Compare / Joplin vs Obsidian
Joplin vs Obsidian
Pick Joplin if you want AGPL clients and sync you control (Dropbox/WebDAV/Joplin Cloud — not Joplin Server as a company vault). Pick Obsidian if you want that editor and accept a proprietary app with local Markdown files.
Facts checked 18 Oct 2026. License, language, and GitHub activity come from the catalog or the project's own repo. "Not in the catalog row" means the public catalog dump does not store that number.
Joplin in the catalog Obsidian in the catalogStart on Railway
How they compare
| Joplin | Obsidian | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Clients: AGPL-3.0-or-later. Joplin Server: personal-use (not OSI) source | Proprietary — the app is not open source source |
| Language | TypeScript (catalog) | Not a public app source tree |
| GitHub activity | 56,785 stars in the catalog source | No public editor source. obsidianmd/obsidian-releases is the plugin list, not the app |
| Self-host | Clients + a sync target you choose. Do not deploy Joplin Server for a company. | Local vault. Official Sync is a vendor product. |
| Best for | AGPL notes on every device. | A proprietary editor on local Markdown. |
Self-hosting and resource needs
Joplin clients are AGPL-3.0-or-later (laurent22/joplin LICENSE). Joplin Server is a personal-use license — non-commercial; a studio should not run it (already the /stacks/memos-notes FAQ). Obsidian's app is not open source (obsidian.md). Files are local Markdown; official Sync/Publish are paid products. Memos/TriliumNext remain the OSI self-host notes path on that stack.
FAQ
- Is Obsidian open source?
- No. This page says so plainly. The editor is proprietary. Community plugins live in a separate list repo.
- Why not Joplin Server at work?
- packages/server/LICENSE.md is a personal-use license. Memos or TriliumNext is the self-host path on /stacks/memos-notes.
- Wiki instead of notes?
- Docmost — /compare/outline-vs-docmost.
- Are these free?
- Joplin clients are AGPL. Obsidian's personal app is a proprietary download; Sync/Publish are paid. You pay your own disk.
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