head to head · open source
Joplin vs tagspaces
Joplin has 56,429 GitHub stars, 6,297 forks, 632 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tagspaces has 5,286 stars, 512 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 968% (56,429 vs 5,286 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; tagspaces is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, tagspaces 10%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (electron, javascript, 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 | tagspaces | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 512 |
| 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 tagspaces if
- You want the tagspaces feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and tagspaces 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 tagspaces
TagSpaces is a free, open source, offline document manager with tagging support for Windows, Linux and macOS, built for people who want to organise local files and notes without cloud services, internet access or vendor lock in.
read the full tagspaces overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or tagspaces more popular?
Joplin has 56,429 GitHub stars and tagspaces has 5,286. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and tagspaces free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and tagspaces is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and tagspaces?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and tagspaces 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 tagspaces?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,429 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose tagspaces if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.