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Joplin – An open-source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation

344 points by 3np 3y ago

doutupudonktan 3y ago
Joplin is an amazing application, which moreover respects privacy. It would be so nice if it was possible to sync using ssh, by the way!
peon2345 3y ago
How does it compare to obsidian?
- peblos 3y ago
  Think it’s a bit of personal preference to be honest I tried both a couple of years ago and much preferred obsidian, although I know long term Joplin fans who have pretty tight workflows and love it
- _def 3y ago
  For me personally the only upside is that I don't have to pay separately for syncing the documents and can use Dropbox instead. Yeah I could use Dropbox on my phone too for obsidian but it's not a great experience when all you want is taking/reading notes without hassle.
- Midnight1938 3y ago
  Its easier to pick up and use without having to worry about data loss
- victorp13 3y ago
  Tried both for quite some time, Obsidian has better community plugin support, better sync (paid) and stores plain text files instead of using a DB. Most importantly the mobile app (at least for iOS) of Obsidian is 1:1 with the desktop app. Switched from Joplin to Obsidian and haven't looked back. Both apps are great initiatives though!
  - andrewshadura 3y ago
    Joplin also uses plain text files.
    - pantulis 3y ago
      Does it reflect notebooks/folder structure also in the filesystem? That's exactly what I need from a PKM tool: that not only the files but also the structure of the notebooks is reflected in the filesystem so I can have interoperability. This way I can decide to work with Obsidian, EagleFiler, Notebooks.app or DEVONthink while also having the possiblity of using the regular Finder to work with my files.
    - hnaccount141 3y ago
      The data itself is plaintext, but it's stored in a sqlite db rather than directories of markdown files on disk.
- OliveMate 3y ago
  I tried it out for a while, I'm sure that it's a great program and it's various free sync options & encryption system may immediately put it ahead, but as a basic user I found it much more complicated to the point where I couldn't figure out how to simply sort files into folders (and I don't know if that's something you can do). There's an interesting tagging system to search posts with and there's a ton of plugins out there if you want to do things you can usually do. I really ought to give it a shot again when I've got a clear head. If you want a FOSS alternative to Obsidian that's just as simple you could try Zettlr, but currently it's rather rough. You have to change the UI settings to get the folders/file view that Obsidian has, and I found readability to be rather poor. Initially there's no way to make in text larger without zooming in the entire UI, font, and the themes that are available aren't the best for writing or reading notes (and if you like one specific theme you're sod out of luck if you want a darker version of it) – if you want to change things to your liking you have to experiment with the experimental Custom CSS option.
- faeranne 3y ago
  Having started with Joplin, the three things that took me away were the (at the time) lacking mobile support, periodic syncing collisions, and probably most importantly, their non-standard file format. There was a tool that could extract files into standard markdown format, then repack them, but the overhead was tiring, and meant a few key environments lacked access, namely when I was accessing a server from the rack, and when the mobile app acted up. I actually moved to just using vimwiki style setup with markdown and a markdown editor app on my phone for several years, before I stumbled across Obsidian. I've since been using obsidian for about 9 months now, which is longer than my time with Joplin, and I will say that, once I got a stable sync going (I'm using the simple sync plugin and my own s3 compatible server), the plugin support, decent mobile app, and native markdown files have won me over. Though I'm still eyeing open source options with Logseq, just waiting on their mobile app to pick up and properly support plugins. I'll be more than happy to port everything as soon as it supports that. As an additional note, I will add that despite Obsidian being closed-source, I actually feel more comfortable with my data there than with Joplin, primarily because all my data is just common markdown. With Joplin, if I archive content, I have no guarantee the notes on the file format will exist in 10 years (they probably will, but it's still a real possibility). With Obsidian, it's plaintext. There's nothing to need to rediscover, no file format to decode, just good old plain-text. In 40 years I'll still be able to read those files (though the storage media is a very different story). Sure Obsidian can change plans mid-stream, and I don't trust they wont, but all I gotta do is go back to my markdown editor and vim. No sweat.
  - laurent123456 3y ago
    > In 40 years I'll still be able to read those files (though the storage media is a very different story) With Joplin, you can easily archive as Markdown+FrontMatter and that format will still be readable 40 years from now with text and metadata included. Additionally, in case you forgot to make a backup, and 40 years later all traces of Joplin have disappeared from earth and you can't find an old version of the app, the backend is a simple SQLite database, so you can do `SELECT * FROM notes` and get your content back.
  - cldwalker 3y ago
    > Though I'm still eyeing open source options with Logseq, just waiting on their mobile app to pick up and properly support plugins. I'll be more than happy to port everything as soon as it supports that. If you haven't already, I'd recommend voting on https://discuss.logseq.com/t/plugin-support-for-ios-android-apps/10109/6 https://discuss.logseq.com/t/plugin-support-for-ios-android-... if you're waiting for mobile plugin support
- suddenclarity 3y ago
  Worse. I want to see the result when writing so I always had to have a separate preview window open which stole a lot of screen space. Obsidian solved this with the WYSIWYG mode where a paragraph transforms to markdown when you click on it, but the rest of the document shows the end result. It makes the experience a lot nicer when embedding tables and images that you can look at directly and write in-depth about without just seeing a filename.
- bhdlr 3y ago
  > How does it compare to obsidian? Definitely personal preference, in my experience the UX is terrible compared to obsidian but the pricing and company are much more consumer friendly
- bhdlr 3y ago
  > How does it compare to obsidian? Definitely personal preference, in my experience the Joplin UX is terrible but the pricing and company are much more consumer frienldy
anonzzzies 3y ago
Joplin is great; unlike similar apps, it’s very fast. Even with gigs of pics in a doc, it still scrolls fast. Others I tried don’t even open or crash/corrupt.
mindracer 3y ago
I use and like Joplin a lot but the mobile app is pretty poor. I find it a frustrating experience
- _def 3y ago
  What don't you like about the mobile app? In my opinion it's not worse than the desktop app (but I don't really like both of them - I'm just glad it syncs successfully)
  - mindracer 3y ago
    It’s a pretty clunky experience trying to creating and editing notes. There’s also the constant worry about conflicts, to try and cut them down I open the mobile app, hit sync, make an edit then hit sync again. I use WebDAV, maybe Joplin Cloud is better at it
- laurent123456 3y ago
  Contrary to popular belief, the mobile app is not forgotten - I count about 40 releases in total for the past 12 months. We probably spend as much time working on it than on the desktop one, but unfortunately it is much harder to develop for mobile, especially when you have to make sure it works on the many different Android devices and iOS versions, plus the extra work to comply with the ever changing requirements from the Google and Apple stores. Many of these changes are not visible to the user, but without this boring never ending maintenance work the app simply wouldn't exist. We do plan to update the UI/UX of the mobile app though, as we're aware it could be made more intuitive. I'm very keen on improving this and hopefully it will happen this year.
  - mindracer 3y ago
    Good hear, looking forward trying it out
rcarmo 3y ago
I like the idea and tried it a couple of times, but the iOS UX is abysmal and should be redone from scratch.
rubymamis 3y ago
Shameless plug for my native (Qt C++ based) open-source, cross-platform note-taking app[1]. It's fast, beautiful, and just works. The next version will add an option to turn your Markdown tasks into a beautiful Kanban view[2] via QML. This feature will be paid but anyone will be able to compile the source with a simple CMake flag to get the PRO version for free. Currently, it uses a DB but we aim to port it to support arbitrary folder (simple .md/.json files, depending on the complexity of the editor). I'm working on a mobile version and a built-in sync option as well. Once the built-in syncing is complete I will probably only charge for that and the client itself will be completely free. [1] https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes [2] https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes/pull/574 https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes/pull/574
- Zetobal 3y ago
  Great work. I love it.
  - rubymamis 3y ago
    Thanks! (:
- jfreax 3y ago
  Looks nice. Good to see that there are still native apps in development! Looks a lot like Joplin - which I like. But: I couldn't find anything about syncing my notes or mobile clients / other ways to access my notes. Even in the "vision" document. That's a must have functionality _for me_. Probably not important for everyone... therefore, good luck with your project :)
  - rubymamis 3y ago
