Home / Tools / Productivity / Joplin
Updated: Dec 5, 2025
Tested: 3 months continuous use
8 min read
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Joplin Review

// Productivity Updated: Dec 2025
Best Free Option

Joplin is a free, open-source note-taking app that puts privacy and data ownership first with end-to-end encryption and offline-first design. Unlike proprietary alternatives, Joplin gives you complete control over your notes with self-hosting options, cross-platform sync, and a thriving plugin ecosystem. With 52,800+ GitHub stars and support for Markdown, AI integrations, and OCR search, it's the go-to choice for privacy-conscious users.

Quick Intel

Our Rating
4.9
Price $2.99/mo
Time Saved ~3h/wk
Free Tier Yes
Best For Privacy-focused note-takers
Try Joplin

Free tier available. No credit card required.

// Jump To
// TL;DR
Best for: Privacy-focused users, developers, and open-source advocates needing offline-first note-taking with encryption. Not ideal for: Teams needing real-time collaboration. The free tier is fully featured-paid plans ($2.99-$7.99/mo) add cloud sync convenience.
01

Pricing Breakdown

Joplin's open-source model means the core app is completely free with no feature limitations. The free tier includes everything: unlimited notes, E2E encryption, offline access, plugins, and all platforms. Paid Joplin Cloud plans add automatic sync convenience-Basic at $2.99/mo, Pro at $5.99/mo, Teams at $7.99/mo per user.

Free (Open Source)
Free
  • Unlimited notes and notebooks
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Markdown and WYSIWYG editor
  • Cross-platform sync (self-hosted)
  • Offline-first access
  • Plugin support
  • Task management with reminders
  • No storage limits (local)
  • Sync with Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud
Basic
$2.99 /month
  • All free features
  • Joplin Cloud sync
  • 2 GB cloud storage
  • 10 MB max note/attachment size
  • Web access to notes
  • Note publishing
  • Collaborate on notebooks
  • Email to Note
  • Custom publishing banner
Pro
$5.99 /month
  • All Basic features
  • 30 GB cloud storage
  • 200 MB max note/attachment size
  • Email-to-note
  • Custom publishing banners
  • Priority support
i

Save 20% with annual billing. Basic drops to $2.40/mo and Pro to $4.79/mo.

Joplin Productivity ROI Calculator

// Calculate Your Time Savings
// Your Usage
Your hourly rate $50
Note lookups per day 8
Mins saved per lookup 10m
Monthly subscription $2.99
Calculation Assumptions:
- 3 hours/week saved through centralized note organization and fast search
- Offline access eliminates sync delays and connectivity dependencies
- Free tier provides full functionality-ROI is time savings with zero cost
// Your Results
Annual ROI
0%
Monthly Savings
$0
Annual Savings
$0
Cost/Use
$0.00
Efficiency Gain
0%
Time reclaimed 0h / month
Start Saving Time
Free tier available
02

Feature Analysis

I evaluated Joplin across six critical dimensions for note-taking: privacy and security, offline functionality, Markdown support, collaboration features, user interface, and cross-platform support.

Privacy & Security

Excellent

End-to-end encryption with AES-256, self-hosting options, and complete data ownership

Offline Functionality

Excellent

Offline-first architecture-full access without internet, sync when ready

Markdown & Extensibility

Excellent

Native Markdown editor with plugin ecosystem including AI assistants (GPT, Claude)

Collaboration Features

Needs Work

Limited real-time collaboration-designed for individual use with basic sharing

User Interface

Average

Functional but utilitarian design-less polished than commercial alternatives

Cross-Platform Support

Excellent

Native apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, plus terminal version

03

The Honest Truth

What We Love
  • Truly free and open-source - Core app is 100% free with no feature restrictions-paid plans only add cloud sync convenience
  • End-to-end encryption - AES-256 encryption means even your sync provider can't read your notes-only you hold the key
  • Offline-first design - Full functionality without internet-create, edit, search, and organize notes anywhere
  • Self-hosting options - Host your own sync server for maximum control and privacy
  • AI plugin ecosystem - Integrate GPT, Claude, Gemini through community plugins for AI-assisted note-taking
What Could Be Better
  • Basic collaboration - Limited to shared notebooks-no real-time editing like Google Docs or Notion
  • Utilitarian interface - Functional but not beautiful-users wanting polished UX may prefer Notion or Craft
  • Search limitations - Can only search one tag at a time-no boolean operators for complex queries
  • Setup complexity - Initial sync configuration can be technically challenging for non-developers
04

Who Should Use This

Privacy-Focused Research

Store sensitive research, personal journals, or confidential notes with military-grade encryption

Best Fit

Developer Documentation

Markdown-native workflow perfect for code snippets, technical docs, and project notes

Best Fit

Offline Knowledge Base

Work on planes, remote areas, or anywhere without connectivity-full functionality offline

Good Fit

Personal Knowledge Management

Build a second brain with tags, notebooks, and powerful search including OCR for images

Good Fit

Team Collaboration Needs

Teams needing real-time editing should choose Notion or Confluence instead

Not Ideal

Design-Focused Users

Users prioritizing aesthetics over functionality will find the UI less polished than Craft or Notion

Not Ideal
05

vs. Competition

ToolPriceKey FeatureNoteBest For
Joplin
Joplin
Free E2E encryption Offline-first Privacy-focused users
Obsidian
Obsidian
Free/$8/mo Graph view Plugin ecosystem PKM enthusiasts
Standard Notes
Standard Notes
Free/$10/mo Simplicity Encryption focus Minimal note-taking
Notion
Notion
Free/$10/mo Beautiful UI Databases All-in-one workspace
06

Frequently Asked Questions

Joplin is 100% free and open-source with no feature restrictions. You can use it forever without paying anything. The paid Joplin Cloud plans ($2.99-$7.99/mo) only add automatic cloud sync convenience-free users can sync manually via Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, or self-host their own server.
Joplin uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE) with AES-256, meaning your notes are encrypted on your device before syncing. Even Joplin Cloud or your sync provider can't read your data-only you hold the encryption key. For maximum security, use self-hosted sync with your own server.
Yes! Joplin is offline-first by design. You can create, edit, search, and organize notes with zero internet connection. When you reconnect, changes sync automatically. This makes Joplin ideal for travel, remote work, or users with unreliable connectivity.
Both are local-first Markdown apps focused on privacy. Joplin offers free built-in sync options and simpler setup, while Obsidian has a more powerful graph view and plugin ecosystem. Joplin is better for users who want encryption and offline-first out of the box; Obsidian suits those wanting advanced PKM features.
Through plugins, Joplin integrates with ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI assistants for summarization, writing assistance, and Q&A. You can also use OCR plugins to make text in images and PDFs searchable. The plugin ecosystem is community-driven and expanding.
07

Final Verdict

4.9/5
Our Rating

Best Free Privacy-Focused Note-Taking

Joplin is the definitive choice for privacy-conscious users who want powerful note-taking without vendor lock-in or monthly fees. The open-source app offers end-to-end encryption, offline-first design, and complete data ownership-features that commercial alternatives charge premium prices for. With 52,800+ GitHub stars and a thriving plugin ecosystem including AI integrations, Joplin proves that free and open-source can compete with proprietary tools. The trade-off is a utilitarian interface and limited collaboration-teams needing real-time editing should look elsewhere. But for individual users prioritizing privacy, Joplin is unbeatable.

Try Joplin Free

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