head to head · open source
Memos vs silverbullet
Memos has 63,155 GitHub stars, 4,769 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. silverbullet has 6,093 stars, 482 forks, 345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Memos leads on adoption by 937% (63,155 vs 6,093 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; silverbullet is written in TypeScript under MIT. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, silverbullet 8%. 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 | silverbullet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 63K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 482 |
| 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 silverbullet if
- You want the silverbullet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and silverbullet 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 silverbullet
SilverBullet is an open source, self hosted, browser based personal knowledge database that stores notes as Markdown pages and makes them programmable with Space Lua, aimed at individual knowledge workers who want a notes app they can script rather than merely configure.
read the full silverbullet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or silverbullet more popular?
Memos has 63,155 GitHub stars and silverbullet has 6,093. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and silverbullet free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and silverbullet under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and silverbullet?
Memos is written in Go and silverbullet 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 silverbullet?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (63,155 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose silverbullet if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.