    Hi there! I wrote in the above comment that it's planned. We'll support arbitrary folder (switch from DB), develop our mobile up (switch from QWidgets to Qt Quick), and develop our own built-in sync option. Currently, you can change the database location to your synced folder (Dropbox, etc...) in the settings, but some users reported data conflicts while others said it works fine. You can try this but I'll wait till we officially switch from DB.
senectus1 3y ago
looks good but I'm still pretty happy with self hosted trilium https://github.com/zadam/trilium https://github.com/zadam/trilium
hosh 3y ago
How does this compare with NoteNook? (Open-source, local-first)
- eitland 3y ago
  Link?
  - mwexler 3y ago
    Perhaps poster was thinking of https://notesnook.com https://notesnook.com? Their pitch is as a privacy focused notes manager.
saghul 3y ago
Really happy with Joplin! It's one of those pieces of software that Just Works (TM) and allows me to not worry about it. I'm using the Joplin sync server for keeping my stuff in sync and it has worked flawlessly. If Laurent or anyone from the Joplin community is reading: great job everyone! <3
lf-non 3y ago
I love joplin - it has been my goto solution for adhoc notes for almost two years now. I use it on multiple devices and they all sync to an S3 bucket which is very cheap setup that works well once configured properly. I don't love the default editing experience but the Rich Makdown extension solves it well for me. The extension ecosystem is a bit of mixed bag. There are few good extensions but many are half baked.
msravi 3y ago
I tried many note-taking apps and finally settled on Notable[0]. It's simple and you can point it to a folder with markdown files and attachments. Plus, you can just sync the folder using any syncing service, and use Noteless[1] on Android. The tagging support is superb, you can cross-link notes, render math using katex, and export to pdf. Because of the simple folder structure, you can also use vim+fzf to search/navigate/create/edit your notes. The notational-fzf-vim plugin[2] is superb for that. For web-clipping, I just use the markdownload[3] extension in firefox and save the markdown file in the notes folder. Why not joplin? Mostly because joplin stores notes in an sqlite database instead of a simple folder structure making it not easily accessible by normal unix tools and editors. Why not obsidian? Was never able to grok obsidian. Pointing it at my existing notes makes it just show up as a huge mess of unstructured notes. I guess it needs some effort to organize and link existing notes. In notable, I can tag a note as Books/CS, and CS/Books, and it'll show up in corresponding folder-like structures in the left panel. Can't do that in obsidian. 0. https://notable.app/ https://notable.app/ 1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.redsolver.noteless https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.redsolver.... 2. https://github.com/alok/notational-fzf-vim https://github.com/alok/notational-fzf-vim 3. https://github.com/deathau/markdownload https://github.com/deathau/markdownload
- GaryWilder 3y ago
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- WhiteSabbath 3y ago
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- dermesser 3y ago
  > Why not joplin? Mostly because joplin stores notes in an sqlite database instead of a simple folder structure making it not easily accessible by normal unix tools and editors. But instead much more accessible to any kind of software, including a five line python script. While plain text files are useful, they shouldn't be taken to be the only true and accessible way of storing data, even textual ones.
q-base 3y ago
I have tried to switch to Joplin from Evernote twice. But each time I have ended up being frustrated with the synchronisation. It is just too slow in my opinion. Perhaps I have too many notes, but I will be looking for another alternative to Evernote that can work on my phone and Ubuntu.
- bartvk 3y ago
  Is SimpleNote something for you? It only supports plain text notes (with Markdown rendering), but I've got years of notes in there, and it works on every platform. It's also owned and supported by Wordpress.
  - q-base 3y ago
    I haven't looked at SimpleNote before. So I will look into whether that might be a good fit for me. Thanks for sharing.
  - mwexler 3y ago
    I keep looking for replacements but wind up every time coming back to Simplenote. Well worth considering as a baseline to compare other offerings against.
- laurent123456 3y ago
  Which backend did you use for sync? You usually get better sync performance by either self-hosting or using Joplin Cloud. I don't know of any good WebDAV provider, let alone a free one, and even the paid ones have limitations that make them unusable for sync. OneDrive and Dropbox have a free tier and work with Joplin, but they throttle the connection. But I guess it depends on how many notes you have and how you use Joplin - a lot of people use OneDrive or Dropbox and it works good enough for them.
  - q-base 3y ago
    I sync to Nextcloud. But I can see another responder to my original comment suggests a config change that I will try.
andwaal 3y ago
I switched from Evernote to Joplin last year and are super happy. Syncing against an S3 bucket and everything works great, rarely any problems.
wanderingmind 3y ago
For those that want to crosslink anything and everything I suggest Logseq[1]. Its journal and graph view are fantastic. And it has many useful plugins. I use it along with git-sync [2] and syncthing [3] now I can sync the notes across my work, personal desktops and my mobile. [1] http://logseq.com/ http://logseq.com/ [2] https://github.com/simonthum/git-sync https://github.com/simonthum/git-sync [3] https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/
- eitland 3y ago
  I jumped from Joplin to Logseq too. Before it was Boostnote. Probably the reason was both Boostnote and Joplin seems to have stopped developing the application and shifted focus to monetization. Also I personally prefer the (much) more technical way that Logseq work. It is not a markdown editor, but a knowledge base that stores its data as plaintext files in a markdown-like format. One question: do you have pointers to a good way to setup git sync and syncthing? I pay enough to LogSeq to have free sync but I prefer to self host and also the current sync model is somewhat flaky.
  - wanderingmind 3y ago
    I have a private git repo in Github which is the folder that Logseq uses. I have a cron job to runs script for git-sync on all machines on reboot. I also have syncthing running on my personal desktop that shares this git repo with my android phone. It runs smooth as long as you don't do simultaneous edits from multiple machines.This will break the git-sync and you will have to do merge conflicts of that happens.
  - laurent123456 3y ago
    I don't know about Boostnote but Joplin is still actively developed. Just check the changelogs, and all that is open source: https://joplinapp.org/changelog/ https://joplinapp.org/changelog/ https://joplinapp.org/changelog_android/ https://joplinapp.org/changelog_android/
    - eitland 3y ago
zenjester 3y ago
[dead]
DeathArrow 3y ago
I am pretty happy with Obsidian.
- janlaureys 3y ago
  Obisidian with icloud Drive sync is pretty sweet.
- SamuelAdams 3y ago
  Same here. I only use note taking apps on my Mac, so syncing isn’t something I am interested in. For me the interface of Obsidian is really top notch. Typing headers and code block quotes doesn’t feel like it gets in your way. My only complaint is that embedded images are saved at the root level by default. Would be nice if I could hide those or move them to an /Images folder,
  - lienz 3y ago
    > embedded images are saved at the root level by default. I'm not sure if I understand your complaint, which is something that can easily be changed. Open Settings (cmd-,) > Files & Links, and look for Attachment folder path and change to whatever path you like.
imafish 3y ago
I switched from unstructured Trello / OneNote / Notepad notes to Joplin 4 years ago. I sync it through cloud between mobile, desktop and laptop. It is simply awesome. One of the most important tools I use everyday.
pseufaux 3y ago
I really want to like Joplin, and I've tried to switch a number of times. But the mobile experience just isn't there for me. The iOS app is simple and reliable, which is good, but it's missing some of the touches that make mobile computing feel like it's made for mobile. Specifically, things like swipes for navigation and for selecting or deleting notes. Also, many of the buttons are just too damn small for my sausage fingers. It's dumb, I know. Still, I find myself attempting to swipe to open the side bar then realizing my mistake after the second try and fumbling to reach the too small hamburger in the very top left of the screen. Notes are something I reference at my desktop but generally write while on the go, so having a easy to use mobile app is a requirement for me. It's a shame though cause the desktop experience is so good.
- lifehasleft 3y ago
  I also write on the go and reference on the desktop later. What is your current workflow? Apple Notes would be great except my work computer is windows, and apple notes in the browser is not great
- laurent123456 3y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. We plan to update the mobile app so it's good to know what needs to be improved.
  - dunco 3y ago
    just jumping on this to say I'm a Joplin user and I love it, thank you for building an awesome app. I currently also use notion because of Joplin's lack of note sharing on mobile; if good note sharing came to the Joplin mobile app I wouldn't need anything else. The only other feature I'd want that I think is missing from Joplin is the ability to define different storage locations / encryption keys per notebook to allow good separation of work and personal data. Overall though, wonderful app and I am so happy that something like it exists. I really feel like the intentions of the app developers align with my values, and that it will continue to go in the right direction for years to come.
