Memos

Memos is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking tool built around a Twitter-like timeline for fast Markdown capture, shipped as a single ~20MB Go binary. We rate it 83/100 — the best self-hosted choice for anyone who wants quick, dated, fully-owned micro-notes without the weight of Notion, Obsidian, or Joplin.

What is Memos?

Memos was started in December 2021 and is now maintained by the usememos organization. The main usememos/memos repo has crossed 59,100+ stars and 4,300+ forks, making it one of the most popular self-hosted productivity projects on GitHub. It is MIT-licensed and funded through GitHub Sponsors plus a small set of corporate sponsors (Warp, TestMu AI, SSD Nodes).

Where Notion, Obsidian, and Joplin assume you want folders and workspaces, Memos assumes the opposite: every note is a short Markdown post on a chronological timeline, tagged with hashtags and findable by full-text search. The result is a personal microblog — closer to a Twitter feed for one person than to a wiki — running on a server you control.

Key Features of Memos

• Single-binary deploy: One ~20MB Docker image (neosmemo/memos:stable); one docker run on port 5230 and you are online with SQLite by default.
• Markdown-native editor: Plain Markdown with syntax highlighting, tables, code blocks, KaTeX math, task lists, and drag-and-drop image, audio, video, and document attachments.
• Full data ownership: Self-hosted, zero telemetry, MIT-licensed, exportable as Markdown or JSON. Data lives in SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL — your database, your disk.
• REST + gRPC API: A first-class public API so third-party clients (Moe Memos for iOS/Android, browser extensions, dashboards) can read and write memos directly.
• Tags, references, and search: #tag, memo-to-memo references, instant full-text search, pinned memos, and visibility scopes (private, workspace, public).
• Active release cadence: Latest stable is v0.27.1 on April 19, 2026; meaningful updates ship every few weeks.

What Users Say About Memos

On Reddit's r/selfhosted, Memos is one of the most consistently recommended apps when someone asks for a "self-hosted Twitter-style note-taker" or a lightweight Joplin alternative — top threads call out the small footprint, the speed of capture, and that it just works inside a single Docker container. The original Show HN thread picked up over 300 points, with commenters praising it as a refreshing alternative to bloated knowledge bases.

Independent reviewers echo the same picture. XDA-Developers called Memos their "new favorite" way to take notes after replacing Notion and Obsidian on a homelab; Peter Ries' blog and the xTom comparison of self-hosted note apps highlight how lightweight it feels next to Trilium or Outline. The recurring criticisms are equally consistent: Memos is intentionally narrow — there are no folders, no nested pages, and no graph view — so it is a poor fit for a multi-thousand-note second brain. A handful of GitHub issues also note that point releases occasionally ship breaking API changes that affect third-party clients, so production deployments should pin a specific version (e.g. neosmemo/memos:0.27).

Memos Pricing

Memos is completely free and open source. There is no paid plan, no cloud-hosted SaaS by the usememos team, and no telemetry. You only pay for the server you run it on.

Plan	Price	Includes
Self-hosted (only plan)	$0 forever	Unlimited memos and users, all features, full source under the MIT license. You provide the server.

Optional running cost: a tiny VPS from a provider like SSD Nodes or Hetzner can host Memos comfortably from $3–5/month. There is no official Memos Cloud — for managed hosting the community usually recommends Coolify, Railway, or PikaPods.

Who Should Use Memos?

Best for: Self-hosters, indie developers, and privacy-minded users who want a Twitter-style personal log on their own infrastructure. Particularly strong for daily journaling, link/quote capture, dev TILs, reading lists, and dated micro-updates inside a small team.

Not ideal for: Teams that need wiki-style nested pages and rich permissions (use Outline or Notion), users who want a desktop graph view (use Obsidian or Logseq), or anyone unwilling to run a server — there is no managed hosted option.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Tiny footprint: a single Go binary in a ~20MB Docker image runs comfortably on a Raspberry Pi 3 with SQLite.
• Capture-first design: the editor is the first thing on the page; no "where do I file this?" friction.
• Fully open source under the permissive MIT license — no vendor lock-in.
• First-class REST and gRPC APIs make integrations easy to build.

Cons:

• No folders, nested pages, or graph view — limiting for big knowledge bases.
• No official mobile or desktop app — relies on third-party clients (Moe Memos) or PWA-installing the web UI.
• Point releases sometimes break third-party client APIs; pin a version in production.
• No managed hosting from the team — non-technical users are out.

Alternatives to Memos

• Joplin — heavier full Evernote replacement with native desktop and mobile apps and end-to-end encryption; better for offline multi-device, worse for fast micro-capture.
• Logseq — outliner-style PKM with a graph view; better for connected long-form thought, weaker for self-hosted multi-user.
• Anytype — local-first object database with E2EE sync; richer data model, but a much larger app and not timeline-oriented.

Verdict: Is Memos Worth It?

Yes — if you want a self-hosted, capture-first note app and you are comfortable running a Docker container, Memos is currently the best-in-class option for that exact niche. We rate it 83/100: it loses points for the deliberately narrow data model and the lack of an official mobile app, but it earns its score through a tight scope, an aggressive feature pace, an excellent API, and a level of polish unusual for a free MIT-licensed project. If you want a Twitter for one and you do not want a SaaS to ever read your notes, install Memos.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Memos free?

Yes. Memos is 100% free and open source under the MIT license. There is no paid tier and no telemetry. You only pay for the server you self-host it on.

What platforms does Memos support?

The server runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows as a single Go binary, and on any platform that runs Docker (including Raspberry Pi). The web UI works in any modern browser and installs as a PWA on iOS and Android.

How does Memos compare to Joplin?

Joplin is a full Evernote-style note app with notebooks, end-to-end encryption, and official desktop and mobile clients — heavier and better for long-form, multi-device offline notes. Memos is timeline-only, server-first, and built for fast micro-capture.

Is Memos open source?

Yes. Memos is released under the MIT license and developed publicly on GitHub at usememos/memos, with 59,100+ stars.

Does Memos have a mobile app?

There is no official mobile app from the usememos team, but the web UI is fully responsive and PWA-installable. The community-maintained Moe Memos app for iOS and Android connects through the public API.