Joplin

Joplin is a free and open source note-taking application developed by Laurent Cozic and maintained by an active community of contributors. Based in France, Joplin operates under EU privacy regulations, making it an excellent choice for privacy-conscious users seeking an alternative to proprietary note-taking services like Evernote or Notion.

At its core, Joplin follows a local-first philosophy, meaning your notes are stored on your own devices by default rather than being uploaded to third-party servers. This approach gives users complete control over their data from the start. For those who need synchronization across devices, Joplin offers multiple options including Joplin Cloud (hosted in France), self-hosted Joplin Server, or third-party services like Nextcloud, OneDrive, or Dropbox.

Security is a fundamental feature of Joplin, with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) available to protect your notes. When enabled, your data is encrypted before leaving your device, meaning even the sync service provider cannot read your content. This zero-knowledge architecture ensures that your personal notes, thoughts, and documents remain truly private.

The application supports a wide range of content types including images, videos, PDFs, and audio files. It features both a Rich Text editor for casual users and a Markdown editor for those who prefer plain-text formatting. Mathematical expressions and diagrams are supported, making it suitable for students, researchers, and technical professionals.

Joplin is available on virtually every platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and even as a terminal application. The Web Clipper browser extension for Chrome and Firefox allows you to save web pages and articles directly to your Joplin notebooks, complete with formatting.

Extensibility is another strength, with a plugin system that allows users to add features, themes, and custom functionality. The extension API enables developers to create scripts and integrations tailored to their specific workflows.

For teams and businesses, Joplin Cloud offers collaboration features including shared notebooks and an Email to Note feature. The Teams plan provides multi-user management and priority support, while organizations requiring complete control can deploy Joplin Server on their own infrastructure.

Key Features

• End-to-End Encryption: Secure your notes with strong encryption that prevents even service providers from accessing your data
• Local-First Storage: Notes stored on your device by default, with optional cloud sync
• Multi-Platform Support: Available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and terminal
• Web Clipper: Browser extension for Chrome and Firefox to save web content directly to notebooks
• Plugin Ecosystem: Extend functionality with community-created plugins and themes
• Self-Hosting Option: Deploy Joplin Server on your own infrastructure for complete control

Privacy Highlights

Joplin exemplifies privacy-by-design principles. The application explicitly states that it does not send any data to any service without user authorization. All data collection is opt-in, including crash reports and geo-location features.

When using Joplin Cloud for synchronization, your data is stored on servers located in France, benefiting from EU data protection regulations. The end-to-end encryption feature ensures that even Joplin’s own servers cannot decrypt your notes.

As a fully open source project under the MIT license, Joplin’s code is publicly auditable. Users and security researchers can verify exactly how the application handles data, providing transparency that proprietary alternatives cannot match.

Data portability is straightforward since Joplin uses open formats. Users can export their notes at any time in various formats including Markdown, HTML, and PDF, ensuring you’re never locked into the platform.