I self-host Joplin without paying any monthly fee. Yes! A free way to hold all your notes across devices is great, but there’s more to it. Self-hosting is a next-level data control move. You take full responsibility for how your data is stored and managed. You unlock true privacy, and doing this for free is just icing on the cake.
The real benefits of self-hosting my notes
After spending the last few months self-hosting my notes, it’s impossible to overstate the benefits. All my ideas, clips, and random thoughts now exist in Markdown, a format that I control. I’m not scared of some entity changing pricing or locking my favorite features behind a paywall. My backups move with me even when I experiment with new tools, and they’re always intact.
However, what many people don’t see is how self-hosting future-proofs your digital existence. Since I have all my data in a single, easy-to-manipulate format, I’m not tied to any one app or company. Even if Joplin closes shop, I’ll still have all my data in a format I can always access.
That said, what I’ve enjoyed most is the mental edge. Setting it up, taking the reins, and deciding that my data privacy is under my control gives me a certain level of confidence that’s hard to explain. This is the kind of confidence you don’t gain by plugging into the convenient but walled gardens of mainstream note-taking apps.
Why I stopped using mainstream note-taking apps
I used Evernote for years and it served a purpose. Then in 2023, the company announced a price increase. Of course, nothing stays the same forever, but I didn’t feel there was enough extra value to justify a price hike. A business has to make money, and rather than fault them for being a business, I had to look for options.
That said, the real problem with these price changes is that your favorite features are suddenly locked away. You either go premium or watch your carefully built notebook systematically become held hostage. There’s also the feature glut of mainstream note-taking services. Notion will push kanban boards for the simplest tasks, just like Evernote keeps wanting you to build databases. Meanwhile, I’m only interested in taking a simple note, clipping an article, or doing some other task that isn’t a corporate dashboard.
Finally, privacy was the last straw. If you’re not the custodian of your data, it really isn’t yours. If nothing else, the 2024 Simplenote glitch reported by several users on the Simplenote forum was a wake-up call. People literally logged into their accounts and saw other people’s notes, all in plain text.
Simplenote is open source, but the server component is closed source, so you really don’t have any control over how your notes are stored.
What my self-hosted setup looks like
Joplin allows several synchronization options and, over the months, I’ve tweaked my setup. I started with the File System option, which I recommend for a non-technical person. Setting it up was as simple as creating the folder where I needed to host all my notes, copying its path, and appending it to the File System synchronization option on Joplin.
The File System option had some disadvantages, though. Syncing between devices felt manual. Accessing my notes remotely was difficult, and once that one computer with the file wasn’t running, I was locked out. Still, it was free, and my notes were in my control.
Now I’ve upgraded to a more robust alternative: Joplin + Nextcloud. Nextcloud is a self-hosted cloud service. It’s open source, and you control your data by hosting it on a server. The good thing about Nextcloud is that I had the freedom to pick my own hardware. It did not require top of the line gear and, of course, no subscription. Still, it wasn’t plug and play, and what I saved in subscription fees, I paid for by being my own IT guy.
Docker simplified deployment and dependency management. Docker is a tool that lets you package Nextcloud and all the files it requires to run into a single unit or container. I didn’t have to battle dependency errors or confusing server quirks. It allowed me to spin up containers and get a reproducible setup without reinventing the wheel whenever something broke.
How Nextcloud syncs and stores my notes securely
What I really love about self-hosting my notes with Nextcloud is how it doesn’t trap my notes in a hidden database. Every note is a plain file I can find in my storage. This is important because it makes backups very fluid, and troubleshooting is straightforward.
However, the bigger win is versioning. Nextcloud automatically keeps older versions of my files in the background. So if I overwrite an idea or delete a paragraph, it’s easy to restore or roll back an older version. I’m also able to do selective syncing, so specific notebooks may be synced to specific systems.
The downsides of running my own note system
I would highly recommend self-hosting, but a little reality check is needed before you go down this path. I began by saying there are no subscriptions. While this is true, if you don’t have an old system sitting around like I did, you’ll have to invest in hardware for your server.
There’s no customer care when something goes wrong, especially while you’re still setting things up. You’ll have to figure it out on your own or dig deep through the forums to get a better understanding.
And probably the last point to note is maintenance. Nextcloud will update plugins, and you’ll need to maintain Joplin. I don’t think it’s overwhelming, but it’s more hands-on than if you paid for a cloud subscription.
The bottom line is that I switched to Joplin and self-host it on Nextcloud with zero monthly fees. If you’ve been considering this, I hope this convinces you to take the plunge.
