head to head · open source
Joplin vs second-brain-cloudflare
Joplin has 56,433 GitHub stars, 6,298 forks, 656 open issues and last shipped today. second-brain-cloudflare has 771 stars, 117 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 7,219% (56,433 vs 771 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; second-brain-cloudflare is written in TypeScript under MIT. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, second-brain-cloudflare 15%. 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 | second-brain-cloudflare | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 771 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 117 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Joplin if
- You weight community size — 56K 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 second-brain-cloudflare if
- You want the second-brain-cloudflare feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and second-brain-cloudflare 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 second-brain-cloudflare
Second Brain is a self hosted memory layer for AI tools — an MIT licensed TypeScript application that runs as a Cloudflare Worker, stores anything once, and lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, and any other Model Context Protocol client recall it by meaning — built for individuals and small teams who want their AI context to live in their own Cloudflare account.
read the full second-brain-cloudflare overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or second-brain-cloudflare more popular?
Joplin has 56,433 GitHub stars and second-brain-cloudflare has 771. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and second-brain-cloudflare free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and second-brain-cloudflare is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and second-brain-cloudflare?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and second-brain-cloudflare 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 second-brain-cloudflare?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,433 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose second-brain-cloudflare if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.