head to head · open source
Joplin vs obsidian-mind
Joplin has 56,442 GitHub stars, 6,299 forks, 637 open issues and last shipped yesterday. obsidian-mind has 4,653 stars, 532 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 1,113% (56,442 vs 4,653 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; obsidian-mind is written in TypeScript under MIT. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, obsidian-mind 11%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (obsidian), 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 | obsidian-mind | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 56K | ★ 4.7K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 532 |
| 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 obsidian-mind if
- You want the obsidian-mind feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and obsidian-mind 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 obsidian-mind
obsidian mind is a self organizing Obsidian vault template that gives AI coding agents persistent memory, built for developers and knowledge workers who run Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Gemini CLI and want every session to build on the last.
read the full obsidian-mind overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or obsidian-mind more popular?
Joplin has 56,442 GitHub stars and obsidian-mind has 4,653. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and obsidian-mind free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and obsidian-mind is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and obsidian-mind?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and obsidian-mind 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 obsidian-mind?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,442 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose obsidian-mind if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.