head to head · open source
Memos vs Zen
Memos has 64,235 GitHub stars, 4,935 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen has 1,194 stars, 65 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Memos leads on adoption by 5,280% (64,235 vs 1,194 stars). Memos is written in Go under MIT; Zen is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. Memos has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Zen 5%. 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, 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 | Zen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 65 |
| 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 Zen if
- You want the Zen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Zen 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 Zen
Zen Live Demo • Features • Updates Features Single Go binary or Docker Compose Low resource usage Standard Markdown files, local SQLite database Organize with flexible tags, not rigid folders Markdown features like tables, code blocks, task lists, highlights, and more Full text search with BM25 ranking Import and export data with full portability Templates Pinned notes Archive and soft delete notes Bulk archive and delete Internal note links with side panel preview Minimal dependency footprint Automated backups (via Zen Backup) Import from other services (via Zen Import) Experimental Features Canvas for spatial…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or Zen more popular?
Memos has 64,235 GitHub stars and Zen has 1,194. Memos has the larger community by that measure.
Are Memos and Zen free?
Both are open source. Memos is licensed under MIT and Zen under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Memos and Zen?
Memos is written in Go and Zen in JavaScript. 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 Zen?
Choose Memos if you want the larger community (64,235 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Zen if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.