Joplin vs Obsidian
Thinking of swapping Obsidian for the open-source Joplin? Here’s the honest trade-off.
50k TypeScript AGPL-3.0 8 days ago
What you give up vs Obsidian
- The note editor is more basic than Notion-style block editors.
- No real-time collaborative editing; sync is eventual.
- No relational database or board views.
- Self-hosted Joplin Server setup and multi-user management is less polished than the apps.
What you gain
- • Full data ownership — self-host Joplin on your own infrastructure.
- • No per-seat SaaS bill (Obsidian: paid sync and a closed-source core).
- • Open-source code you can audit and extend (AGPL-3.0).