Joplin vs Zim
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Joplin with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Plane SiYuan Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian Linkwarden BookStack Foam Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr VNote Wallabag Planka Self-hosted LiveSync Shiori Leantime Linkding Blinko git-bug Kanboard Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Floccus Dillinger Kaneo Buku Athens Research org-roam Taskwarrior Markor Sync Livebook QOwnNotes SilverBullet TagSpaces Papra DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry Archivy Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote BatNoter Notea AppFlowy Cloud Jotty Atomic Server Knowledge RocketNotes QuillPad Beavers Notes Outline Desktop Writing Many Notes Notabase Notesnook Sync Server mdSilo Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes OutWiker WiseMapping Tiddloid MyTetra WikidPad Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Compare Zim with
choose an app… Docusaurus MkDocs Obsidian Notesnook Gollum VNote TiddlyWiki Read the Docs Dendron QOwnNotes MediaWiki CherryTree MDwiki Trilium Notes Next Raneto zk MindForger WizNote Helpy Documize Community Gitit Django Wiki Otter Wiki QuillPad Beavers Notes XWiki LeafWiki Kiwix Notesnook Sync Server Feather Wiki Daux.io Realms Wiki Antora Doctave phpMyFAQ Wikmd OutWiker Tiddloid MyTetra WikidPad
Feature Joplin Zim Category Notes & Knowledge Base Wikis & Documentation License AGPL-3.0 GPL-2.0 Language TypeScript Python Setup difficulty Easy Easy Min. RAM 256 MB 128 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal binary, source GitHub stars ★ 55,856 ★ 2,194 First released 2017 2008 Replaces Evernote, OneNote OneNote, Notion
Why pick each one
Choose Joplin if… Strong privacy with E2EE Flexible sync options Active development Joplin details Choose Zim if… Truly portable notes No server needed Zim details
Frequently asked questions Is Joplin or Zim 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 Zim free and open-source? Yes. Joplin is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Zim under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Joplin and Zim with Docker? Joplin: yes. Zim: check the project docs for container support.