Joplin vs Shiori

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureJoplinShiori
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseBookmarks & Read-It-Later
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 55,856★ 11,574
First released20172017
ReplacesEvernote, OneNotePocket, Raindrop.io

Why pick each one

Choose Joplin if…

  • Strong privacy with E2EE
  • Flexible sync options
  • Active development
Joplin details

Choose Shiori if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 11.6k GitHub stars
Shiori details

Frequently asked questions

Is Joplin or Shiori better?

Neither is universally better. Joplin has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Joplin and Shiori free and open-source?

Yes. Joplin is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Shiori under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Joplin and Shiori with Docker?

Joplin: yes. Shiori: yes.

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