Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing Joplin vs xbrowsersync, the Slant community recommends xbrowsersync for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform productivity tools?” xbrowsersync is ranked 2nd while Joplin is ranked 7th.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Offline access
Pro Open source
Peace of mind that there is no malicious piece of software in the app.
Pro Encryption
Pro Cross-platform
Supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.
Pro Supports file attachments
Pro Supports markdown
Pro Supports tags for notes
Pro Web Clipper
Browser extension saves full pages, clean content, or screen selections to new notes.
Pro Optional CLI interface
Provides a CLI interface for terminal lovers.
Pro Supports multiple languages
English, French, and Spanish, Italian, German, Czech and many others.
Pro Active user forum with support from app creators
Support, troubleshooting, and new feature requests are easy to make at the user forum and you can contact the app creator directly.
Pro Dropbox support
Can sync using Dropbox.
Pro Nextcloud support
Pro Timed alarm reminder for to-do lists
Pro Use this extension on all majorly used browsers: Chrome (and most up to date 'chromies' as well as Firefox and Android
Pro Anonymous
No sign up required and no personal data is collected.
Pro Encrypts your bookmarks securley with a method you can check for yourself
Pro Developer seems to be actively developing the app
See here.
Pro It is free and the developer announces that it will stay this way, neither are there any ads involved
Pro xBrowserSync adds descriptions and tags to new bookmarks automatically.
Speeding up workflow cataloging important meta-data automatically.
Pro Know your way around docker? xBrowserSync is easily self hostable.
Not only will it benefit the people who set up docker containers, if opened to the public, even more people will be able to quickly get to know xBrowserSync.
See here.
Cons
Con Sync issues with Android
If update on Linux then sync on Android, sometimes the Android sync will duplicate or remove some journal notes. Seems to be a bug in the Android app. The Linux app alone without sync with Android seems to work well using Dropbox. But don't expect changes you make on Android to sync properly back to Linux.
Con Sync issue under Linux
The Linux client has a bug that requires the user to click the mouse frequently in order for sync to proceed. This bug has been open for a while.
Con Gargantuan memory footprint
1GB+ of memory for taking notes.
Con Old school interface
Con Bloated
This project is suffering from feature creep and uses a lot of memory for a note-taking app.
Con App Image launches very slowly
On Linux, you can only install via App Image, which take 5+ seconds to launch. I can launch LibreOffice in under two seconds.
Con Sync issues on Windows
No way to change account settings and sync easily corrupted.
Con Weak tag searching
Joplin can currently only search for a single tag at a time. None of the boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are available for use in searches. This greatly diminishes the usefulness of tags in Joplin.
Con Can't create tags from the mobile app
Con No iOS support
It doesn't support anymore iOS.
Con Does not sync passwords
If youre afraid due to the lack of password syncing with xbrowser, this problem is easily fixable by using myki password manager. It supports all major operating systems with secure features that work alongside xbrowsersync perfectly. myki is available as a chrome extension, and for android, iphone, mac, windows, and more!
Con Doesn't support new Firefox for Android
Maybe not the developer's fault but since using Firefox as main browser, the cross platform niche can't be satisfied. Will be looking to jump ship once the extension is added to the very limited pool Firefox Android currently has.