    - 3y ago
piokoch 3y ago
Big no-no to Joplin for me is that it is using some custom data format (sqlite I think). Why bother? Just give me an app that can handle nicely markdown files, syncing I can do myself e.g. (Synology, rsync) or use some file syncing service (Dropbox, OneDrive, whatever). Zettlr does the trick for me without interfering with what I write.
- laurent123456 3y ago
  "Custom" would be the way Apple Notes or Evernote stores their data in opaque binary blobs. SQLite is standard and you can open it with plenty of third-party tools, but I see your point about plain text files being more convenient for certain tasks.
  - zimpenfish 3y ago
    > SQLite is standard and you can open it with plenty of third-party tools Tends not to play well with things like Dropbox or Syncthing though. Although I guess you can use litestream or something for the replication instead.
    - anta40 3y ago
      What's the issue? I guess it's just as simple as uploading the .db?
      - Tomte 3y ago
        You're changing some note on device A and the same note differently on device B. Both sync. You now have a conflict. With text files, you at least have obvious merge strategies. With SQLite it isn't quite as easy. I still don't mind SQLite in Joplin. It has advantages, as well.
        anta40 3y ago
        Ah the multiple devices issue. I see...
jadahl 3y ago
Piping content from the Internet to bash is a terrible way to distribute applications on Linux, I'd recommend making the official method a Flatpak instead. It'll allow you to sandbox your application, which is good for the user, and it'll handle the integration (e.g. app icon etc) correctly. No user should ever be urged to install anything with that method, it's unsafe.
- laurent123456 3y ago
  In which way can it be exploited?
  - LeBit 3y ago
    I never understood why people say this is an obvious no-no security wise. How is installing something from Homebrew any more secure?
  - theshrike79 3y ago
    If I serve you a 2000 line unformatted bash script from an URL and tell you to pipe it to bash, will you do it? Should you do it? Do you have the mental fortitude to format it and go through it line by line looking for possible exploits? It's 100% trivial to have it run rm or shred on all files you have access to while simultaneously printing correct looking install progress messages.
    - mtlynch 3y ago
      Is the issue with telling people to pipe URL output into bash? Or is the issue with any distribution method that isn't flatpak or something similarly privilege-limited? I see how flatpak is an improvement, but I don't see how piping into bash is any worse than "install this .deb file / npm package / pip package." If the package author wanted to do something malicious, it's just as easy (if not easier) to put the malicious code in the package itself rather than a bash installer for the package.
    - otikik 3y ago
      What’s the difference between that and downloading and running an installer?
nabogh 3y ago
I've been using Joplin for a few years now. But only recently I've been exploring writing my own plugins for it. I've never written a plugin for anything before but it's been very easy, and overall a very pleasant experience. My plugin basically lets you automate moving notes to specified folders based on what tags are present.
rhamzeh 3y ago
Some pros of Joplin that go unnoticed vs other note taking apps: 1- Available on F-Droid (unofficially) 2- Available as a Flatpak (unofficially) 3- Supports syncing to file system (thus syncing via syncthing) 4- Supports encrypting the exported files 5- Open source 6- Can handle a lot of notes (I have around 5k, but some of those are large notes) 7- Dark Mode These, among many other features make it my note editor of choice for the past 5 years.
ra1n 3y ago
These are the types of applications that I really love. It stores the data in a cloud service that already has enough free capacity for say a notes app. It's like how we can store pass(1) passwords on a git repository (Sync it with Github) and use that as the destination of Android Password Store[1], and you have a easy password manager that syncs across devices. [1] https://github.com/android-password-store/Android-Password-Store https://github.com/android-password-store/Android-Password-S...
hobo_mark 3y ago
My phone recently died and had to move to a new device and resynchronize my Joplin "vault". I have tens of thousands of notes and the Android app just cannot complete the first sync. I left it running all night (sync gets slower and slower as it progresses) with "stay awake" enabled on Android (because Joplin stops synching as soon as the screen locks or the app is not in focus) and even after restarting multiple times, sync never completes (it claims it finished, but most recent notes are still nowhere to be found). This is using the WebDAV backend as that's the only option I have (so long as there's no Google Drive backend). I am looking for alternatives (with a web clipper extension and native apps on windows/linux/mac/android).
oslac 3y ago
I tried a few, but (nearly) default Obsidian won me over by simplicity, ease-of-use.
bornon5 3y ago
The ideal “knowledge base” app I’ve been searching for is as follows: - Self-hosted - Attractive web client that loads very quickly and works well on mobile - Can point it at a nested directory of text/markdown and image/pdf files (no sql database) - Text files are editable in place (no “edit” button, etc.) - Markdown displays in a plain-text view (no hidden formatting characters, no “rich text” editor) Every app I’ve tried misses at least of these. The closest I’ve found, strangely, is vscode-server, which is just too bloated and mobile-unfriendly to work for me. I’m perpetually a millimeter away from writing my own, but I feel like I need to stop doing that. Does this app exist?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- theshrike79 3y ago
  Obsidian has everything but "Attractive web client", but it does have a native client. The "database" is just a bunch of directories you can sync with any tool you want.
  - addandsubtract 3y ago
    Any tool except Dropbox on macOS. Don't store your Obsidian library in Dropbox.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
    Doesn't seem to have self-hosted syncing. Or am I missing something? And even if it's in there, $8/month for syncing seems to defeat the point of "self-hosted".
    - theshrike79 3y ago
      Like I said, the "database" is just a directory of files. You can use anything you want to keep it synced. I've used OneDrive, Dropbox and iCloud to sync mine.
Icathian 3y ago
Joplin is a gem of open source, and I use it daily on all of my machines. I'm so grateful to have a good FOSS notes app that syncs cross platform. I've been a patron for years and recommended it to lots of people. If anyone has questions about how I use it or my workflow I'm happy to shill this app more, lol. I know Obsidian is the cool kid right now but I just absolutely can't imagine using a closed source app for something as personal and important as my notes. Since the dev is hanging out in this thread, I will say that I'd absolutely love me some vim keybindings though.
- maroonblazer 3y ago
  > If anyone has questions about how I use it or my workflow I'm happy to shill this app more, lol. I've recently begun using Joplin and am still futzing my way around. Would love to hear about anyone else's workflow. One question, not specific to Joplin, I always have with note-taking apps is what's the best way to organize content? Or do you not worry about that and simply use tags to create structure/relationships?
  - Icathian 3y ago
    I use notebooks and nested notebooks heavily. I've found that a directory-style structure works well for me, especially because the integrated search is also good if I forget where I put something. I have never personally had success with tagging for organization, but maybe that's just me. In no particular order, I recommend: * WebDAV to sync your files, I just use some of my fastmail storage and draft off the $5 a month I already pay them * Pasting screenshots from your clipboard into your markdown works automagically on desktop, drops the file with a generated name into the Joplin file structure. It elevates the tool quite a bit imo * It is worth getting comfortable with some of the basic markdown annotations. Just knowing to use asterisks and underscores and whatever speeds you up a lot from having to go click the "bold" button or whatever. * I really like editing with the preview pane open. It closes the loop for me, and is the best of both worlds where I get to just type the annotations at my normal typing speed, but also see the formatted output so I can make changes as I go.
  - bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
Qahlel 3y ago
After trying Joplin (for several years), I finally decided on Obsidian instead. It is the better product and has a better 3rd-party support. https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/
kerneloops 3y ago
The only problem to me is that the "official" Joplin Server is proprietary: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/dev/packages/server/LICENSE.md https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/dev/packages/server...
- petemir 3y ago
  I think it is a reasonable decision https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/crowdfunding-joplin-server-license/19891 https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/crowdfunding-joplin-server...
t0bia_s 3y ago
I use Joplin over 3 years now, however Android app over 2.5 version is not possible sync over Syncthing. So I cannot update since 2.5 version which is not great, not terrible.
Kaibeezy 3y ago
People seem to be talking about this/these mainly for note taking, but I'm really only looking for the web clipping function. Evernote has been fine for my vast collection of chashu recipes, audio equipment schematics and philosophy enchiridia. I sure wouldn't want to lose that stuff. Joplin then? Obsidian? Something else? /rhetorical - I will keep reading the comments.
