Joplin vs Margo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Joplin
A privacy-focused note-taking and to-do application that allows you to capture multimedia notes, organize them with notebooks and tags, and sync across devices. It offers end-to-end encryption and an offline-first approach for secure and accessible information management.
- Capture multimedia notes (speech, photos, videos, PDFs)
- Organize notes with notebooks and tags
- Create to-dos and set reminders
- End-to-end encryption for privacy
- Cross-device synchronization (Joplin Cloud, Dropbox, OneDrive)
- Offline-first access
- OCR search for text within images and PDFs
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Privacy-first app Capture your thoughts freely and without distractions, tracking, or ads. With Joplin’s end-to-end encryption and open-source code, you can concentrate on your ideas and tasks without worrying about your privacy. Capture multimedia notes Capture multimedia notes effortlessly. In Joplin you can : • create manuscript notes, • transcribe speech to note, • add multimedia: photos, videos, PDFs, and images, • insert documents as attachments, • create math expressions, add tables, write code and insert diagrams, • create to-dos and add reminders. Organise your ideas Organise your notes into notebooks. Connect your notes with tags by subject or priority. Use colours and rich text editor to format your notes with ease. Make task lists, create to-dos and add reminders. Effortlessly find your notes, even within PDFs and images, thanks to the powerful search feature enhanced by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Use Joplin to store your bills, lecture notes, photos or receipts. Reliable synchronisation Access your notes from computer, phone or tablet by synchronising with various services including Joplin Cloud, Dropbox and OneDrive. Seamlessly move from one device to another. Offline-first You can access your notes anytime and anywhere, even without Internet. If you’re using Joplin on multiple devices, they will synchronise and update once you regained the connection. Enhance your productivity across devices Extend your note-taking experience by using Joplin on additional devices such as a desktop computer or tablet. Make the most of each device by using its specific features. On the desktop app, use a web clipper extension, wide-range of community plugins and a Markdown editor. Experience flawless handwriting and drawing on your tablet. Join active community Connect with Joplin’s vibrant community on Joplin Forum. It’s a place where users can share ideas, ask questions, exchange information and give feedback. Joplin’s dynamic community also develops powerful plugins, so you can customise your app to suit your needs.
Margo
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A native Markdown editor for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Built entirely in SwiftUI — not a web app in disguise. YOUR FILES, NOT OUR VAULT Margo opens .md files from your filesystem. No proprietary database, no locked-in library, no special folder structure required. Your files stay yours, readable by any app, synced by any service. Edit a file in Margo, open it in another editor — it just works. ONE APP, EVERY APPLE DEVICE The same full-featured editor on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Not a desktop app with a stripped-down mobile companion — real feature parity across every screen. One purchase covers all your Apple devices. LIVE PREVIEW WITH BIDIRECTIONAL SCROLL SYNC See your Markdown rendered in real time. Scroll the editor and the preview follows. Scroll the preview and the editor follows. Both directions, always in sync. MATH, DIAGRAMS, AND 30+ LANGUAGES — OFFLINE LaTeX equations via MathJax. Flowcharts and sequence diagrams via Mermaid. Syntax highlighting for 30+ programming languages via Prism. Everything is bundled inside the app. No internet connection needed, no external CDN, no tracking. EXPORT TO WORD, PDF, EPUB AND MORE Turn any document into a Word file (.docx), an EPUB ebook, RTF, a styled HTML page, or a print-ready PDF — right from the toolbar. Word export keeps real heading styles, so your outline and table of contents carry over to Word, Pages, and Google Docs. MAKE IT YOURS 11 preview themes and 15 editor themes. Adjust font size, tab width, tabs or spaces — every preference is live-applied, no restart needed. AND EVERYTHING ELSE YOU'D EXPECT - Table of contents with click-to-navigate - Auto-pairing of brackets, quotes, and backticks - Smart list continuation for bullets, numbers, and task lists - Drag and drop images into your document - Find and replace - Word, character, and line counts - Open Markdown — and any text file like YAML, JSON, or source — from the Files app or share sheet - Localized in 22 languages
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Joplin at Free against Margo's $19.99. Joplin also leads on iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). Margo's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Joplin is free to download; Margo costs $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Joplin ships an update monthly, Margo every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Joplin | Margo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $19.99 |
| Rating | 4.1 (476 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 66.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 476 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 73 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Laurent Cozic | Marco Tini |
Bugs and requests
Joplin
Reported bugs
5 issues- Sync issues with WebDAV and Dropbox
- Crashes when creating new notes
- Keyboard issues, text getting obscured
- Rendering problems in dark mode
- Compatibility issues with older iOS versions
Requested features
6 requests- Add web clipper functionality on iOS
- Implement nested notebooks on iOS
- Allow password/biometric protection for notes
- Improve text editing experience on mobile
- Add more font and formatting options
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- Implement a trash/recycle bin for deleted notes
Margo
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Joplin
No in-app purchases
Margo
No in-app purchases








