head to head · open source
fsnotes vs IdeaMemo
fsnotes has 7,499 GitHub stars, 578 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. IdeaMemo has 1,158 stars, 164 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. fsnotes leads on adoption by 548% (7,499 vs 1,158 stars). fsnotes is written in Swift under MIT; IdeaMemo is written in Kotlin under GPL-3.0. fsnotes has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, IdeaMemo 14%. fsnotes was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (notes-app), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| fsnotes | IdeaMemo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.5K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Swift | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 578 | ⑂ 164 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick fsnotes if
- You weight community size — 7.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick IdeaMemo if
- You want the IdeaMemo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and IdeaMemo fits your workflow better
About fsnotes
FSNotes is a fast, native Markdown and plain text note taking app for macOS and iOS, written in Swift 5 and released under the MIT licence, built for people who want their notes kept as portable files rather than inside a proprietary database.
read the full fsnotes overview →
About IdeaMemo
IdeaMemo is a free, open source Android quick capture memo app written in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose under the GPL 3.0 licence, for Android users who want to record short ideas in a local database and optionally sync them to their own WebDAV cloud.
read the full IdeaMemo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fsnotes or IdeaMemo more popular?
fsnotes has 7,499 GitHub stars and IdeaMemo has 1,158. fsnotes has the larger community by that measure.
Are fsnotes and IdeaMemo free?
Both are open source. fsnotes is licensed under MIT and IdeaMemo under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fsnotes and IdeaMemo?
fsnotes is written in Swift and IdeaMemo in Kotlin. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, fsnotes or IdeaMemo?
Choose fsnotes if you want the larger community (7,499 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose IdeaMemo if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.