Evernote user since 2011 with a lot of data, I'm considering switching to Joplin but need reassuranc

[laurent]

Sorry, no I'm not familiar with it

[nonobio]

Ok, well, I still think about going with this solution. From what I've been told it's easy to configure and it works well.

[t0dd]

I don't have a ton to add here since this has been beaten to death it looks like. But …

1. Multiple notes being edited: I do this all the time. I browse to a note and pop the "Toggle External Editor" button. Browse to the next and then hit the button for that one. Simple. Your user experience will be directly related to the quality of the editor you use. I just go simple. I am on Linux, so I use the default GNOME Text Editor. Avoid the complex editors IMHO.
2. Backend servers: You are new to Joplin, so I know you need to finish evaluating it, but I have been using Joplin Server (and paying for it) and am really happy with it. So, once you get settled, I would encourage you to look into it.
3. Speed: I have a sizable footprint (a few hundred meg). I see no speed issues. EXCEPT startup. Electron apps take forever to load.
4. Needed RAM: Joplin will not be the RAM gobbler on your machine. Both of the laptops I sync between each have 8GB of RAM, and I don't see an issue. I usually have two browsers running, one of them with a substantial Google Spreadsheet open at all times, and … when my machine bogs down, it's always the browsers. (UPDATE: one of my laptops actually has 16GB, but my statement still holds true, I think. It always seems to be the browser usage on my machines that bog them down.)

There you go. I meant to only comment on one thing and I ended up listing four. Ah well. Good luck.

[Thomas-Cee]

@t0dd

I just go simple. I am on Linux, so I use the default GNOME Text Editor. Avoid the complex editors IMHO.

This is an interesting bit of advice! I'm new to the Linux world so I'll try this.

[t0dd]

@Thomas-Cee

This is an interesting bit of advice! I'm new to the Linux world so I'll try this.

In that case, this is my specific setting in Joplin > Tools > General > "Text editor command" Path:
gnome-text-editor

That's assuming the gnome-text-editor package is installed. Good luck.

[nonobio]

Hi,

@nonobio

When the application (Evernote) works "well", most actions take between 2s and 8s (creating or displaying a note for example), but the thing is that it often works "poorly", as has been the case for me since versions 10.70x where hardware acceleration was disabled, which creates heavy usage of my GPU for most tasks in Evernote. With this problem, creating a simple empty note takes at best 15s and at worst 2min, or even crashes the application. See my topic on the Evernote forum (evernote-very-slow-if-hardware-acceleration-is-enabled).

I've been using Joplin for a few days now with a large amount of notes (16478 notes, 211 notebooks, 4047 tags). Not as much as what I had on Evernote (26740 notes and about 5000 tags) because I took the opportunity to clean up, but I still have a lot:

Attached files
Not downloaded: 0
Download in progress: 0
Downloaded and decrypted: 2764
Downloaded and encrypted: 0
Created locally: 93621
Error: 0
Synchronization status (sync objects / total)
Rating: 16478/16478
Folder: 211/211
Resource: 96385/96385
Tag: 4047/4047
NoteTag: 31053/31053
Revision: 1051/1051
Total: 149225/149225

I find Joplin (Windows) fast and out of curiosity, I took measurements of the speed of certain actions to be able to compare them to the measurements I had made with Evernote.

Here are the measurements that I had taken with Evernote, which had made my main Evernote (Laptop) unusable (topic here):

Evernote 10.73.4 (hardware acceleration enabled) on my laptop PC CPU Intel Core i5 4310U GPU Intel HD Graphics RAM 8 GB SSD

note creation 12s 14s 20s 17s 43s and the window does not respond
note display note panel 7s 5s 3s 3s 8s
open in new window 16s 9s 8s 8s
paste image 5s 5s 3s
Suffice it to say that it is very difficult to use in these conditions .

Evernote 10.73.4 Desktop PC CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics RAM 16 GB

create note 1s 1s 1s
note display note panel 3s 1s 1s 2s 2s
open in new window 2s 1s 3s 2s
paste image 0.5s 0.5s 0.5s
I tested the desktop applications or store, the same results.

Evernote Legacy 6.25.3.9348 Desktop PC CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics RAM 16 GB SSD

create note 0s 0s 0s 0s
note display note panel 0s 0s 0s 0s
open in new window 1s 1s 1s 1s
paste image 0s 0s 0s 0s

You can view even more measurements here.

Here are now the measurements that I just made with Joplin, on the same computers (but as I said, with a little less data: 16478 notes, 211 notebooks, 4047 tags):

Joplin 3.0.6 Laptop PC CPU Intel Core i5 4310U RAM 8 GB:
creation note 0s 0s 0s 0s
note display note panel 0.5s 0.5s 0.5s 0.5s
open in new window (1s-2s to open in a new tab with plugin NoteTabs)
paste image 0s 0s 0s 0s (1s for rendering)

Joplin 3.0.6 Desktop PC CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics RAM 16 GB:
creation note 0s 0s 0s 0s
note display note panel 0s 0s 0s 0s
open in new window: not tested because I have not yet installed the NoteTabs plugin
paste image 0s 0s 0s 0s (1s for rendering)

As you see, Joplin is fast, even on my "small" PC (notebook), which is the one I mainly use for my notes. Performances are at least as good as what I had with Evernote Legacy.

So I'm happy because that was really one of my main goals in leaving Evernote for Joplin, and I can confirm that I found a responsive application for my notes again

That said, I had performance issues with Joplin 2.14.20, due to my large number of tags. Version 3.0.6 has almost resolved these issues and made Joplin usable during syncs or saves, but sync speeds remain relatively slow.

I'm using a WebDAV target with Synology WebDAV server. Here are my sync speed measurements:

Joplin 3.0.6 Laptop PC CPU Intel Core i5 4310U RAM 8 GB:
little sync (on changes): 17s 23s 28s 29s
big sync (sync interval or manual push on the button): 77s 91s 90s 63s

Joplin 3.0.6 Desktop PC CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics RAM 16 GB:
little sync (on changes): 6s 9s 6s 6s
big sync (sync interval or manual push on the button): 53s 69s 47s 41s

So, sync is rather slow, but that doesn't stop me from using Joplin, thanks again to the 3.0.6 version and because I use it mainly on a single PC, I can space out the big sync intervals, or even deactivate it completely and do manual syncs.
If necessary, I can also completely deactivate all syncs (including small ones), by temporarily setting the target to None.

From what I've been told and what I've read, using Joplin Server would improve things, but I'm a little apprehensive about installing it because my NAS DS118 is not officially compatible, and in any case, even on a Windows PC, it seems complicated to install (Docker). In any case more complicated on the Synology WebDAV server.

Recently I tried to synchronize my Android smartphone but it doesn't work at all. I'm going to make a dedicated post for that. But if there isn't a solution, I think I could live without Joplin Android...

[Thomas-Cee]

Interesting on it not working on Android. If it is of any use, it DOES work on my Android tablet. Not sure what is different. My regular usage is note editing on the desktop application (Mac OS) and presenting and discussing on a cheap Android tablet.
Measurements are FASCINATING. Wow. What a massive difference.