head to head · open source
Mole vs memories
Mole has 67,731 GitHub stars, 2,382 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. memories has 3,840 stars, 169 forks, 473 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mole leads on adoption by 1,664% (67,731 vs 3,840 stars). Mole is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; memories is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Mole has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, memories 4%. memories was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Mole | memories | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 169 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mole if
- You weight community size — 68K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick memories if
- You want the memories feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and memories fits your workflow better
About Mole
Mole is an open source macOS utility that combines system cleanup, application management, and live monitoring into a single native app and CLI tool. It runs on macOS 12+ for both Intel and Apple Silicon, offering a unified interface for reclaiming disk space, uninstalling apps thoroughly, visualizing storage, and tracking real time system health. Built in Shell and licensed under GPL 3.0, it aggregates functionality found across several paid tools—CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, and iStat Menus—into one binary.
About memories
Memories is a fast, modern photo management suite that runs as a Nextcloud app, built for people who host their own Nextcloud instance and want a timeline first photo and video library without handing their media to a commercial cloud service.
read the full memories overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mole or memories more popular?
Mole has 67,731 GitHub stars and memories has 3,840. Mole has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mole and memories free?
Both are open source. Mole is licensed under GPL-3.0 and memories under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mole and memories?
Mole is written in Shell and memories in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Mole or memories?
Choose Mole if you want the larger community (67,731 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose memories if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.