- laurent123456 3y ago
  Joplin does have a Web Clipper
Propelloni 3y ago
No discussion of note taking apps is complete without Zim Desktop Wiki [1], so let me be the one who sings its praise! It's less web or mobile oriented than Joplin but gives me everything I need. Plain text files, syncing, lots of plugins. And task management, oh boy. Task management is second to none, including orgmode. I'm a faithful user for years now and I am still happy I found it. [1] https://zim-wiki.org/ https://zim-wiki.org/
- dantheta 3y ago
  Also an extremely happy Zim user for desktop notes, projects & work journal. Recently I was looking for a self-hosted equivalent to Google Keep (which I use mainly for lists, quick notes and web snippets), and tried out Joplin. It looked pretty good, but I wanted a web app frontend, which Joplin doesn't seem to have. I'm now trying out Memos [1] now, and it's pretty good so far (though I would love to see postgres support in Memos as well as the current sqlite DB). [1] https://usememos.com/ https://usememos.com/
mitchitized 3y ago
Longtime joplin user here - been using s3 sync storage since it was available. As long as it is open and free, that will be my note app of choice. Yeah the mobile app definitely needs work, and there's always room for improvement overall. But it is free as in "free beer", as well as "free speech". Both are hard requirements for me, at least for my notes (and data, in general). I have years of notes in joplin, spread across dozens of notebooks and several profiles. I'm impressed. There are a zillion competitors out there, some with extremely beautiful interfaces - but it MUST be open for me to even look at it.
- princevegeta89 3y ago
  How is the sync now? Does it only sync every 5 minutes, with the user requiring to manually press "sync" for every change? Or does it sync on changes automatically? I'm asking because I used it in the past and the sync limitation often caused conflicts for my mobile and desktop clients
  - jl6 3y ago
    I use Joplin extensively on multiple devices and I find that the only way to completely avoid sync conflicts is to make sure you hit sync after entering data on one device, and then hit sync on the other device before using it.
    - princevegeta89 3y ago
      Interesting, thanks for confirming.. not sure yet if I want to jump back to Joplin yet.
      - grepfru_it 3y ago
        Joplin and nextcloud/WebDAV was horrible. Horrible. I can’t go back, trilium is way more extendable
        princevegeta89 3y ago
dadoomer 3y ago
Long time Joplin user. I LOVE Joplin. Got it synched with Dropbox. Several people have asked me what app I use when they see it. It's just what a note app should be: simple, cross-platform, markdown-based, can export notes.
cjm42 3y ago
I've been using Joplin for a while now, syncing via Nextcloud. One tip: I set up a cronjob to export into a Git repository so I have a complete history. The core of the script is: joplin sync joplin export --format=raw "$tmpdir" # Rsync that directory to the repository # This deletes files that no longer exist in the current export. /usr/bin/rsync -a --quiet --delete --exclude=.git "$tmpdir/" "./" /usr/bin/git add -A
zelifcam 3y ago
I’ve been running multiple Joplin servers. One for personal and one for work. Hasn’t let me down yet. Always room for improvements, but it does reliable do the job. Easy import and export. No worries of being locked into anything.
nologic01 3y ago
With Joplin and Nextcloud on a self-hosted vps I'm basically done: access from mobile, linux, windows etc.
eviks 3y ago
Joplin is a solid option, using it along with Simplenote for some quick notes since Joplin's sync isn't that great. But I was wondering whether there is somehting not tied to the simplistic markdown with next-gen note tech like rich text and CRDT for great sync conflict resolution and note history and non-Electron clients for performance?
onedr0p 3y ago
My major problem with Joplin is the lack of a native client for Apple Silicon, otherwise it's great. I know you can run it with Rosetta but it's performance and load time is terrible.
- millzlane 3y ago
  Recently started using Joplin. I find myself reformatting everything I paste into it from the browser. I thought the long load time was just the program. Didn't realize it wasn't native. I find myself not using it because it does feel clunky and slow and just easier to take screenshots.
deleted 3y ago
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t_sawyer 3y ago
Been using Joplin as my main note app for over 2 years. IOS, Web Clipper, and Windows clients. Synced to Nextcloud. I do wish there was a webapp for me to see my notes in a browser but I understand the way it works how that would be difficult to create due to the use use of local files and syncing.
Fervicus 3y ago
A requirement for me in a note taking app is password protection on the desktop client. That's one thing preventing me from using Joplin.
- hoistbypetard 3y ago
  Out of curiosity, why do you require that? On my desktop, my system account is protected, never left unattended while unlocked, and I've got full-disk encryption. I can't presently imagine a benefit to an extra password for my notetaking application, so your comment makes me wonder whether I'm missing something or whether I just use it a little differently than you do.
  - Fervicus 3y ago
    I have other people use my computer from time to time, but not for enough time to warrant a separate account. From what I understand, Joplin's data is also stored unencrypted on disk. I don't use full-disk encryption and I don't want to use it just for Joplin. Are people using my computer going to open up my notes app or snoop around in the sqlite db? Probably not. But I like to have the peace of mind.
lienz 3y ago
I've used Obsidian, Logseq, Apple Notes, and Joplin recently. I really like Obsidian for how performant it feels for handling really long md files with outline. But the best capturing experience is Logseq. I just record everything I do in the journal (daily) page and just tag them (tag can have hierarchy and spaces too) . I don't have to think about directory structure or which file the info should go into. Logseq sucks for handling long form md files tho, so I keep Obsidian for that. Joplin I tried to use it until it started having sync conflicts, and the sync corruption error cannot be dismissed. Google solutions suggests exporting JEX and delete everything and re-import. I give up after that. Apple Notes is really nice too but lack coding highlight.
sbkg0002 3y ago
I like Joplin, but the fact that they refused to create an arm64 Darwin build, made me look for alternatives.
- laurent123456 3y ago
  Not sure why "refused". We want to support it but it's not trivial and it doesn't help that we don't have the hardware to test this. It will be done eventually
NewsMichaela 3y ago
Love Joplin's FOSS nature and extensibility. In my workflow, I have set it up to accept transcribed speech notes and to-dos. https://github.com/QuantiusBenignus/NoteWhispers https://github.com/QuantiusBenignus/NoteWhispers
rtpg 3y ago
I use Joplin and it... it basically works! Bit ugly at times but I really enjoy having a thing that works on my computers and my phone. Sometimes I end up in Drafts instead on iOS because of how Drafts is really "just open and go", but even then I'll copy-paste it later. Joplin is great at being a place to put a lot of ... simple rich text documents in a random manner, and have access to them. Wordpad with sync, and it does its job.
NewsMichaela 3y ago
Like that Joplin is open source and love the extensibility (plugins, API): In my workflow, I have it set up to store my transcribed speech notes and todos (with accurate offline speech recognition): https://github.com/QuantiusBenignus/NoteWhispers https://github.com/QuantiusBenignus/NoteWhispers
kertoip_1 3y ago
I've used Joplin for a few years, had a few hundred notes on it and even sponsored it on GitHub. Then I've changed my smartphone which also brought with it an updated version of Android. The new Android version had some changes regarding how an app can manage a filesystem, which ultimately broke Joplin. I've waited a few weeks for an update (couldn't read my notes on a phone then) and even when it finally arrived, the process of synchronization was so slow and buggy I couldn't do it. That (together with other sync bugs I've been reporting earlier) was the reason I've lost patience and switched to Obsidian. Either way, I'm thankful for developers for those few years, that was a really great tool
wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
I'm different from a lot of people it sounds like here. I mainly use one big ass note and I want my note app to start as fast as possible to get the idea I have on paper asap so I can forget about it. Nothing is able to beat the Apple notes experience, even if my main phone is an Android. I still prefer it. The main thing is, Apple is instant, you open it and type. Joplin takes 3-10 seconds on my phone and doesn't remember what note I was on if not on standby mode. Also syncing. Often goes wrong. I like one big notes for my main planning & things to remember. Most apps manage multiple fine, but one big one often goes wrong. Had issues trying Google keep and evernote. Havent tried it with joplin yet, will give it a go.
guptarohit 3y ago
I’ve tried many note taking apps, but now settled with Joplin. All other alternatives are on freemium model. I’m glad we have something like Joplin. Kudos to the Joplin team & community.
agadius 3y ago
Love Joplin! I love it so much, my lazy ass actually donated. I spent quite some time searching for open source alternatives that don’t have an ulterior motive. Currently using nextcloud sync and it works. Sometimes the iOS app and the Linux desktop app are out of sync, but a sync fixes that. Would love to see mTLS implemented at some point!

