head to head · open source
Memos vs notes
Memos has 64,235 GitHub stars, 4,935 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. notes has 4,263 stars, 385 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Memos leads on adoption by 1,407% (64,235 vs 4,263 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; notes is written in C++ under MPL-2.0. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, notes 9%. Memos was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (markdown, 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 | notes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-05-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 385 |
| 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 notes if
- You want the notes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and notes 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 notes
Notes Notes is an open source and cross platform note taking app that is both beautiful and powerful. Website: notes foss.com Screenshots Features Overview Native app (written in C++ with Qt). Turn your Markdown tasks into a beautiful Kanban board. Fast and beautiful. Fully open source and cross platform (Linux, macOS, Windows). Completely private tracks nothing. Folders and tags. Organize your ideas hierarchically using nested folders and universally using tags. Markdown Support. Format text without lifting your hands from the keyboard. Different themes. Switch between Light, Dark, and Sepia. Feed View. Select…
read the full notes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or notes more popular?
Memos has 64,235 GitHub stars and notes has 4,263. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and notes free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and notes under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and notes?
Memos is written in Go and notes in C++. 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 notes?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (64,235 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose notes if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.