head to head · open source
Joplin vs Tolaria
Joplin has 56,416 GitHub stars, 6,296 forks, 632 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tolaria has 19,807 stars, 1,381 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Joplin leads on adoption by 185% (56,416 vs 19,807 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Tolaria is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Tolaria 7%. 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 | Tolaria | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 20K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 Tolaria if
- You want the Tolaria 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 Tolaria 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 Tolaria
Tolaria is an open source desktop application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It manages markdown knowledge bases as local files, with each vault stored as a Git repository. The project lives in the personal knowledge management ecosystem as a local first, Git native tool for second brains, company documentation used as AI context, and assistant memory or procedures.
read the full Tolaria overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or Tolaria more popular?
Joplin has 56,416 GitHub stars and Tolaria has 19,807. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and Tolaria free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and Tolaria is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and Tolaria?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and Tolaria 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 Tolaria?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,416 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Tolaria if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.