The Sundarban 
Credit: Yadullah Abidi / MakeUseOf
Published Feb 5, 2026, 7:00 AM EST
Yadullah Abidi is a Computer Science graduate from the University of Delhi and holds a postgraduate diploma in Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. With over a decade of abilities in Windows and Linux systems, programming, PC hardware, cybersecurity, malware analysis, and gaming, he combines deep technical information with stable editorial instincts.
Yadullah currently writes for MakeUseOf as a Workers Creator, protecting cybersecurity, gaming, and person tech. He formerly worked as Partner Editor at Candid.Know-how and as News Editor at The Mac Observer, where he reported on the entire lot from raging cyberattacks to the most long-established in Apple tech.
As well to to his journalism work, Yadullah is a elephantine-stack developer with abilities in JavaScript/TypeScript, Subsequent.js, the MERN stack, Python, C/C++, and AI/ML. Whether or no longer he’s analyzing malware, reviewing hardware, or constructing tools on GitHub, he brings a hands-on, developer’s point of view to tech journalism.
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We belief to-live apps with each and every project, deadline, and venture that assist our lives working. Todoist is without doubt one of many upper suggestions spherical—modern, genuine, and syncs flawlessly during the entire lot. Nonetheless as right as Todoist is, or no longer it’s quiet an app trot by a third-occasion, which means if it shuts down, or worse, is sold, your data is left.
Now there are begin-source Todoist alternatives that beget no longer fee you a month-to-month rate, and that is the correct methodology to take regulate of your data. This nagging idea sent me down a rabbit gap of begin-source alternatives, and I at final landed on Joplin—an absolutely free, begin-source present-taking app that doubles as a surprisingly capable project manager.
Proprietary project managers don’t if truth be told belong to you
Subscriptions, lock-in, and “parts” you didn’t ask for
Credit: Yadullah Abidi / MakeUseOf
Don’t get me nasty—Todoist is fantastic at what it does. Nonetheless the more I relied on it, the more I realized that I used to be constructing my entire productiveness procedure on rented land. Every project, venture present, and archived idea lived completely in Todoist’s cloud infrastructure. You pay an annual subscription for the privilege of no longer owning your own data.
And while you are making an strive exporting it, chances are you are going to get a messy CSV file that strips away all of your in moderation organized initiatives, subtasks, and due dates. It is now not if truth be told exactly portable, and it’s a long way no longer if truth be told as usable in other apps as you would reflect, in any case without manual cleanup. In an worldwide where surroundings up your own password cloud server is rather straightforward, a notes app that lets in you to own your data need to now not be too sophisticated—and it’s a long way no longer if truth be told.
Why Joplin finally made me stop Todoist
Notes-first thinking beats never-ending checklists
Joplin caught my consideration since it tests each and every box I care about: or no longer it’s begin-source, entirely free, helps sturdy project management, and most importantly, stores the entire lot in the community as straightforward Markdown files. No seller lock-in, no mysterious cloud servers, no subscription fees. It is additionally one of many very most attractive offline-first present apps that very most attractive sync whenever you pick.
The app itself is surprisingly successfully-polished for an begin-source venture. It runs smoothly on a couple of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, with a clean interface that would now not if truth be told feel dated or clunky. Notes are organized in notebooks and sub-notebooks, there could be a extremely effective tagging procedure, and it even has an web clipper extension for Firefox and Chrome.
Joplin’s approach to present editing is additionally rather diversified. The writing interface is divided into two panes—one exhibiting the raw Markdown you are writing and the other exhibiting the formatted result. I secure this habits annoying, as I’ve been using Markdown for a while. On the other hand, while you are original to Markdown, being ready to stare upon the Markdown syntax and its formatted result can relieve you get conversant in it hasty.
What if truth be told stands out, though, is the flexibleness. Joplin helps each and every inline project lists within notes and devoted to-live notes with due dates, reminders, and checkboxes. I can produce a project with a single click, put it a due date, situation a reminder, and organize it into venture-explicit notebooks. That is reasonably important the methodology you would feature in Todoist, excluding you are no longer surrendering ownership of your data.
There might be additionally a thriving plugin ecosystem with over 400 neighborhood-developed plugins that lengthen performance in programs Todoist by no means lets in. You can secure plugins for automatic backups, advanced project filtering, and even one who syncs your Omnivore learning highlights straight into Joplin.
My favourite is the To-live Behold plugin, which aggregates all my initiatives from diversified notebooks into a single dashboard with due dates and precedence ranges. It is if truth be told a gentle-weight model of Todoist’s project peek, however entirely customizable and working entirely on my native machine.
Joplin
OS
Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, FreeBSD, Terminal
Developer
Laurent Cozic (and neighborhood)
Heed mannequin
Free (begin-source); Paid subscription for cloud storage
Joplin is a rotten-platform, privacy-centered present-taking and project-management app. It helps rich parts like Markdown notes, notebooks and tags, pause-to-pause encryption, an web clipper, self-hosted sync (by means of WebDAV/Nextcloud/Dropbox) or managed cloud sync with Joplin Cloud. It works offline, lets in importing from Evernote, helps plugins and subject matters, and presents elephantine regulate over your data.
Owning your data changes the entire lot
Local files, right sync suggestions, and no company preserving the keys
Unlike Todoist, which forces you into their cloud infrastructure, Joplin lets in you to pick how and where your data syncs. You can exercise Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, or even correct sync during your native community. For these who are privacy-conscious, you can enable pause-to-pause encryption so that even your sync supplier can’t be taught your notes.
No topic the sync methodology you utilize, your initiatives, venture notes, and all other data sync seamlessly during a couple of gadgets. Although someone good points get right of entry to to the cloud power you utilize to sync Joplin,