344 points by 3np 3y ago

Joplin is an amazing application, which moreover respects privacy. It would be so nice if it was possible to sync using ssh, by the way!

peon2345 3y ago

How does it compare to obsidian?

peblos 3y ago
Think it’s a bit of personal preference to be honest I tried both a couple of years ago and much preferred obsidian, although I know long term Joplin fans who have pretty tight workflows and love it
_def 3y ago
For me personally the only upside is that I don't have to pay separately for syncing the documents and can use Dropbox instead. Yeah I could use Dropbox on my phone too for obsidian but it's not a great experience when all you want is taking/reading notes without hassle.
Midnight1938 3y ago
Its easier to pick up and use without having to worry about data loss
victorp13 3y ago
Tried both for quite some time, Obsidian has better community plugin support, better sync (paid) and stores plain text files instead of using a DB. Most importantly the mobile app (at least for iOS) of Obsidian is 1:1 with the desktop app. Switched from Joplin to Obsidian and haven't looked back. Both apps are great initiatives though!
- andrewshadura 3y ago
  Joplin also uses plain text files.
  - pantulis 3y ago
    Does it reflect notebooks/folder structure also in the filesystem? That's exactly what I need from a PKM tool: that not only the files but also the structure of the notebooks is reflected in the filesystem so I can have interoperability. This way I can decide to work with Obsidian, EagleFiler, Notebooks.app or DEVONthink while also having the possiblity of using the regular Finder to work with my files.
  - hnaccount141 3y ago
    The data itself is plaintext, but it's stored in a sqlite db rather than directories of markdown files on disk.
OliveMate 3y ago
I tried it out for a while, I'm sure that it's a great program and it's various free sync options & encryption system may immediately put it ahead, but as a basic user I found it much more complicated to the point where I couldn't figure out how to simply sort files into folders (and I don't know if that's something you can do). There's an interesting tagging system to search posts with and there's a ton of plugins out there if you want to do things you can usually do. I really ought to give it a shot again when I've got a clear head. If you want a FOSS alternative to Obsidian that's just as simple you could try Zettlr, but currently it's rather rough. You have to change the UI settings to get the folders/file view that Obsidian has, and I found readability to be rather poor. Initially there's no way to make in text larger without zooming in the entire UI, font, and the themes that are available aren't the best for writing or reading notes (and if you like one specific theme you're sod out of luck if you want a darker version of it) – if you want to change things to your liking you have to experiment with the experimental Custom CSS option.
faeranne 3y ago
Having started with Joplin, the three things that took me away were the (at the time) lacking mobile support, periodic syncing collisions, and probably most importantly, their non-standard file format. There was a tool that could extract files into standard markdown format, then repack them, but the overhead was tiring, and meant a few key environments lacked access, namely when I was accessing a server from the rack, and when the mobile app acted up. I actually moved to just using vimwiki style setup with markdown and a markdown editor app on my phone for several years, before I stumbled across Obsidian. I've since been using obsidian for about 9 months now, which is longer than my time with Joplin, and I will say that, once I got a stable sync going (I'm using the simple sync plugin and my own s3 compatible server), the plugin support, decent mobile app, and native markdown files have won me over. Though I'm still eyeing open source options with Logseq, just waiting on their mobile app to pick up and properly support plugins. I'll be more than happy to port everything as soon as it supports that. As an additional note, I will add that despite Obsidian being closed-source, I actually feel more comfortable with my data there than with Joplin, primarily because all my data is just common markdown. With Joplin, if I archive content, I have no guarantee the notes on the file format will exist in 10 years (they probably will, but it's still a real possibility). With Obsidian, it's plaintext. There's nothing to need to rediscover, no file format to decode, just good old plain-text. In 40 years I'll still be able to read those files (though the storage media is a very different story). Sure Obsidian can change plans mid-stream, and I don't trust they wont, but all I gotta do is go back to my markdown editor and vim. No sweat.
- laurent123456 3y ago
  > In 40 years I'll still be able to read those files (though the storage media is a very different story) With Joplin, you can easily archive as Markdown+FrontMatter and that format will still be readable 40 years from now with text and metadata included. Additionally, in case you forgot to make a backup, and 40 years later all traces of Joplin have disappeared from earth and you can't find an old version of the app, the backend is a simple SQLite database, so you can do `SELECT * FROM notes` and get your content back.
- cldwalker 3y ago
  > Though I'm still eyeing open source options with Logseq, just waiting on their mobile app to pick up and properly support plugins. I'll be more than happy to port everything as soon as it supports that. If you haven't already, I'd recommend voting on https://discuss.logseq.com/t/plugin-support-for-ios-android-apps/10109/6 https://discuss.logseq.com/t/plugin-support-for-ios-android-... if you're waiting for mobile plugin support
suddenclarity 3y ago
Worse. I want to see the result when writing so I always had to have a separate preview window open which stole a lot of screen space. Obsidian solved this with the WYSIWYG mode where a paragraph transforms to markdown when you click on it, but the rest of the document shows the end result. It makes the experience a lot nicer when embedding tables and images that you can look at directly and write in-depth about without just seeing a filename.
bhdlr 3y ago
> How does it compare to obsidian? Definitely personal preference, in my experience the UX is terrible compared to obsidian but the pricing and company are much more consumer friendly
bhdlr 3y ago
> How does it compare to obsidian? Definitely personal preference, in my experience the Joplin UX is terrible but the pricing and company are much more consumer frienldy

anonzzzies 3y ago

Joplin is great; unlike similar apps, it’s very fast. Even with gigs of pics in a doc, it still scrolls fast. Others I tried don’t even open or crash/corrupt.

mindracer 3y ago

I use and like Joplin a lot but the mobile app is pretty poor. I find it a frustrating experience

_def 3y ago
What don't you like about the mobile app? In my opinion it's not worse than the desktop app (but I don't really like both of them - I'm just glad it syncs successfully)
- mindracer 3y ago
  It’s a pretty clunky experience trying to creating and editing notes. There’s also the constant worry about conflicts, to try and cut them down I open the mobile app, hit sync, make an edit then hit sync again. I use WebDAV, maybe Joplin Cloud is better at it
laurent123456 3y ago
Contrary to popular belief, the mobile app is not forgotten - I count about 40 releases in total for the past 12 months. We probably spend as much time working on it than on the desktop one, but unfortunately it is much harder to develop for mobile, especially when you have to make sure it works on the many different Android devices and iOS versions, plus the extra work to comply with the ever changing requirements from the Google and Apple stores. Many of these changes are not visible to the user, but without this boring never ending maintenance work the app simply wouldn't exist. We do plan to update the UI/UX of the mobile app though, as we're aware it could be made more intuitive. I'm very keen on improving this and hopefully it will happen this year.
- mindracer 3y ago
  Good hear, looking forward trying it out

rcarmo 3y ago

I like the idea and tried it a couple of times, but the iOS UX is abysmal and should be redone from scratch.

rubymamis 3y ago

Shameless plug for my native (Qt C++ based) open-source, cross-platform note-taking app[1]. It's fast, beautiful, and just works. The next version will add an option to turn your Markdown tasks into a beautiful Kanban view[2] via QML. This feature will be paid but anyone will be able to compile the source with a simple CMake flag to get the PRO version for free. Currently, it uses a DB but we aim to port it to support arbitrary folder (simple .md/.json files, depending on the complexity of the editor). I'm working on a mobile version and a built-in sync option as well. Once the built-in syncing is complete I will probably only charge for that and the client itself will be completely free. [1] https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes [2] https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes/pull/574 https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes/pull/574

Zetobal 3y ago
Great work. I love it.
- rubymamis 3y ago
  Thanks! (:
jfreax 3y ago
Looks nice. Good to see that there are still native apps in development! Looks a lot like Joplin - which I like. But: I couldn't find anything about syncing my notes or mobile clients / other ways to access my notes. Even in the "vision" document. That's a must have functionality _for me_. Probably not important for everyone... therefore, good luck with your project :)
- rubymamis 3y ago
  Hi there! I wrote in the above comment that it's planned. We'll support arbitrary folder (switch from DB), develop our mobile up (switch from QWidgets to Qt Quick), and develop our own built-in sync option. Currently, you can change the database location to your synced folder (Dropbox, etc...) in the settings, but some users reported data conflicts while others said it works fine. You can try this but I'll wait till we officially switch from DB.

