head to head · open source
Memos vs Open-Notebook
Memos has 64,235 GitHub stars, 4,935 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open-Notebook has 41,377 stars, 4,762 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Memos leads on adoption by 55% (64,235 vs 41,377 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; Open-Notebook is written in TypeScript under MIT. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Open-Notebook 12%. Memos was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | Open-Notebook | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 41K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 4.8K |
| 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 Open-Notebook if
- You want the Open-Notebook feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Open-Notebook 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 Open-Notebook
[![Forks][forks shield]][forks url] [![Stargazers][stars shield]][stars url] [![Issues][issues shield]][issues url] [![MIT License][license shield]][license url] Open Notebook An open source, privacy focused alternative to Google's Notebook LM! Join our Discord server for help, to share workflow ideas, and suggest features! Checkout our website » Follow @lfnovo on X for updates 📚 Get Started · 📖 User Guide · ✨ Features · 🚀 Deploy Deutsch Español français 日本語 한국어 Português Русский 中文 A private, multi model, 100% local, full featured alternative to Notebook LM In a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence…
read the full Open-Notebook overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or Open-Notebook more popular?
Memos has 64,235 GitHub stars and Open-Notebook has 41,377. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and Open-Notebook free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and Open-Notebook under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and Open-Notebook?
Memos is written in Go and Open-Notebook in TypeScript. 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 Open-Notebook?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (64,235 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Open-Notebook if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.