head to head · open source
Memos vs DeepNotes
Memos has 64,343 GitHub stars, 4,939 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. DeepNotes has 608 stars, 56 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Memos leads on adoption by 10,483% (64,343 vs 608 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; DeepNotes is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, DeepNotes 9%. Memos was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (note-taking, notes), 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 | DeepNotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 608 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-08 | 2026-06-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 56 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Memos if
- You weight community size — 64K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick DeepNotes if
- You want the DeepNotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and DeepNotes fits your workflow better
About Memos
✨ Featured sponsor: CodeRabbit — Industry leading AI code reviews. Memos Fast enough for every thought. Private enough for all of them. Memos is an open source, self hosted home for short form thinking. Daily notes, links, work logs, and snippets flow into a chronological Markdown timeline—on infrastructure you control, without the overhead of an all in one workspace. Run with Docker · Try the live demo · Read the docs Why Memos? Capture quickly — Write in Markdown, attach media, and save without choosing a title, folder, or template. Organize lightly — Revisit notes through the timeline, search, tags, and pins…
read the full Memos overview →
About DeepNotes
DeepNotes Website: DeepNotes is an open source, end to end encrypted infinite canvas tool with deep page nesting and realtime collaboration. Why DeepNotes? Infinite canvases: Free yourself from the big wall of text. Deep page nesting: Explore concepts in all their complexity. End to end encryption: Keep your notes well protected. Realtime collaboration: Create groups to collaborate with your team. Flexible note system: Organize your notes in whatever way you want. Lifelong storage: Never lose your notes ever again. Development (On Windows, use WSL or Git Bash to run the commands above) 1. Run pnpm run dev to…
read the full DeepNotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or DeepNotes more popular?
Memos has 64,343 GitHub stars and DeepNotes has 608. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and DeepNotes free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and DeepNotes under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and DeepNotes?
Memos is written in Go and DeepNotes in TypeScript. 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 DeepNotes?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (64,343 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose DeepNotes if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.