head to head · open source
Joplin vs Zotero
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,390 forks, 652 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zotero has 15,838 stars, 1,173 forks, 1,600 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Joplin leads on adoption by 260% (56,994 vs 15,838 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Zotero is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Zotero 7%. Zotero 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 | Zotero | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 16K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 Zotero if
- You want the Zotero feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Zotero 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 Zotero
Zotero ====== Zotero is a free, easy to use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. Please post feature requests or bug reports to the Zotero Forums. If you're having trouble with Zotero, see Getting Help. For more information on how to use this source code, see the Zotero documentation.
read the full Zotero overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or Zotero more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and Zotero has 15,838. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and Zotero free?
Neither Joplin nor Zotero 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 Zotero?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and Zotero 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 Zotero?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Zotero if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.