Joplin alternatives in 2026

Q: Which Joplin alternatives have a free option?

Obsidian advertises its core app as free without limits. Connections Notes keeps notes free on every plan, with no note count limit and no gate on reading, editing or exporting. Compare the activities needed each day, then check their current limits before moving existing material.

Q: How much does Notion cost per member?

Notion Plus costs $10 per member per month. Notion Business costs $20 per member per month. Notion Enterprise uses custom pricing. Before budgeting, confirm who needs paid access, the billing period and the features required for the work. Keep the comparison tied to the people who will actually maintain or use the notes.

Compare Joplin alternatives by note storage, sharing, daily tasks and costs, with questions to check before moving existing notes.

By Uncommon Comforts · 2026-11-04

Uncommon Comforts is published by the team behind Connections, whose products are compared here alongside other tools.

The choice depends on what needs to change about keeping and finding notes. Compare Obsidian, Evernote, Notion and Connections Notes by the tasks you need notes for, and check each tool's own page for what it does. Before moving anything, decide which matters most: offline access, sharing, daily tasks, finding old material or the plan you would keep paying for.

Option	Own plan fee	Card payment fee
Joplin	not published	not published
Obsidian	Core app free without limits. ^[1]	not published
Evernote	Evernote offers a free option. ^[2] Paid prices not published here.	not published
Notion	Plus: $10 per member per month. ^[3] Business: $20 per member per month. ^[3] Enterprise: price by custom quote. ^[3]	not published
Connections Notes	Connections Free: $0. ^[4] Connections Pro: $39.99 a month. ^[4] Connections Business: $99.99 a month. ^[4]	not published

Why people who run things look past Joplin

Joplin is an open source note-taking app. ^[5] It supports images, videos, PDFs and audio files in notes. ^[5] Its editors offer formatted text or Markdown, and it supports plugins and custom themes. ^[5]

Before a move, check where your notes are stored and how you reach them on each device. Joplin syncs notes through services including Joplin Cloud, Dropbox and OneDrive. ^[5] It uses end-to-end encryption to protect notes. ^[5] It is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, with a terminal app also available. ^[5] Name the devices you use each day and check each one against the platforms listed above.

Saving web pages and sharing notes are two different features to check. Joplin offers a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox to save web pages or screenshots as notes. ^[5] It also lets people publish a note to the internet and share its address. ^[5] Make a list of the actions that need to carry over before comparing another tool.

Obsidian: private notes with links between ideas

Obsidian stores notes privately on the device and makes them accessible offline. ^[1] It uses open file formats, so users are not locked into its platform. ^[1] Its core app is free without limits. ^[1]

Obsidian lets people link notes to ideas, people, places, books and other information. ^[1] Its graph view shows the links between notes as an interactive graph. ^[1] It also provides space for research, brainstorming, diagrams and arranging ideas. ^[1] Its stated uses include personal notes, journaling, knowledge bases and project management. ^[1]

Before choosing, take a subject you know well and check whether linking its notes to each other would help your work. Pick a familiar subject and describe how its notes should connect. Separately, walk through each intended device, how you would share a note with someone, and how you would back up your notes.

Evernote: notes and daily tasks

Evernote includes tasks. ^[2]

Start the comparison with the relationship between reference material and work that needs doing. Write down whether a note should simply preserve information or prompt a later action. Then check the current account limits, device access and total price against that routine. Keep the decision tied to the work and the ongoing cost.

Notion: subscriptions priced by member

Notion Plus costs $10 per member per month and is for small teams and professionals. ^[3] Notion Business costs $20 per member per month and is described for growing businesses. ^[3] Notion Enterprise has custom pricing for organizations seeking scalability, control and security. ^[3]

Start by deciding who needs access and what each person needs to do. Separate the people who will maintain notes from those who only need to read particular material, then check how access is billed. Confirm the billing period and the terms attached to the quoted price. Before moving existing notes, check whether their formatting, attachments and organization can be carried over in a useful form.

