AppFlowy vs Joplin

Last reviewed Aug 26, 2026 · 680 words

Joplin replaces Evernote; AppFlowy replaces Notion. Those are different products, and so are these two. Joplin's unit is a Markdown note in a notebook with tags, synced with end-to-end encryption to whatever storage you point it at. AppFlowy's unit is a page made of blocks, which can include a database that shows the same rows as a table, a kanban board or a calendar. If you write things down, Joplin. If you organise things, AppFlowy. Most people who ask this question want the first and are tempted by the second.

What a "note" is in each

In Joplin a note is a Markdown document, edited in a split-pane Markdown editor or a rich-text mode, and exportable at any time to plain .md files with attachments alongside. The catalogue's "editor less polished than rivals" is fair: the Markdown side is functional, the rich-text side occasionally fights you. Structure is notebooks, sub-notebooks and tags, and that is all. Plugins add kanban views and outliners, but they are bolt-ons on top of a text store.

In AppFlowy a page is a block document in the Notion mould: headings, toggles, callouts, embedded databases, nested pages. Databases are first-class, with properties, filters and multiple views, which is what makes it a project tracker or a reading list rather than a place for text. The cost is that the content is not a file. Export gives you Markdown or HTML per page and CSV per database, and the relations between them do not survive the trip. Notes apps you own covers why that matters over a decade.

Sync is where the difficulty ratings come from

Joplin is Easy and 256 MB in the catalogue because for most people the server is optional. The apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS sync through Nextcloud, WebDAV, S3, Dropbox or OneDrive, and E2EE means the storage never sees plaintext; Joplin Server is a single Docker container you run only if you want note sharing and faster sync. Joplin is AGPL-3.0, TypeScript, 56,113 stars, and has shipped continuously since 2017.

AppFlowy is Medium and 1,024 MB because the sync backend, AppFlowy Cloud, is a compose stack with Postgres, Redis, object storage and an auth service rather than one container, and the catalogue notes twice that it is the newer, still-maturing half of the project. The apps themselves (Dart and Flutter, AGPL-3.0, 75,954 stars) run fully local with no server, so you can adopt AppFlowy today and host sync later. AppFlowy offers real-time collaboration once the backend is up; Joplin has no multi-user editing at all, by design.

Migration: Evernote in, Notion in, and out again

Joplin's ENEX import is the best in open source and is the reason the project exists; leaving Evernote via Joplin is a solved problem. AppFlowy imports Notion exports and Markdown, with the usual loss of fidelity on complex databases. Between the two, Joplin to AppFlowy is a Markdown import; AppFlowy to Joplin means flattening your databases to text first.

Decision table

What I'd do

Joplin, unless you can name the database view you will use every week. Its sync story is the most flexible in self-hosting, its exports are honest, and the server is a container you might never need. Pick AppFlowy when your Notion workspace genuinely runs on boards and tables, and take it in two steps: local-only apps for a month, then AppFlowy Cloud once you trust it with your data. The Joplin vs Trilium comparison is the next stop if what you want is neither Notion nor Evernote but a structured personal wiki.