Why Joplin, the free Evernote alternative, is popular

Joplin's free version is really useful

One of the main reasons why many people abandon Evernote is that they have to subscribe to the premium version to make the app truly useful. An important feature that requires a fee is synchronization across multiple devices.

Joplin is free and open source. You can download and sync your notes for free, depending on the method you use to do it.

Joplin is cross-platform

Another favorite thing about Joplin is its cross-platform. In their field of work, many people often move between different devices. Joplin has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. It can even be used on Chromebooks via the Android app.

This means you can track your work, including research for articles, on any device.

Joplin is also cross-platform because it uses a standard file format. You format your notes using Markdown, a simple language for marking up text. Markdown is used in many other places like content management systems, so if you already know, you can jump in and update your notes in any editor. Joplin has its own visual editor similar to a WYSIWYG word processor.

Joplin helps keep track of work

You can rely on Joplin to create your to-do list every day. There's something satisfying about putting an item on your to-do list and crossing it off when you're done.

Joplin's browser plugin can also be used to bookmark websites. It works a lot like Evernote's web clipper tool: You click the button that saves the current web page to your notebook. You can save the entire page or just a bookmark there. This is a handy tool for researching articles.

Notes can be synchronized

A highly appreciated feature on Evernote, which makes Joplin indispensable, is the ability to sync notes across many different devices. Sync works differently with Evernote because Joplin is open source. You can subscribe to a premium cloud plan that allows syncing, but prices are in euros.

Luckily, Joplin works with other file syncing services, including Dropbox. One annoying thing about using Dropbox is that it constantly notifies you when Joplin is modifying the files it uses to sync. But you can easily turn off these notifications temporarily in Dropbox.

Joplin can be customized

Another thing to love about Joplin is its customization. It may not be surprising that an open source application can be extended, but it's actually very easy to add additional functionality. You can add everything from to-do lists to themes, in just a few clicks, using the Joplin plugin.

A favorite plugin is Math Mode. Joplin can be used as a calculator with this plugin by adding an '=' (equals) sign before any calculation. Joplin has a list of plugins on its website, with a crown icon marking 'recommended' plugins.

Another popular plugin is Rich Markdown. This makes it easier to use the graphics editor by performing operations such as displaying images online. By default, Joplin displays the Markdown editor and preview window side by side. With this plugin, Joplin works like other rich text editors.

David Pac

Update 01 August 2024