OneNote vs. Joplin: Which note-taking app is better?

Microsoft OneNote and Joplin are two heavyweight contenders in the note-taking space. Both the solutions are quite capable of jotting down ideas, capturing your thoughts, and creating an ultimate digital cabinet. But which one is better? Let’s compare OneNote and Joplin based on different factors such as cross-platform availability, features, UI, notes organization, and more. Grab your stylus, flex those keyboard fingers, and choose your ideal digital companion on your laptop.

Cross-platform availability

It’s a tie here with a small observation. Both OneNote and Joplin are available on Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone, and iPad. They have capable web extensions for Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium browsers. Joplin even has a native app for Linux, while OneNote is available on the web, making it accessible for ChromeOS users, too.

User interface and customization

Both OneNote and Joplin have a standard UI for a note-taking app. The sidebar carries all the expected notebooks, tags, and a familiar toolbar at the top. Unlike other new-age tools like Notion or Obsidian, you won’t have a hard time getting started with either of these. If I had to pick a winner between the two, I would give a slight edge to OneNote for its refined UI on Windows and Mac.

In terms of customization, you can switch between dark and light themes and use different styles at the top. Joplin has done a better job at theming options. Apart from the standard light and dark options, it also supports Solarised Light, Solarised Dark, Dracula, Nord, OLED Dark, and Aritim Dark. Overall, you won’t have a hard time finding a relevant theme for your workspace.

Notes editor and organization

No major surprises here! OneNote uses the standard toolbar at the top to format text and insert media files into your note. It’s a feature-rich toolbar with tags, subscripts, highlighter, different bullet styles, and more.

Joplin has an interesting take on the default notes editor. It supports Markdown as well as a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. It’s all about flexibility here. If you are familiar with Markdown tricks, you can use hashtags (#), equal (=), and other symbols to format your text without lifting your fingers from the keyboard. If you are new to Markdown, you can simply switch to a standard editor from the top-right corner.

In terms of note organization, OneNote follows a standard hierarchy of Notebooks > Sections (Sub-sections) > Pages. You can even assign tags to your notes and find them using the search menu at the top. As with Joplin, you can create different notebooks for various topics and use tags to jump between them quickly.

Features: OneNote vs. Joplin

Let’s go over some of the unique features of OneNote and Joplin. I will start with OneNote first.

Templates

OneNote for Windows comes with a dedicated template gallery to create new pages in no time. Although the current collection is slim, you can always download third-party templates from the web, where there are plenty of options available. Microsoft really needs to revamp their own OneNote templates in future updates.

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Math calculations

OneNote has built-in support for basic math calculations. Instead of opening a calculator, you can simply type your equation on a page and press = to get the final results. Or if you prefer to use a stylus, it can read your equation and calculate it from there. This comes in handy when you quickly want to calculate trip expenses, EMI costs, invoice payouts, and more.

Microsoft 365 integration

As expected, OneNote comes with excellent integration with Microsoft 365 apps. You can sync your notebooks with OneDrive, create Outlook tasks, and even use Microsoft Loop components on a page.

Ink support

OneNote is an ideal option for anyone using a Windows laptop or tablet with stylus support. It offers excellent ink tools with different highlighters, pens, pencils, and more to jot down handwritten notes.

Now, let’s go over Joplin’s feature highlights.

To-dos and reminders

Unlike OneNote, Joplin lets you create tasks with reminders. You can set a specific date and time to receive alerts for your important to-dos.

Import and export options

Since Joplin uses a Markdown-based editor, you have ample import and export options for your notes. You can import ENEX (Evernote), HTML, MD, and TXT files, and once your note is ready, export it to JEX, MD, HTML, or PDF format.

Privacy

Joplin has an offline-first approach, and being an open-source software, it can be an ideal pick for privacy advocates. It also uses end-to-end encryption to allow you to sync your notes across various cloud platforms of your choice.

OneNote vs. Joplin: Pricing

Both OneNote and Joplin offer a robust free plan. All the app features are completely free to use. OneNote uses the OneDrive cloud platform to sync your notes across devices. Microsoft’s cloud service comes with 5GB of free space. After that, you need to purchase one of the Microsoft 365 plans to increase OneDrive storage. The pricing starts at $2 per month for 100GB.

Joplin offers several paid plans. The Pro plan is worth considering at $5.20 per month. It unlocks 30GB of storage space, 200MB per note, web clipper, real-time collaboration, and more. If you don’t want to go with Joplin Cloud to sync your notes, there is also an option to sync your notebooks with Dropbox or OneDrive.

Decoding the note-taking rivalry

Whether you are a meticulous planner, a visual thinker, or a programming ninja, both of these tools promise and will deliver a revolutionary way for you to capture and retrieve information as you go. While OneNote is a step ahead with templates, math formulas, and Microsoft 365 integration, Joplin strikes back with its open-source privacy-focused approach, reminders, Markdown support, and convenient import and export options.

Test both, explore their nooks and crannies, and unfold your note-taking journey. If you are leaning towards Microsoft’s solution, check out our dedicated post to learn the top OneNote tips and tricks.