Connections Notes: notes that feed a daily to-do list

Notes is live as a web app and installs as a PWA. ^[4] You type a note into a bar at the top and your notes sit below it as cards on a board. ^[4] You can file notes under labels that nest inside other labels. ^[4]

Notes also feed a to-do list and a due-date agenda. ^[4] Today's and yesterday's to-dos are kept together as one checklist. ^[4] Reminders arrive through browser notifications and email. ^[4] Search finds a note by what you meant, not only by the exact words in it. ^[4]

You can record a voice note and have it turned into text in the background. ^[4] You can pull words from a photo into the note's text or into checklist items. ^[4] You can share a note by public link and put a password on the link. ^[4]

Notes are free on every plan, with no note count limit, and reading, editing and exporting are never gated. ^[4] Connections Free costs $0, and going over a limit stops the feature rather than billing you. ^[4] Connections Pro, the first paid plan, is $39.99 a month and adds premium features across every Connections product. ^[4] Connections Business is $99.99 a month, with higher limits across every Connections product. ^[4]

How to pick the right Joplin alternative

Start by deciding where notes need to be available. Obsidian stores notes privately on the device and makes them accessible offline. ^[1] Joplin syncs notes through Joplin Cloud, Dropbox and OneDrive. ^[5] Check the complete route from writing a note to finding it later on the device used for work.

Next, decide whether the daily problem is remembering information or remembering to act. Evernote includes tasks. ^[2] Connections Notes feeds notes into a to-do list and a due-date agenda. ^[4] Obsidian lets users create links between notes and other kinds of information, and an interactive graph shows relationships between notes. ^[1] ^[1]

Check how each option charges against how you plan to use it. Notion Plus costs $10 per member per month. ^[3] Connections Notes keeps reading, editing and exporting free on every plan. ^[4] What a member pays for in Connections Notes is AI work on notes, using the same allowance as chat. ^[4]

Things to check before you choose:

Can the required notes be read and edited without a connection?
What happens to attachments and formatting during a move?
Who can open shared material, and how can access be withdrawn?
What can be downloaded before closing an account?
Which activities have limits, and what happens when those limits are reached?

Frequently asked questions

Which Joplin alternatives have a free option?

Obsidian advertises its core app as free without limits. ^[1] Connections Notes keeps notes free on every plan, with no note count limit and no gate on reading, editing or exporting. ^[4] Compare the activities needed each day, then check their current limits before moving existing material.

Can Obsidian notes be accessed offline?

Yes, Obsidian stores notes privately on the device and makes them accessible offline. ^[1] Check offline access on each device you plan to use before relying on it. Before choosing, check how notes will reach each intended device and how backups will be kept. Offline access and a backup routine should each be considered.

How much does Notion cost per member?

Notion Plus costs $10 per member per month. ^[3] Notion Business costs $20 per member per month. ^[3] Notion Enterprise uses custom pricing. ^[3] Before budgeting, confirm who needs paid access, the billing period and the features required for the work. Keep the comparison tied to the people who will actually maintain or use the notes.

Can Connections Notes bring in existing text and export notes?

Connections Notes lets you paste a block of text and splits it into separate notes at each blank line. ^[4] You can download active and archived notes as a CSV file. ^[4] Before moving a collection, check how each attachment, formatting choice and label comes across in the pasted text or the CSV file.

Can Connections Notes help with daily tasks?

Connections Notes feeds notes into a to-do list and a due-date agenda. ^[4] Today's and yesterday's to-dos are kept together as one checklist. ^[4] Reminders arrive through browser notifications and email. ^[4] Sort notes into those with a deadline and those kept as reference, then check how reminders by browser notification and email would reach you.

Notes are free on every plan with no note count, and reading, editing and exporting are never gated. ^[4] Connections Free costs $0, and going over a limit stops the feature rather than billing you. ^[4]

Try Connections Notes