senectus1 3y ago

looks good but I'm still pretty happy with self hosted trilium https://github.com/zadam/trilium https://github.com/zadam/trilium

hosh 3y ago

How does this compare with NoteNook? (Open-source, local-first)

eitland 3y ago
Link?
- mwexler 3y ago
  Perhaps poster was thinking of https://notesnook.com https://notesnook.com? Their pitch is as a privacy focused notes manager.

saghul 3y ago

Really happy with Joplin! It's one of those pieces of software that Just Works (TM) and allows me to not worry about it. I'm using the Joplin sync server for keeping my stuff in sync and it has worked flawlessly. If Laurent or anyone from the Joplin community is reading: great job everyone! <3

lf-non 3y ago

I love joplin - it has been my goto solution for adhoc notes for almost two years now. I use it on multiple devices and they all sync to an S3 bucket which is very cheap setup that works well once configured properly. I don't love the default editing experience but the Rich Makdown extension solves it well for me. The extension ecosystem is a bit of mixed bag. There are few good extensions but many are half baked.

msravi 3y ago

I tried many note-taking apps and finally settled on Notable[0]. It's simple and you can point it to a folder with markdown files and attachments. Plus, you can just sync the folder using any syncing service, and use Noteless[1] on Android. The tagging support is superb, you can cross-link notes, render math using katex, and export to pdf. Because of the simple folder structure, you can also use vim+fzf to search/navigate/create/edit your notes. The notational-fzf-vim plugin[2] is superb for that. For web-clipping, I just use the markdownload[3] extension in firefox and save the markdown file in the notes folder. Why not joplin? Mostly because joplin stores notes in an sqlite database instead of a simple folder structure making it not easily accessible by normal unix tools and editors. Why not obsidian? Was never able to grok obsidian. Pointing it at my existing notes makes it just show up as a huge mess of unstructured notes. I guess it needs some effort to organize and link existing notes. In notable, I can tag a note as Books/CS, and CS/Books, and it'll show up in corresponding folder-like structures in the left panel. Can't do that in obsidian. 0. https://notable.app/ https://notable.app/ 1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.redsolver.noteless https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.redsolver.... 2. https://github.com/alok/notational-fzf-vim https://github.com/alok/notational-fzf-vim 3. https://github.com/deathau/markdownload https://github.com/deathau/markdownload

GaryWilder 3y ago
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WhiteSabbath 3y ago
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dermesser 3y ago
> Why not joplin? Mostly because joplin stores notes in an sqlite database instead of a simple folder structure making it not easily accessible by normal unix tools and editors. But instead much more accessible to any kind of software, including a five line python script. While plain text files are useful, they shouldn't be taken to be the only true and accessible way of storing data, even textual ones.

q-base 3y ago

I have tried to switch to Joplin from Evernote twice. But each time I have ended up being frustrated with the synchronisation. It is just too slow in my opinion. Perhaps I have too many notes, but I will be looking for another alternative to Evernote that can work on my phone and Ubuntu.

bartvk 3y ago
Is SimpleNote something for you? It only supports plain text notes (with Markdown rendering), but I've got years of notes in there, and it works on every platform. It's also owned and supported by Wordpress.
- q-base 3y ago
  I haven't looked at SimpleNote before. So I will look into whether that might be a good fit for me. Thanks for sharing.
- mwexler 3y ago
  I keep looking for replacements but wind up every time coming back to Simplenote. Well worth considering as a baseline to compare other offerings against.
laurent123456 3y ago
Which backend did you use for sync? You usually get better sync performance by either self-hosting or using Joplin Cloud. I don't know of any good WebDAV provider, let alone a free one, and even the paid ones have limitations that make them unusable for sync. OneDrive and Dropbox have a free tier and work with Joplin, but they throttle the connection. But I guess it depends on how many notes you have and how you use Joplin - a lot of people use OneDrive or Dropbox and it works good enough for them.
- q-base 3y ago
  I sync to Nextcloud. But I can see another responder to my original comment suggests a config change that I will try.

andwaal 3y ago

I switched from Evernote to Joplin last year and are super happy. Syncing against an S3 bucket and everything works great, rarely any problems.

wanderingmind 3y ago

For those that want to crosslink anything and everything I suggest Logseq[1]. Its journal and graph view are fantastic. And it has many useful plugins. I use it along with git-sync [2] and syncthing [3] now I can sync the notes across my work, personal desktops and my mobile. [1] http://logseq.com/ http://logseq.com/ [2] https://github.com/simonthum/git-sync https://github.com/simonthum/git-sync [3] https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/

eitland 3y ago
I jumped from Joplin to Logseq too. Before it was Boostnote. Probably the reason was both Boostnote and Joplin seems to have stopped developing the application and shifted focus to monetization. Also I personally prefer the (much) more technical way that Logseq work. It is not a markdown editor, but a knowledge base that stores its data as plaintext files in a markdown-like format. One question: do you have pointers to a good way to setup git sync and syncthing? I pay enough to LogSeq to have free sync but I prefer to self host and also the current sync model is somewhat flaky.
- wanderingmind 3y ago
  I have a private git repo in Github which is the folder that Logseq uses. I have a cron job to runs script for git-sync on all machines on reboot. I also have syncthing running on my personal desktop that shares this git repo with my android phone. It runs smooth as long as you don't do simultaneous edits from multiple machines.This will break the git-sync and you will have to do merge conflicts of that happens.
- laurent123456 3y ago
  I don't know about Boostnote but Joplin is still actively developed. Just check the changelogs, and all that is open source: https://joplinapp.org/changelog/ https://joplinapp.org/changelog/ https://joplinapp.org/changelog_android/ https://joplinapp.org/changelog_android/
  - eitland 3y ago

zenjester 3y ago

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DeathArrow 3y ago

I am pretty happy with Obsidian.

janlaureys 3y ago
Obisidian with icloud Drive sync is pretty sweet.
SamuelAdams 3y ago
Same here. I only use note taking apps on my Mac, so syncing isn’t something I am interested in. For me the interface of Obsidian is really top notch. Typing headers and code block quotes doesn’t feel like it gets in your way. My only complaint is that embedded images are saved at the root level by default. Would be nice if I could hide those or move them to an /Images folder,
- lienz 3y ago
  > embedded images are saved at the root level by default. I'm not sure if I understand your complaint, which is something that can easily be changed. Open Settings (cmd-,) > Files & Links, and look for Attachment folder path and change to whatever path you like.

imafish 3y ago

I switched from unstructured Trello / OneNote / Notepad notes to Joplin 4 years ago. I sync it through cloud between mobile, desktop and laptop. It is simply awesome. One of the most important tools I use everyday.

pseufaux 3y ago

I really want to like Joplin, and I've tried to switch a number of times. But the mobile experience just isn't there for me. The iOS app is simple and reliable, which is good, but it's missing some of the touches that make mobile computing feel like it's made for mobile. Specifically, things like swipes for navigation and for selecting or deleting notes. Also, many of the buttons are just too damn small for my sausage fingers. It's dumb, I know. Still, I find myself attempting to swipe to open the side bar then realizing my mistake after the second try and fumbling to reach the too small hamburger in the very top left of the screen. Notes are something I reference at my desktop but generally write while on the go, so having a easy to use mobile app is a requirement for me. It's a shame though cause the desktop experience is so good.

lifehasleft 3y ago
I also write on the go and reference on the desktop later. What is your current workflow? Apple Notes would be great except my work computer is windows, and apple notes in the browser is not great
laurent123456 3y ago
Thanks for the feedback. We plan to update the mobile app so it's good to know what needs to be improved.
- dunco 3y ago
  just jumping on this to say I'm a Joplin user and I love it, thank you for building an awesome app. I currently also use notion because of Joplin's lack of note sharing on mobile; if good note sharing came to the Joplin mobile app I wouldn't need anything else. The only other feature I'd want that I think is missing from Joplin is the ability to define different storage locations / encryption keys per notebook to allow good separation of work and personal data. Overall though, wonderful app and I am so happy that something like it exists. I really feel like the intentions of the app developers align with my values, and that it will continue to go in the right direction for years to come.
  - 3y ago

piokoch 3y ago

Big no-no to Joplin for me is that it is using some custom data format (sqlite I think). Why bother? Just give me an app that can handle nicely markdown files, syncing I can do myself e.g. (Synology, rsync) or use some file syncing service (Dropbox, OneDrive, whatever). Zettlr does the trick for me without interfering with what I write.

