Joplin
A free, open source note-taking and to-do application with synchronization capabilities.
The Lens
By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.
Updated Aug 2026
Joplin is the Evernote replacement that actually respects your data. Markdown-native note-taking with notebooks, tags, to-dos, and a web clipper that grabs full pages from Chrome and Firefox. Your notes sync via Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Joplin's own cloud service. End-to-end encryption is built in.
Desktop and mobile apps cover every platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android. The desktop experience is solid, with a split editor/preview, rich plugins, and custom themes. Importing from Evernote is a first-class feature, preserving formatted content, attachments, and metadata in one shot.
Solo users who left Evernote (or want to) get everything they need for free. Self-hosters running Joplin Server get team sync without paying for cloud. Casual users just point it at Dropbox and never think about infrastructure.
The catch: no real-time collaboration. The sync model is file-based, not operational transforms, so conflict resolution is basic. Mobile apps have historically lagged the desktop. And if you need Notion-style databases and kanban boards alongside your notes, Joplin doesn't do that.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
free self hosted paid cloudFree (Your Own Sync)
The apps are MIT licensed on every platform, and syncing through Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, or S3 costs nothing beyond storage you already have. End-to-end encryption is included. Joplin Server can also be self-hosted for team sync.
Joplin Cloud (priced in euros; the dollar figure moves with the exchange rate)
- Basic: 2.99 EUR/mo, or 2.40 EUR/mo billed yearly (28.69 EUR/year). 2GB storage, 10MB per note or attachment, publish notes to the web, unlimited devices, web app.
- Pro: 5.99 EUR/mo, or 4.79 EUR/mo billed yearly (57.48 EUR/year). 30GB storage with a 100GB upgrade path, 200MB per item, notebook collaboration and sharing, email to note, Joplin Cloud AI in beta.
- Teams: 6.69 EUR/mo per user (80.28 EUR/year). 50GB storage, multi-user management, consolidated billing, share permissions, priority support.
Self-Hosted Costs
Pointing the apps at a Dropbox or Nextcloud account you already pay for is genuinely $0. Running Joplin Server yourself is a Docker container on a $5 to $10/mo VPS, which is worth doing for team sync and pointless for a solo user.
When to Pay
Joplin Cloud buys note publishing and notebook collaboration, which the free sync backends cannot do. For one person who wants notes on three devices, pointing it at Dropbox is the right answer and always has been.
Free and MIT with your own sync backend, which covers most solo users. Joplin Cloud is billed in euros from 2.99 EUR/mo and buys publishing and collaboration rather than basic sync.
What to do by team size
- Solo
- free with Dropbox or Nextcloud sync; Cloud only if you publish notes
- Small team
- free self-hosted Joplin Server, or Cloud Pro at 5.99 EUR/mo for sharing
- Medium team
- Joplin Cloud Teams at 6.69 EUR/mo per user for multi-user management and billing
- Large team
- free self-hosted Joplin Server behind your own auth; Joplin is not built for large-org governance
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