head to head · open source
Memos vs notes
Memos has 63,163 GitHub stars, 4,768 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. notes has 4,267 stars, 384 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Memos leads on adoption by 1,380% (63,163 vs 4,267 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 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 | notes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 63K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-05-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 384 |
| 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 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
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 notes
Notes is an open source, cross platform note taking application written in C++ with Qt, built for people who want a private, local first place to write Markdown notes on Linux, macOS, or Windows.
read the full notes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or notes more popular?
Memos has 63,163 GitHub stars and notes has 4,267. 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 (63,163 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose notes if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.