Joplin

Joplin is a free, open-source note-taking and to-do app that lets privacy-focused users organize, search, and sync multimedia-rich notes across all devices with end-to-end encryption.

🚀 Overview

Joplin is a cross-platform note-taking application designed as a privacy-first alternative to proprietary apps like Evernote. It allows users to create rich notes with Markdown support, including images, videos, PDFs, audio, math expressions, and diagrams, all stored in an accessible open format.

What problem does this project solve? It addresses data lock-in, privacy concerns, and limited offline access in commercial note apps by providing offline-first storage, E2EE sync, and easy export/import capabilities.

Who is it built for? It's ideal for developers, students, professionals, and anyone needing a flexible, secure way to manage personal knowledge bases, to-do lists, and clipped web content across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and terminal.

Why did you build it? Created by Laurent Cozic to offer a free, extensible tool that puts users in full control of their data without relying on big tech surveillance.

✨ Key Features

Multimedia notes supporting images, videos, PDFs, audio, math (KaTeX), diagrams (Mermaid), and in-app photo capture
End-to-end encrypted synchronization via Joplin Cloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, or self-hosted options
Web Clipper extensions for Chrome and Firefox to save full web pages or screenshots as notes
Highly customizable with 100+ plugins, custom CSS themes, Rich Text or Markdown editors, and an Extension API
Optional: Full-text search, tagging, notebooks, to-dos with alarms, Evernote import, and ongoing improvements like GSoC projects

🛠 Tech Stack

Frontend: Electron (desktop), React Native (Android/iOS), TypeScript (73%), JavaScript (17%)
Backend: Node.js
Database: SQLite
Auth: End-to-end encryption with master password
Hosting: Vercel/Netlify not used; apps are self-contained, sync via third-party or Joplin Cloud (EU-hosted)

👥 Who Is This For?

This project is useful for:

Developers who want Markdown, plugins, and API extensibility for code snippets and docs
Privacy-conscious users avoiding data mining in apps like Notion or Evernote
Teams looking for secure note sharing and collaboration via Joplin Cloud
Indie makers building personal knowledge systems with offline access

📸 Screenshots / Demo

Live demo: Download desktop/mobile apps at https://joplinapp.org/download/ or try Joplin Cloud https://joplinapp.org/plans/
GitHub: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin

🔥 Project Status

🟢 Actively building

Last updated: 2026-03-24

❓ FAQ

Is this project free?

Yes / Freemium / Open Source (The core app is completely free and open source. Joplin Cloud offers paid plans starting at €2.99/month for sync, sharing, and publishing.)

Is the source code available?

Yes — https://github.com/laurent22/joplin

Can I contribute?

Yes — Review CONTRIBUTING.md and the dev guide at https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/dev/readme/dev/index.md. Open issues, submit PRs, create plugins, or provide feedback on the forum at https://discourse.joplinapp.org/. Sponsors welcome via Patreon.