head to head · open source
Memos vs fsnotes
Memos has 63,155 GitHub stars, 4,769 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fsnotes has 7,494 stars, 578 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Memos leads on adoption by 743% (63,155 vs 7,494 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; fsnotes is written in Swift under MIT. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, fsnotes 8%. fsnotes was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (markdown, 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 | fsnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 63K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 578 |
| 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 fsnotes if
- You want the fsnotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and fsnotes 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or fsnotes more popular?
Memos has 63,155 GitHub stars and fsnotes has 7,494. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and fsnotes free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and fsnotes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and fsnotes?
Memos is written in Go and fsnotes in Swift. 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 fsnotes?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (63,155 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose fsnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.