Joplin

Simple comparison Evernote vs. Joplin. The same full-site copy created with Evernote's Web Clipper then imported to Joplin. Evernote can't even show it correct in its viewer.

As 100% paranoid I trust only things that stay with me, that's why I write notes and save part of webpages to local storage. A long ago I started to use Evernote, that time it was almost only solution for such kind of task. But Evernote is terrible, really. Well, if we write a note with Evernote WYSIWYG editor then no problem, but if you saved web-page or even its part then problems stars. Evernote is trying to keep original HTML/CSS formatting of page and adopt it for internal editor, but its viewer can't show it identically, moreover it doesn't allow edit raw code of saved elements. It feels like fight against MS Word. For the reason I have a lot of broken and unreadable notes in Evernote postponed to "someday-edit". But I will never fix them, it's impossible except rewriting everything with hands, but I don't want to do it with Evernote, who knows how it will be works tomorrow. :)

A time later I found another organizer Laverna, it allows to solve some problems of Evernote with text notes, and Markdown format guarantees that data could be saved even in worst situation. But Laverna has ton of critical bugs, it’s just dangerous to work with it because next release could brake everything. Here you can read why I hate it.

Finally, I found quite perspective Evernote alternative, at least for desktop, like Laverna with no critical bugs but much better. :) Joplin brings together better of two worlds: Markdown layout with inline HTML code. When features of Markdown not enough for well looking formatting just add HTML code, or even use TeX syntax. Joplin works with extra fast TeX math rendering engine KaTeX what allows to view notes containing hundreds of math notions and symbols just for a second.

UPD1: It's amazing, I found the aspect recently and suddenly for me. You also can use CSS styles to format Markdown! Therefore, you even doesn't need to keep HTML structure for things like "image wall"! See the screenshot below! CSS styles to format Markdown layout

UPD2: WebClipper now supports full HTML clipping as non-editable note with local resources!

UPD3: Some major additions were made:

• Typography plugin support
• Vim and Emacs keyboard modes in internal editor.
• Templates

UPD4: A long-awaited feature is here now. When importing MD files create resources for local linked files! This largely closes the issue of processing attached images. Now you can finally export the note, make batch manipulations with the files, and then import it back. For such a fan of do copy-paste Images to Joplin like me, this is great news.

PROS:

• Live-editing with third-party software. Finally, you can fix and organize note with Vim (for example) and all changes will transfer to Joplin note immediately on save.
• Fast processed math notations with KaTeX.
• Batch import/export MD files.
• Multiple syncing options: local disk, OneDrive, Nextcloud, WebDAV, or Dropbox.
• Web Clipper. Not so universal with Markdown like Evernote analogue, but personally, better then Evernote's, because reduces unusual HTML, convert common elements to correct Markdown code and allows to edit a note deeply. Clipper can save part of web-page as image file, reduce image size and add link to full version.
• Evernote's backup file format support for import (only notes and tags, not notebooks).
• Local resources, images and any other file format as links. Inserting images from the clipboard also supported (but it can increase storage size, because uncompressed PNG).
• Cross-note links in body.
• Quick response for issue reports.
• Inline HTML code rendering.
• Automatic code and its syntax detection. But on other hand, Web Clipper just save a code with tabs, looks good in Joplin, but incompatible with another Markdown readers. Manual correction needed.
• Terminal mode.
• ToDo mode for notes.

CONS:

• SQL database is not encrypted, so anyone who will be able to get the file on your device will get full access to your data. Seems the developer doesn't want to change it, offers use scripts to encrypt/decrypt database file before/after software running. Sounds like a mad, especially for mobile devices.
• ABC scores notions unsupported.
• At the moment no easy way to clear unused resources manually.
• Common design looks unpolished. For example: in desktop version user have option to define source URL for a note, but with Android version user can only read it on metadata slide.
• No line numbering for edit or even code blocks.
• Not optimized at the moment. Android version has too laggy interface, sometimes top panel invisible 'til you tap it. Search across all notes works faster than opening left tab with huge amount of tags. So, I recommend use mobile App for Find-and-Read, it will be inconvenient to write and organize there.
• Portable version unpacks full app to OS user dir each time then delete it. Not that thing we expects from portable software, isn't :(
• Too small default font size for KaTeX notions, you're always should use size from \large to \Huge

Some exposition

Inline HTML table inside Markdown table, KaTeX math notations and live-editing with Gvim

Auto-detection of code blocks

Local image resources (imported from Evernote backup)

Inline iframe with embeded OpenStreetMap. Link outside main code, styled and added link to local image resource for offline view.

Reduce storage size with replacing extra images with HTML code.

Reduce storage size with replacing extra images with HTML code.

To-Do mode of notes

Web Clipper chrome widget

[Edited by M_O_Z_G, January 21]

Maybe some people don't mind, but until 2024 access is not password protected and local sqlite is unencrypted. You can just take it and read it (what's the point of those great add-ons for encrypted cloud backups then, when colleagues can read what they don't have (I recently dealt with a client who did this too - a classic office in a small company with shared computers and a naive owner). CherryTree is rock solid compared to this ;) Otherwise, I liked webcliper.

Open to finding reasons to like Joplin better than other note taking apps, and appreciate it being open source, just haven't found a special reason yet. Started using Turtl for Android and Desktop notes and images, and find it a much simpler solution than Joplin and Obisidian to get going. Issue is that images can't be very zoomed into, making maps difficult to see. Tried Google Keep, and I could zoom into images better, but it's Google. Joplin's cloud costs, then there's Dropbox and Nextcloud. Nextcloud would be an effort and Dropbox isn't preferred.

Perfect self hosted solution to Obsidian. Excellent note taking app, iOS/Android and desktop apps available. Thanks to the devs running this project, keep up the great work!

In version 3.0.15 both files (portable and setup) contain infections according to VirusTotal (in one engine).

Apart from that, I think it's a great tool worth supporting.

Not very optimised when used with more than just a few plugins (bye bye RAM) and being electron based (bye bye RAM again), but it does just work very well most of the time. Worst case scenario just quit and reopen it and the RAM usage goes back to normal.

Joplin is nearly perfect, it just feels a little rough around the edges - Sometimes the UI is a bit on the slow side - and plugins can be poorly documented at times.. But I have been using it for PKM and Zettlekasten-lite sort of workflow and it's served me well for almost three years now