head to head · open source
Memos vs itsnotes
Memos has 64,235 GitHub stars, 4,935 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. itsnotes has 43 stars, 5 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Memos leads on adoption by 149,284% (64,235 vs 43 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; itsnotes is written in JavaScript under MIT. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, itsnotes 12%. Memos was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (note-taking, notes, self-hosted), 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 | itsnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 43 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 5 |
| 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 itsnotes if
- You want the itsnotes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and itsnotes 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 itsnotes
itsnotes A self hosted Google Keep alternative. It sticks to the familiar masonry layout but overhauls how you actually navigate and organize a large amount of notes. Instead of an endless wall of text, the feed is broken down by month markers. There are quick search panels for colors and tags, a basic folder implementation, and a proper list view. It also handles data import natively, so moving off Keep or importing text files is straightforward. Try the demo → Features: Better navigation: The timeline has month markers to break up the list. There are quick access panels for colors, tags, saved searches, and a…
read the full itsnotes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or itsnotes more popular?
Memos has 64,235 GitHub stars and itsnotes has 43. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and itsnotes free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and itsnotes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and itsnotes?
Memos is written in Go and itsnotes in JavaScript. 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 itsnotes?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (64,235 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose itsnotes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.