laurent123456 3y ago
"Custom" would be the way Apple Notes or Evernote stores their data in opaque binary blobs. SQLite is standard and you can open it with plenty of third-party tools, but I see your point about plain text files being more convenient for certain tasks.
- zimpenfish 3y ago
  > SQLite is standard and you can open it with plenty of third-party tools Tends not to play well with things like Dropbox or Syncthing though. Although I guess you can use litestream or something for the replication instead.
  - anta40 3y ago
    What's the issue? I guess it's just as simple as uploading the .db?
    - Tomte 3y ago
      You're changing some note on device A and the same note differently on device B. Both sync. You now have a conflict. With text files, you at least have obvious merge strategies. With SQLite it isn't quite as easy. I still don't mind SQLite in Joplin. It has advantages, as well.
      - anta40 3y ago
        Ah the multiple devices issue. I see...

jadahl 3y ago

Piping content from the Internet to bash is a terrible way to distribute applications on Linux, I'd recommend making the official method a Flatpak instead. It'll allow you to sandbox your application, which is good for the user, and it'll handle the integration (e.g. app icon etc) correctly. No user should ever be urged to install anything with that method, it's unsafe.

laurent123456 3y ago
In which way can it be exploited?
- LeBit 3y ago
  I never understood why people say this is an obvious no-no security wise. How is installing something from Homebrew any more secure?
- theshrike79 3y ago
  If I serve you a 2000 line unformatted bash script from an URL and tell you to pipe it to bash, will you do it? Should you do it? Do you have the mental fortitude to format it and go through it line by line looking for possible exploits? It's 100% trivial to have it run rm or shred on all files you have access to while simultaneously printing correct looking install progress messages.
  - mtlynch 3y ago
    Is the issue with telling people to pipe URL output into bash? Or is the issue with any distribution method that isn't flatpak or something similarly privilege-limited? I see how flatpak is an improvement, but I don't see how piping into bash is any worse than "install this .deb file / npm package / pip package." If the package author wanted to do something malicious, it's just as easy (if not easier) to put the malicious code in the package itself rather than a bash installer for the package.
  - otikik 3y ago
    What’s the difference between that and downloading and running an installer?

nabogh 3y ago

I've been using Joplin for a few years now. But only recently I've been exploring writing my own plugins for it. I've never written a plugin for anything before but it's been very easy, and overall a very pleasant experience. My plugin basically lets you automate moving notes to specified folders based on what tags are present.

rhamzeh 3y ago

Some pros of Joplin that go unnoticed vs other note taking apps: 1- Available on F-Droid (unofficially) 2- Available as a Flatpak (unofficially) 3- Supports syncing to file system (thus syncing via syncthing) 4- Supports encrypting the exported files 5- Open source 6- Can handle a lot of notes (I have around 5k, but some of those are large notes) 7- Dark Mode These, among many other features make it my note editor of choice for the past 5 years.

ra1n 3y ago

These are the types of applications that I really love. It stores the data in a cloud service that already has enough free capacity for say a notes app. It's like how we can store pass(1) passwords on a git repository (Sync it with Github) and use that as the destination of Android Password Store[1], and you have a easy password manager that syncs across devices. [1] https://github.com/android-password-store/Android-Password-Store https://github.com/android-password-store/Android-Password-S...

hobo_mark 3y ago

My phone recently died and had to move to a new device and resynchronize my Joplin "vault". I have tens of thousands of notes and the Android app just cannot complete the first sync. I left it running all night (sync gets slower and slower as it progresses) with "stay awake" enabled on Android (because Joplin stops synching as soon as the screen locks or the app is not in focus) and even after restarting multiple times, sync never completes (it claims it finished, but most recent notes are still nowhere to be found). This is using the WebDAV backend as that's the only option I have (so long as there's no Google Drive backend). I am looking for alternatives (with a web clipper extension and native apps on windows/linux/mac/android).

oslac 3y ago

I tried a few, but (nearly) default Obsidian won me over by simplicity, ease-of-use.

bornon5 3y ago

The ideal “knowledge base” app I’ve been searching for is as follows: - Self-hosted - Attractive web client that loads very quickly and works well on mobile - Can point it at a nested directory of text/markdown and image/pdf files (no sql database) - Text files are editable in place (no “edit” button, etc.) - Markdown displays in a plain-text view (no hidden formatting characters, no “rich text” editor) Every app I’ve tried misses at least of these. The closest I’ve found, strangely, is vscode-server, which is just too bloated and mobile-unfriendly to work for me. I’m perpetually a millimeter away from writing my own, but I feel like I need to stop doing that. Does this app exist?

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theshrike79 3y ago
Obsidian has everything but "Attractive web client", but it does have a native client. The "database" is just a bunch of directories you can sync with any tool you want.
- addandsubtract 3y ago
  Any tool except Dropbox on macOS. Don't store your Obsidian library in Dropbox.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
  Doesn't seem to have self-hosted syncing. Or am I missing something? And even if it's in there, $8/month for syncing seems to defeat the point of "self-hosted".
  - theshrike79 3y ago
    Like I said, the "database" is just a directory of files. You can use anything you want to keep it synced. I've used OneDrive, Dropbox and iCloud to sync mine.

Icathian 3y ago

Joplin is a gem of open source, and I use it daily on all of my machines. I'm so grateful to have a good FOSS notes app that syncs cross platform. I've been a patron for years and recommended it to lots of people. If anyone has questions about how I use it or my workflow I'm happy to shill this app more, lol. I know Obsidian is the cool kid right now but I just absolutely can't imagine using a closed source app for something as personal and important as my notes. Since the dev is hanging out in this thread, I will say that I'd absolutely love me some vim keybindings though.

maroonblazer 3y ago
> If anyone has questions about how I use it or my workflow I'm happy to shill this app more, lol. I've recently begun using Joplin and am still futzing my way around. Would love to hear about anyone else's workflow. One question, not specific to Joplin, I always have with note-taking apps is what's the best way to organize content? Or do you not worry about that and simply use tags to create structure/relationships?
- Icathian 3y ago
  I use notebooks and nested notebooks heavily. I've found that a directory-style structure works well for me, especially because the integrated search is also good if I forget where I put something. I have never personally had success with tagging for organization, but maybe that's just me. In no particular order, I recommend: * WebDAV to sync your files, I just use some of my fastmail storage and draft off the $5 a month I already pay them * Pasting screenshots from your clipboard into your markdown works automagically on desktop, drops the file with a generated name into the Joplin file structure. It elevates the tool quite a bit imo * It is worth getting comfortable with some of the basic markdown annotations. Just knowing to use asterisks and underscores and whatever speeds you up a lot from having to go click the "bold" button or whatever. * I really like editing with the preview pane open. It closes the loop for me, and is the best of both worlds where I get to just type the annotations at my normal typing speed, but also see the formatted output so I can make changes as I go.
- bobbylarrybobby 3y ago

Qahlel 3y ago

After trying Joplin (for several years), I finally decided on Obsidian instead. It is the better product and has a better 3rd-party support. https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/

kerneloops 3y ago

The only problem to me is that the "official" Joplin Server is proprietary: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/dev/packages/server/LICENSE.md https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/dev/packages/server...

petemir 3y ago
I think it is a reasonable decision https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/crowdfunding-joplin-server-license/19891 https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/crowdfunding-joplin-server...

t0bia_s 3y ago

I use Joplin over 3 years now, however Android app over 2.5 version is not possible sync over Syncthing. So I cannot update since 2.5 version which is not great, not terrible.

