head to head · open source
Joplin vs silverbullet
Joplin has 56,429 GitHub stars, 6,297 forks, 632 open issues and last shipped yesterday. silverbullet has 6,093 stars, 482 forks, 345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Joplin leads on adoption by 826% (56,429 vs 6,093 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; silverbullet is written in TypeScript under MIT. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, silverbullet 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.
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Side by side
| Joplin | silverbullet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 482 |
| 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 silverbullet if
- You want the silverbullet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and silverbullet 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 silverbullet
SilverBullet is an open source, self hosted, browser based personal knowledge database that stores notes as Markdown pages and makes them programmable with Space Lua, aimed at individual knowledge workers who want a notes app they can script rather than merely configure.
read the full silverbullet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or silverbullet more popular?
Joplin has 56,429 GitHub stars and silverbullet has 6,093. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and silverbullet free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and silverbullet is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and silverbullet?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and silverbullet 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 silverbullet?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,429 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose silverbullet if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.