head to head · open source
Memos vs Butterfly
Memos has 63,178 GitHub stars, 4,771 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Butterfly has 2,024 stars, 151 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Memos leads on adoption by 3,021% (63,178 vs 2,024 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; Butterfly is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Butterfly 7%. Memos was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (note-taking), 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
| Memos | Butterfly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 63K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 151 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Memos if
- You weight community size — 63K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Butterfly if
- You want the Butterfly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and Butterfly fits your workflow better
About Memos
Memos is an open source, self hosted note taking tool designed for rapid capture of short form content like daily logs, links, code snippets, and microblog style entries. It lives in the Go ecosystem and uses a Markdown native, timeline based interface. Unlike traditional note apps that enforce folders or rigid templates, Memos prioritizes speed and simplicity: users write in Markdown, attach media, and save without selecting titles or locations.
read the full Memos overview →
About Butterfly
Butterfly is a free, open source, cross platform note taking and drawing application built with Flutter and Dart, made for people who think visually and want an endless workspace for handwritten, typed, and imported content on desktop and Android.
read the full Butterfly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or Butterfly more popular?
Memos has 63,178 GitHub stars and Butterfly has 2,024. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and Butterfly free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and Butterfly under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and Butterfly?
Memos is written in Go and Butterfly in Dart. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Memos or Butterfly?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (63,178 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Butterfly if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.