TLDR

I started using Joplin a few months ago. Since I’m self‑hosting a bunch of services, I did the same with a Joplin server that handles the sync between my devices. It works like a charm!

The app feels very light and snappy on phone, desktop, laptop and works without issues between Windows, Android and Fedora.

Reason

I wanted to ditch OneNote.

I used it a lot to take notes with a pen on my tablet. It is kind of great for that, I might say the best.

If you’re studying or learning something and you want to take these hybrid notes with text, but also doodle something on the side, it’s perfect. Works great, syncs great with OneNote on other devices.

The problem was that I never got into using it for taking other types of notes. It was never my go‑to place to write down something that I needed to do, an idea, or start working on an article, etc.

I don’t know why it never clicked for more serious stuff. It might be the actual editor, which feels like it lacks structure when you can click and start typing anywhere.

As I’m doing a lot of web development work, coding in general, I’m familiar with markdown and it’s my go‑to option for readme files and documentation.

And this year, as I launched websites that use AstroJS, I started using markdown to write the articles. It was clear that I liked this approach more.

OneNote did not have markdown support out of the box, and I’m not even sure if there is an extension for it.

At that point I was on a mission to find an alternative that will work on all my devices, sync, and allow me to use markdown.

Joplin

I decided on using Joplin. Some of the things that convinced me:

  • simple app that works and it’s maintained on Windows, Linux, and Android.
  • straight forward setup, easy interface
  • Joplin server instance to sync all the content between devices. Very fast sync.
  • plenty of community plugins to choose from
  • markdown support (while content is saved in a DB, it exports in .md if you want)
  • end-to-end encryption

Trying to export OneNote and import it into Joplin was a failure. I ended up with thousands of empty elements that were messing up the sync process. I assume it was because of all the notes that had drawings in them.

The one thing that I miss is taking notes with my pen on the tablet. It was smoother on OneNote, but on the other hand I’m not doing it that much anymore.

Other options

Obsidian

This was the first one that I tried and it’s a nice tool. I like the fact that it uses actually .md files to save content.

Two issues that I had with it:

  • It’s not actually FOSS
  • To sync the files I’d have to host a Syncthing instance (since I want to have it available even outside my network) and I’m not 100% sure how flawless it would work if I had to also use Obsidian from Android. Or I could just pay to have the sync from the Premium version, but I didn’t want that.
  • Also, why does it seem like some people are in a cult when talking about Obsidian? I got it, you have an external brain now with graphs that show your 10k notes that you’re never going to revisit. Cool.

Logseq

I got overwhelmed the moment I opened it. Too much was happening: journals, whiteboards, flashcards, pages. Which one is a note?

I’m just exagerating, I realize it has a lot of features and it’s like Obsidian, but open source. Also, no native sync option.

Reply and send me your thoughts about this article via email