin leads on adoption by 3,596% (56,547 vs 1,530 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; reflect-open is written in TypeScript under MIT. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, reflect-open 8%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Joplin | reflect-open | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 123 |
| 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 reflect-open if
- You want the reflect-open feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and reflect-open fits your workflow better
About Joplin
Joplin is a free, open source, privacy focused note taking and to do application that keeps notes as Markdown on your own device and synchronises them, end to end encrypted, across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.
read the full Joplin overview →
About reflect-open
Reflect open is an open source, local first rewrite of Reflect for people who want a Markdown based note taking app on Mac and iPhone that AI agents and other tools can read, edit, and script directly.
read the full reflect-open 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 reflect-open more popular?
Joplin has 56,547 GitHub stars and reflect-open has 1,530. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and reflect-open free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and reflect-open is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and reflect-open?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and reflect-open 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 reflect-open?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,547 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose reflect-open if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.