head to head · open source
Joplin vs TidGi-Desktop
Joplin has 57,014 GitHub stars, 6,393 forks, 656 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TidGi-Desktop has 2,011 stars, 116 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 2,735% (57,014 vs 2,011 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; TidGi-Desktop is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, TidGi-Desktop 6%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (electron, evernote, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Joplin | TidGi-Desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Custom / other | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 116 |
| 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 TidGi-Desktop if
- You want the TidGi-Desktop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and TidGi-Desktop 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 TidGi-Desktop
TidGi Customizable personal knowledge base with git as backup manager and blogging platform. Pronounce: Same as Tai Chi /ˌtaɪ ˈtʃiː/ 🇬🇧 English 🇨🇳 简体中文 ShowCases And Demo Demo Demo Online Web Blog Page TiddlyWiki Official Website Screenshot For mac users, since I haven't buy Apple developer key yet, so you have to entrust App to open it, click here to expand details.◀ First of all, you need to drag this App into Applications folder! Otherwise there will be an error. Click "Cancel" ↓ Click "Open" ↓ Click "OK" ↓ Or you could start the Terminal from launchpad, and run the command below, make sure your…
read the full TidGi-Desktop overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Note Taking & Knowledge Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Note Taking & Knowledge Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or TidGi-Desktop more popular?
Joplin has 57,014 GitHub stars and TidGi-Desktop has 2,011. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and TidGi-Desktop free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and TidGi-Desktop is licensed under MPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and TidGi-Desktop?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and TidGi-Desktop 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 TidGi-Desktop?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (57,014 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose TidGi-Desktop if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.