head to head · open source
Memos vs Zen
Memos has 63,129 GitHub stars, 4,766 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen has 1,174 stars, 61 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Memos leads on adoption by 5,277% (63,129 vs 1,174 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 1 topic tag (markdown), 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 | ★ 63K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 61 |
| 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 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
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 Zen
Zen is a self hosted note taking application that ships as a single Go binary or as a Docker Compose stack. Notes are written and stored as standard Markdown, with the content and its metadata kept in a local SQLite database. The project sits in the self hosted productivity and knowledge management ecosystem, alongside other personal note servers, and it presents itself as clean, distraction free, and lightweight by design.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or Zen more popular?
Memos has 63,129 GitHub stars and Zen has 1,174. 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 (63,129 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Zen if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.