Discovering free apps that are superior to paid alternatives can be a game changer in the way you organize your work and daily notes. For a long time, Evernote was my default note-taking app. But now it’s been replaced by a free alternative: Joplin, an open-source, cross-platform app.
We’ll cover why this free alternative is worth switching to, and how it can help improve your productivity and better organize your daily life. Check out our Evernote vs OneNote comparison: The pros and cons of the two leading note-taking apps.
The free version of Joplin is actually useful.
I’m not the only one who’s made the switch from Evernote to Joplin. One of the main reasons I and many others ditched Evernote was that you had to sign up for the premium version to make it really useful. One vital feature that required payment was syncing across multiple devices.
Joplin is free and open source. You can download it and sync your notes for free, depending on how you do it (more on that later).
Joplin is a cross-platform application.
Another thing I like is that Joplin is cross-platform. In my work, I move between different devices a lot. Joplin has clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. I can also use it on my Chromebook with the dedicated Android app.
This means I can continue my work, including my research for articles, across any device.
Joplin is also cross-platform because it uses a standard file format. You can 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 it, you can go to and update your notes in any editor. Joplin includes its own visual editor that’s similar to a WYSIWYG word processor. Check out the best note-taking apps for students to organize lessons and homework.
Joplin helps me keep track of my work.
I rely on Joplin to create my to-do lists every day. There's something satisfying about putting an item on my to-do list and crossing it off when I finally complete it.
I also use the Joplin browser extension to bookmark web pages. It works a lot like Evernote’s web clipper: you click a button that saves the current web page to a notebook. You can save the entire page or just bookmark it. This is a useful tool for searching for articles.
I can sync my notes.
One feature I appreciate about Evernote, and that makes Joplin indispensable to me, is the ability to sync my notes across different devices.
Syncing works differently than Evernote because Joplin is open source. You can sign up for a premium cloud plan that allows you to sync, but it's priced in Euros. Since I'm in a country that doesn't use that currency, I don't want to incur any foreign exchange fees.
Fortunately, Joplin works with other file syncing services, including Dropbox. One of the things that’s annoying about using Dropbox is that it constantly notifies me when Joplin modifies the files it’s using for syncing. But it’s easy to temporarily disable these notifications in Dropbox.
I can customize Joplin.
Another thing I like about Joplin It’s customizable. It may not be surprising that an open source app can be extended, but it’s really easy to add plugins. You can add everything from to-do lists to themes, with just a few clicks, using Joplin plugins.
One of the plugins I like is Math ModeI can use Joplin as a calculator with this component by prefixing any calculation with an “=” (equal) sign.
Joplin has a list of plugins on their website, with a crown icon indicating “recommended” plugins.
The most popular plugin, which I also love, is Rich Markdown. This makes it easy to use the graphical editor by doing things like displaying images inline. By default, Joplin displays the Markdown editor and the preview window side by side. With this component, Joplin works similarly to most of the options available. You can now check out the best Evernote and OneNote alternatives for Ubuntu for taking notes.
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