Joplin vs SiYuan
Joplin
joplinapp.org
SiYuan
b3log.orgSide by side
| Figure | Joplin | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | €2.39/mo | $64/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 5 |
| Spec score · Note-taking apps | 9.3 (#7) | 9.1 (#12) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Joplin Cloud,Nextcloud,S3,WebDAV,Dropbox,OneDrive,Local filesystem | Paid options include third-party S3 and WebDAV data sync and backup; users must provide their own storage, and Nutstore is not supported for WebDAV. |
| Note sharing | Joplin Cloud lets users share notes and collaborate with friends, family or colleagues. | Yes |
| Offline access | Yes | Yes |
| Supported platforms | web,Windows,macOS,Linux,iOS,Android,Chrome extension,API | Windows,macOS,Linux,iOS,Android,web interface,Chrome/Edge extension,API,Docker self-hosting |
| Self-hosting option | Joplin Server Business is a self-hosted solution for businesses and organisations. | SiYuan can be deployed on a server using its Docker image, with access rights controlled through an authorization code. |
| Storage limit | 2 | 8 |
Plans
Joplin
- Basic€2.99 a month
- Basic€28.69 a year
- Pro€5.99 a month
- Pro€57.48 a year
- Pro 100 GB€9.99 a month
- Pro 100 GB€95.88 a year
- Teams€7.99 a month
- Teams€80.28 a year
- Joplin Server BusinessPrice not published
- Joplin Server BusinessPriced on request
SiYuan
- FreeFree
- PRO Features$64 a month
- Subscription$148 a month
- PRO Features$64, paid once
- Subscription$148, paid once
In their own words
Joplin
Joplin is an open-source note-taking app with offline access and support for notes containing images, videos, PDFs and audio. It runs on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux and the web, with a Chrome extension and API also listed. A web clipper for Chrome and Firefox saves pages or screenshots as notes. Notes can sync through Joplin Cloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud, S3, WebDAV or a local filesystem. Joplin uses end-to-end encryption, and shared notebooks can be set to editable or read-only. Basic costs €2.99 a month, with 2 GB of storage and a 10 MB limit per note or attachment. Pro costs €5.99 a month for 30 GB and a 200 MB per-note or attachment limit; Pro 100 GB costs €9.99 a month. Teams costs €7.99 a month per user, with a minimum of two users, and includes 50 GB of storage. Plans include a 14-day free trial. Students and teachers can receive a 50% discount for one year, renewable while in education.
SiYuan
SiYuan is a personal knowledge management system for building a linked collection of notes. It supports Markdown, block-level references and bidirectional links, and organizes content into blocks with more than 20 block-level and more than 10 span-level element types. Backlinks can be filtered and searched; relationship graphs are available across a notebook and at block level. Databases support relations, rollups and templates, while flashcards use the FSRS spaced-repetition algorithm. Its AI feature connects to OpenAI for writing continuation, translation, summaries, brainstorming and grammar or spelling corrections. SiYuan supports offline access, and the maker describes multi-device synchronization as incremental and end-to-end encrypted. It is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and the web, with a Chrome/Edge extension, API and Docker self-hosting. The maker says data stays under the user's control on their device. Free access is free; PRO Features is listed at $64 a month with lifetime-use wording, and Subscription at $148 a month with 8GB cloud storage.