head to head · open source
Joplin vs Vrite
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,390 forks, 652 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Vrite has 2,005 stars, 84 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 2,743% (56,994 vs 2,005 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Vrite is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Vrite 4%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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 | Vrite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 84 |
| 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 Vrite if
- You want the Vrite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Vrite fits your workflow better
About Joplin
Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, can be copied, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor. The notes are in Markdown format. Notes exported from Evernote can be imported into Joplin, including the formatted content (which is converted to Markdown), resources (images, attachments, etc.) and complete metadata (geolocation, updated time, created time, etc.). Plain Markdown files can also be imported. Joplin is "offline first", which means you…
read the full Joplin overview →
About Vrite
[!IMPORTANT] This is a WIP branch for Andesine (the v2 rewrite of Vrite). For the latest stable version of Vrite, please check out the main branch Open source, collaborative developer content platform Usage Guide Website Vrite Cloud Vrite is an open source, collaborative space to create, manage, and deploy product documentation, technical blogs, and knowledge bases. It aims to provide a high quality, integrated user and developer experience, with features like: Built in management dashboard for managing content production and delivery using Kanban or List view; Modern WYSIWYG editing experience with support for…
read the full Vrite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or Vrite more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and Vrite has 2,005. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and Vrite free?
Neither Joplin nor Vrite declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and Vrite?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and Vrite 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 Vrite?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Vrite if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.