Kaibeezy 3y ago

People seem to be talking about this/these mainly for note taking, but I'm really only looking for the web clipping function. Evernote has been fine for my vast collection of chashu recipes, audio equipment schematics and philosophy enchiridia. I sure wouldn't want to lose that stuff. Joplin then? Obsidian? Something else? /rhetorical - I will keep reading the comments.

laurent123456 3y ago
Joplin does have a Web Clipper

Propelloni 3y ago

No discussion of note taking apps is complete without Zim Desktop Wiki [1], so let me be the one who sings its praise! It's less web or mobile oriented than Joplin but gives me everything I need. Plain text files, syncing, lots of plugins. And task management, oh boy. Task management is second to none, including orgmode. I'm a faithful user for years now and I am still happy I found it. [1] https://zim-wiki.org/ https://zim-wiki.org/

dantheta 3y ago
Also an extremely happy Zim user for desktop notes, projects & work journal. Recently I was looking for a self-hosted equivalent to Google Keep (which I use mainly for lists, quick notes and web snippets), and tried out Joplin. It looked pretty good, but I wanted a web app frontend, which Joplin doesn't seem to have. I'm now trying out Memos [1] now, and it's pretty good so far (though I would love to see postgres support in Memos as well as the current sqlite DB). [1] https://usememos.com/ https://usememos.com/

mitchitized 3y ago

Longtime joplin user here - been using s3 sync storage since it was available. As long as it is open and free, that will be my note app of choice. Yeah the mobile app definitely needs work, and there's always room for improvement overall. But it is free as in "free beer", as well as "free speech". Both are hard requirements for me, at least for my notes (and data, in general). I have years of notes in joplin, spread across dozens of notebooks and several profiles. I'm impressed. There are a zillion competitors out there, some with extremely beautiful interfaces - but it MUST be open for me to even look at it.

princevegeta89 3y ago
How is the sync now? Does it only sync every 5 minutes, with the user requiring to manually press "sync" for every change? Or does it sync on changes automatically? I'm asking because I used it in the past and the sync limitation often caused conflicts for my mobile and desktop clients
- jl6 3y ago
  I use Joplin extensively on multiple devices and I find that the only way to completely avoid sync conflicts is to make sure you hit sync after entering data on one device, and then hit sync on the other device before using it.
  - princevegeta89 3y ago
    Interesting, thanks for confirming.. not sure yet if I want to jump back to Joplin yet.
    - grepfru_it 3y ago
      Joplin and nextcloud/WebDAV was horrible. Horrible. I can’t go back, trilium is way more extendable
      - princevegeta89 3y ago

dadoomer 3y ago

Long time Joplin user. I LOVE Joplin. Got it synched with Dropbox. Several people have asked me what app I use when they see it. It's just what a note app should be: simple, cross-platform, markdown-based, can export notes.

cjm42 3y ago

I've been using Joplin for a while now, syncing via Nextcloud. One tip: I set up a cronjob to export into a Git repository so I have a complete history. The core of the script is: joplin sync joplin export --format=raw "$tmpdir" # Rsync that directory to the repository # This deletes files that no longer exist in the current export. /usr/bin/rsync -a --quiet --delete --exclude=.git "$tmpdir/" "./" /usr/bin/git add -A

zelifcam 3y ago

I’ve been running multiple Joplin servers. One for personal and one for work. Hasn’t let me down yet. Always room for improvements, but it does reliable do the job. Easy import and export. No worries of being locked into anything.

nologic01 3y ago

With Joplin and Nextcloud on a self-hosted vps I'm basically done: access from mobile, linux, windows etc.

eviks 3y ago

Joplin is a solid option, using it along with Simplenote for some quick notes since Joplin's sync isn't that great. But I was wondering whether there is somehting not tied to the simplistic markdown with next-gen note tech like rich text and CRDT for great sync conflict resolution and note history and non-Electron clients for performance?

onedr0p 3y ago

My major problem with Joplin is the lack of a native client for Apple Silicon, otherwise it's great. I know you can run it with Rosetta but it's performance and load time is terrible.

millzlane 3y ago
Recently started using Joplin. I find myself reformatting everything I paste into it from the browser. I thought the long load time was just the program. Didn't realize it wasn't native. I find myself not using it because it does feel clunky and slow and just easier to take screenshots.

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t_sawyer 3y ago

Been using Joplin as my main note app for over 2 years. IOS, Web Clipper, and Windows clients. Synced to Nextcloud. I do wish there was a webapp for me to see my notes in a browser but I understand the way it works how that would be difficult to create due to the use use of local files and syncing.

Fervicus 3y ago

A requirement for me in a note taking app is password protection on the desktop client. That's one thing preventing me from using Joplin.

hoistbypetard 3y ago
Out of curiosity, why do you require that? On my desktop, my system account is protected, never left unattended while unlocked, and I've got full-disk encryption. I can't presently imagine a benefit to an extra password for my notetaking application, so your comment makes me wonder whether I'm missing something or whether I just use it a little differently than you do.
- Fervicus 3y ago
  I have other people use my computer from time to time, but not for enough time to warrant a separate account. From what I understand, Joplin's data is also stored unencrypted on disk. I don't use full-disk encryption and I don't want to use it just for Joplin. Are people using my computer going to open up my notes app or snoop around in the sqlite db? Probably not. But I like to have the peace of mind.

lienz 3y ago

I've used Obsidian, Logseq, Apple Notes, and Joplin recently. I really like Obsidian for how performant it feels for handling really long md files with outline. But the best capturing experience is Logseq. I just record everything I do in the journal (daily) page and just tag them (tag can have hierarchy and spaces too) . I don't have to think about directory structure or which file the info should go into. Logseq sucks for handling long form md files tho, so I keep Obsidian for that. Joplin I tried to use it until it started having sync conflicts, and the sync corruption error cannot be dismissed. Google solutions suggests exporting JEX and delete everything and re-import. I give up after that. Apple Notes is really nice too but lack coding highlight.

sbkg0002 3y ago

I like Joplin, but the fact that they refused to create an arm64 Darwin build, made me look for alternatives.

laurent123456 3y ago
Not sure why "refused". We want to support it but it's not trivial and it doesn't help that we don't have the hardware to test this. It will be done eventually

NewsMichaela 3y ago

Love Joplin's FOSS nature and extensibility. In my workflow, I have set it up to accept transcribed speech notes and to-dos. https://github.com/QuantiusBenignus/NoteWhispers https://github.com/QuantiusBenignus/NoteWhispers

rtpg 3y ago

I use Joplin and it... it basically works! Bit ugly at times but I really enjoy having a thing that works on my computers and my phone. Sometimes I end up in Drafts instead on iOS because of how Drafts is really "just open and go", but even then I'll copy-paste it later. Joplin is great at being a place to put a lot of ... simple rich text documents in a random manner, and have access to them. Wordpad with sync, and it does its job.

NewsMichaela 3y ago

Like that Joplin is open source and love the extensibility (plugins, API): In my workflow, I have it set up to store my transcribed speech notes and todos (with accurate offline speech recognition): https://github.com/QuantiusBenignus/NoteWhispers https://github.com/QuantiusBenignus/NoteWhispers

kertoip_1 3y ago

I've used Joplin for a few years, had a few hundred notes on it and even sponsored it on GitHub. Then I've changed my smartphone which also brought with it an updated version of Android. The new Android version had some changes regarding how an app can manage a filesystem, which ultimately broke Joplin. I've waited a few weeks for an update (couldn't read my notes on a phone then) and even when it finally arrived, the process of synchronization was so slow and buggy I couldn't do it. That (together with other sync bugs I've been reporting earlier) was the reason I've lost patience and switched to Obsidian. Either way, I'm thankful for developers for those few years, that was a really great tool

wouldbecouldbe 3y ago

I'm different from a lot of people it sounds like here. I mainly use one big ass note and I want my note app to start as fast as possible to get the idea I have on paper asap so I can forget about it. Nothing is able to beat the Apple notes experience, even if my main phone is an Android. I still prefer it. The main thing is, Apple is instant, you open it and type. Joplin takes 3-10 seconds on my phone and doesn't remember what note I was on if not on standby mode. Also syncing. Often goes wrong. I like one big notes for my main planning & things to remember. Most apps manage multiple fine, but one big one often goes wrong. Had issues trying Google keep and evernote. Havent tried it with joplin yet, will give it a go.

guptarohit 3y ago

I’ve tried many note taking apps, but now settled with Joplin. All other alternatives are on freemium model. I’m glad we have something like Joplin. Kudos to the Joplin team & community.

agadius 3y ago

Love Joplin! I love it so much, my lazy ass actually donated. I spent quite some time searching for open source alternatives that don’t have an ulterior motive. Currently using nextcloud sync and it works. Sometimes the iOS app and the Linux desktop app are out of sync, but a sync fixes that. Would love to see mTLS implemented at some point!