Joplin

About Joplin

Joplin is a free, open-source note-taking and to-do application that keeps your notes in an open format and lets you choose where they are synced. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, with a web clipper for saving pages from your browser, making it a strong privacy-respecting alternative to proprietary note apps.

Notes are written in Markdown and organised into notebooks, sub-notebooks and tags, with full-text search to find anything quickly. You can attach images, PDFs and other files, record to-do checklists, and use a split-screen editor that shows your Markdown and a live preview side by side. Because the data is plain Markdown plus attachments, your notes stay portable and are not trapped in a single vendor's system.

A key strength is flexible, end-to-end-encryptable synchronisation. Joplin can sync through a range of services you already use or through its own paid Joplin Cloud, and you can enable encryption so that only your devices can read the content. This combination of self-hosted options and optional encryption appeals to users who want cloud convenience without giving up control of their data.

Joplin is extensible through community plugins that add features like diagrams, spreadsheets and advanced editing, and its web clipper makes it easy to archive articles for later. The interface is practical rather than flashy, and some sync setups require a little configuration, but for a free, cross-platform, open notes app with real privacy options it is hard to beat.

Key features

• Markdown notes with notebooks and tags
• Optional end-to-end encrypted sync
• Flexible sync targets including self-hosting
• Web clipper for saving pages
• Community plugins and attachments

System requirements

A desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux) or mobile (Android, iOS) device. Notes are lightweight, so requirements are modest.

Tips

• Turn on end-to-end encryption before your first sync for maximum privacy
• Use the web clipper to build a searchable archive of articles