head to head · open source
Joplin vs Zen
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,390 forks, 652 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen has 1,194 stars, 65 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 4,673% (56,994 vs 1,194 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Zen is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Zen 5%. 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 | Zen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 65 |
| 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 Zen if
- You want the Zen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Zen 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 Zen
Zen Live Demo • Features • Updates Features Single Go binary or Docker Compose Low resource usage Standard Markdown files, local SQLite database Organize with flexible tags, not rigid folders Markdown features like tables, code blocks, task lists, highlights, and more Full text search with BM25 ranking Import and export data with full portability Templates Pinned notes Archive and soft delete notes Bulk archive and delete Internal note links with side panel preview Minimal dependency footprint Automated backups (via Zen Backup) Import from other services (via Zen Import) Experimental Features Canvas for spatial…
More in Productivity & Utilities
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or Zen more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and Zen has 1,194. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and Zen free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and Zen is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and Zen?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and Zen in JavaScript. 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 Zen?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Zen if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.