head to head · open source
Joplin vs Logseq
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,390 forks, 652 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Logseq has 45,460 stars, 2,866 forks, 942 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 25% (56,994 vs 45,460 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Logseq is written in Clojure under AGPL-3.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Logseq 6%. 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 | Logseq | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 45K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Clojure |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| 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 Logseq if
- You want the Logseq feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Clojure
- You evaluated both and Logseq 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 Logseq
Logseq A privacy first, open source platform for knowledge management and collaboration Home Page Blog Documentation Roadmap Table of Contents 🚀 Database Version 🤔 Why Logseq? 👀 How can I use it? 📚 Learn more 🫶 Support Logseq Development 💡 Feature requests 🔌 Plugin API 🌟 Contributing to Logseq 🛠️ Setting Up a Development Environment ✨ Inspiration 🙏 Thank You 🚀 Database Version The Database version (DB version) of Logseq introduces DB graphs. See this page to get an overview of the main features for DB graphs. If you are an existing user, see changes with the DB version. The DB version has its own new…
read the full Logseq overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or Logseq more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and Logseq has 45,460. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and Logseq free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and Logseq is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and Logseq?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and Logseq in Clojure. 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 Logseq?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Logseq if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.