Software Alternatives & Reviews

Notability VS Joplin

Compare Notability VS Joplin and see what are their differences

Notability logo Notability

Combine handwriting, photos and typing in a single note to bring your projects to life. Use a wide range of note-taking and sketching tools to capture every detail. You can even add and annotate PDFs in Notability.

Joplin logo Joplin

Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor.
  • Notability Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-02
  • Joplin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-20

Notability videos

Notability on the iPad | Walkthrough & Review ✏️

More videos:

  • Review - NOTABILITY VS. GOODNOTES 5 - Best iPad Note-Taking App (2021)
  • Review - The ULTIMATE Notability vs GoodNotes 5 Comparison Video! (2022)

Joplin videos

Joplin, a free, open source, self hosted syncing note taking alternative to Evernote and OneNote..

More videos:

  • Review - Joplin Is An Open Source Alternative To Evernote
  • Review - Joplin Desktop: Take Notes With A Rich Markdown Editor

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Notability and Joplin)
Note Taking
6 6%
94% 94
Task Management
12 12%
88% 88
Todos
5 5%
95% 95
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Notability and Joplin

Notability Reviews

15 Best Notability Alternatives 2022
Notability is one of the most popular and reliable apps when it comes to creating handwritten, typed, or visual notes. Despite its notoriety, Notability is not without its shortcomings and may not be the best note-taking app for everyone.
Which App is Best for Taking Notes?
Notability also offers a unique audio recording option. You won’t find it in Good Notes. When using the app, users can record audio files while taking notes. When playing back audio, Notability will animate when the text was added to the page during the recording so that it’s easy to know what prompted you to write something down.
Source: medium.com

Joplin Reviews

20 Obsidian Alternatives: Top Note-Taking Tools to Consider
Joplin is best defined as an open-source note-taking app. The app lets you take notes and access them anywhere as it backs all your notes on the cloud. You can create checklists, notes, and tables within Joplin or attach images and videos. In addition, Joplin supports diagrams and math functions, making it an inclusive note-taking app regardless of subject or topic.
Source: clickup.com
The 6 best note-taking apps in 2024
Not only is Joplin the best open source note-taking app on our list, but it's also the best free Evernote alternative too. For a number of reasons I'll explore below, I don't feel Evernote merits a spot on this list right now; however, because Evernote has been such a staple of the note-taking app space, most other apps compete by trying to be different. OneNote is awesome,...
Source: zapier.com
The best note-taking apps for collecting your thoughts and data
In order to synchronize Joplin among your devices, you need to set it up with one of several existing cloud services (such as Dropbox or OneDrive). You can also use Joplin Cloud, which is available in Joplin’s paid plans: Basic, which includes 2GB storage space and 10MB per note or attachment, and Pro, which offers 30GB storage space, 200MB per note or attachment, and other...
10 Best Open Source Note-Taking Apps for Linux
It also supports alarms (notifications) for to-dos, End-To-End Encryption (E2EE) for security, allows for saving web pages and screenshots as notes using the web clipper extension available in Firefox and Chrome web browsers, and supports synchronization with cloud or file storage services such as services including Joplin Cloud, Dropbox, and OneDrive.
Source: www.tecmint.com
The best encrypted note taking apps
Joplin is open-source, maintains Linux, Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows apps, and also offers built in cloud-sync functionality called “Joplin cloud.” Finally, Joplin scores highly on their use of end-to-end encrypted to keep all user notes private. For more convenience features Joplin offers a web clipper directly integrated into the notes app to allow for cataloging,...
Source: www.skiff.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Joplin seems to be a lot more popular than Notability. While we know about 350 links to Joplin, we've tracked only 5 mentions of Notability. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Notability mentions (5)

  • Why do they make it so complicated?
    You are using a third party app (https://notability.com) for notes. It’s very likely it has it set to sync with iCloud as a default - in order for you to be able to access said notes from other devices as well. Source: 11 months ago
  • Anyone else dislikes studying with soft copy notes?
    When I used ipad in sec school I found Notability to do wonders in making/editing notes, bonus if you have an apple pencil to go with it. Editing PDF, adding pics, arranging texts and diagrams, exporting, importing etc. Source: about 1 year ago
  • GoodNotes 5 is Now the Better Option than Notability
    If you were looking for a great writing option in the past, you often would have been recommended Goodnotes 5 or Notability, as often times it simply came down to personal preference. Both offered similar feature and worked great on the iPad with the Apple Pencil, so it was easy to see why both were pretty evenly matched with only a couple features or abilities to seperated them. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Pen down some thoughts in my journal after catching up with a designer friend.
    Oh nice! I think IPads have digital journals you can use so you can still doodle, draw maps, etc. Here’s one I found that’s highly rated: Notability. Source: about 1 year ago
  • What are your most used tools/products for essay writing?
    Notability - allows me to take notes on my iPad during lectures. Source: about 1 year ago

Joplin mentions (350)

  • My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file
    I've had great success with using Joplin for this, with Syncthing as a sync backend. Works well across OSes; I use it on Linux, macOS, Windows and Android. https://joplinapp.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file
    I use https://joplinapp.org because it allows for pasting images and files. Has easy sync and also mobile and desktop apps. Free and open source. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: What do you use for note-taking or as knowledge base?
    Joplin, an open source, extendable, Markdown-based hierarchical note-taking app: https://joplinapp.org/ It lets you choose a synchronization backend, offers applications for every major desktop and mobile OS (also has a terminal version). You can create notebooks and subnotebooks to organize your notes. You can also add tags for better search experience. I created notebooks for specific domains (work-related, home... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Alternative for document storage/filing cabinet
    I'm not certain, but I believe that Joplin will serve your needs. Source: 5 months ago
  • Ask HN: What software did you purchase that positively impacted your family life
    Joplin (free, but sponsored) in combination with a Storagebox at Hetzner. Joplin allows us to share notes, shopping lists, to do lists, etc via Webdav between our various devices (mobile phones, laptops, desktops). https://joplinapp.org and https://www.hetzner.com/de/storage/storage-box. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Notability and Joplin, you can also consider the following products

Evernote - Bring your life's work together in one digital workspace. Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas, write meaningful words, and move your important projects forward.

Standard Notes - A safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

OneNote - Get the OneNote app for free on your tablet, phone, and computer, so you can capture your ideas and to-do lists in one place wherever you are. Or try OneNote with Office for free.

Workflowy - A better way to organize your mind.

Simplenote - The simplest way to keep notes. Light, clean, and free. Simplenote is now available for iOS, Android, Mac, and the web.

Obsidian.md - A second brain, for you, forever. Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.