Joplin — The Complete Guide: A Free, Encrypted Notebook for Sites, Projects and Study
Joplin is an open-source notes app (AGPLv3) for desktop and phone. It suits a work log, site-visit notes, project notes and course summaries — and every note is stored as open Markdown.
Joplin
Joplin
Notes and to-do app with encrypted sync — site diaries, checklists and project documentation.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Notebooks and tags — organised by project, client or course.
- Markdown with equations — tables, code and mathematical formulas.
- Attachments — site photos, PDFs and drawings.
- Web Clipper — saving web pages and articles from the browser.
- End-to-end encryption — even when sync goes through a cloud.
Sync
You can sync through OneDrive, Dropbox, Nextcloud or a local folder — for free. The Joplin Cloud service is a paid option only, not a requirement. On a phone, photograph the site and the note reaches your computer.
Related tools
For managing sources and citations — Zotero. For handwriting on PDFs and tablets — Xournal++. For mind maps — Freeplane.
Zotero
Corporation for Digital Scholarship
Reference and bibliography manager — save papers and standards, annotate PDFs and cite automatically in Word.
Get it from the vendor
Xournal++
Xournal++ team
Handwriting and PDF annotation with a stylus — markups on drawings, lecture notes and problem solving.
Get it from the vendor
Freeplane
Freeplane team
Mind maps and tree structures — project breakdowns, fault trees, report planning and study summaries.
Get it from the vendor
Syncthing
Syncthing Foundation
Sync files directly between computers, with no cloud — identical project folders at the office, at home and on site.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
Joplin gives you a tidy, encrypted, portable notebook — with no subscription and no lock-in to a closed format.