Joplin Review

Joplin handles large numbers of notes organized into notebooks. They are searchable, taggable, and editable from the app or your own text editor, and they are stored in Markdown. The README emphasizes that Joplin is offline first: all data is on your phone or computer, and notes are always accessible without a connection. Synchronization works with end-to-end encryption across services including Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Joplin Cloud. Full-text search is available on every platform, and plugins and themes customize the app. A web clipper for Firefox and Chrome saves pages and screenshots. Evernote exports can be imported with formatting converted to Markdown, resources, and metadata such as geolocation and timestamps. The repository license file says all code is AGPL-3.0-or-later unless a directory carries its own license file; for example the server package has its own license. Joplin is a registered trademark of Joplin SAS.

Download the desktop, mobile, or terminal apps from the official website or app stores; there is no server needed because sync goes through a service you already use or Joplin Cloud. To self-host sync, the project offers Joplin Server (with a Business plan sold for self-hosting). Setup is a matter of choosing a sync target in the settings and enabling end-to-end encryption. We did not install the apps for this review.

The app is built around a notebook tree, a note list, and an editor with a Markdown view and a rich-text mode, with plugins extending features. Because notes are plain Markdown with attachments, the experience is closer to a text-centric tool than to a free-form workspace. We have not tested it ourselves.

• Offline-first Markdown notes and to-dos
• End-to-end encrypted sync via Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Joplin Cloud
• Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS
• Plugins and themes
• Web clipper for Firefox and Chrome
• Evernote import with formatting, attachments, and metadata
• Full-text search on all platforms

• Strong privacy model: local data plus end-to-end encryption
• Works with the storage service you already trust
• Mature, widely used, and multiplatform, about 56,800 stars
• Plain-text Markdown notes avoid lock-in

• Sharing notebooks, email-to-note, and collaboration are paid Joplin Cloud features
• The Joplin Web App and Joplin Cloud AI are not part of the self-hosted Joplin Server Business plan, according to the plans page
• Less polished and flexible than block-based workspaces such as Notion
• Real-time collaboration is not its focus

The apps are free. Joplin Cloud monthly prices are Basic €2.99 (2 GB, 10 MB per note), Pro €5.99 (30 GB, 200 MB), Pro 100 GB €9.99, and Teams €7.99 per user with a two-user minimum; yearly billing brings the rates down, for example Pro to €4.79 per month. Joplin Server Business for self-hosting is €3.33 per user per month for 2 to 10 users, lowering with volume. Paid plans have a 14-day trial and students and teachers get 50% off.

Evernote is a hosted note-taking service with a proprietary format, cloud search, and paid tiers. Joplin keeps your notes in Markdown, syncs through a service you choose, and imports from Evernote, so leaving Evernote is straightforward. You trade some convenience features, such as integrated cloud OCR search and slick sharing, for ownership.

• Privacy-conscious users who want end-to-end encrypted notes
• Anyone migrating from Evernote
• People who like Markdown and plain-text portability

• Teams that need real-time collaborative documents
• Users who want a database-and-wiki hybrid like Notion
• Anyone who wants zero sync setup