head to head · open source
Memos vs marksman
Memos has 63,178 GitHub stars, 4,771 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. marksman has 3,343 stars, 72 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Memos leads on adoption by 1,790% (63,178 vs 3,343 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; marksman is written in F# under MIT. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, marksman 2%. Memos 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 | marksman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 63K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | F# |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 72 |
| 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 marksman if
- You want the marksman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches F#
- You evaluated both and marksman 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 marksman
Marksman is an MIT licensed Markdown language server, written in F , that brings code assist features such as completion, go to definition, find references, rename refactoring and diagnostics into any editor that speaks the Language Server Protocol, and it is aimed at writers and note takers who maintain Markdown documents and Zettelkasten style wikilink notes.
read the full marksman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or marksman more popular?
Memos has 63,178 GitHub stars and marksman has 3,343. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and marksman free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and marksman under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and marksman?
Memos is written in Go and marksman in F#. 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 marksman?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (63,178 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose marksman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.