Blinko vs Memos
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Blinko
Self-hosted personal note tool for capturing ideas
VS
Memos
Lightweight self-hosted note and memo hub
| Feature | Blinko | Memos |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,035 | ★ 63,295 |
| First released | 2024 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Google Keep, Memos | Notion, Google Keep |
What are Blinko and Memos?
Blinko
Blinko is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking application designed for quickly capturing thoughts and ideas as they occur. It stores notes with Markdown support and offers AI-assisted retrieval of past notes.
- Quick idea capture
- Markdown notes
- AI-powered retrieval
- Self-hosted privacy
Memos
Memos is a lightweight, privacy-first note-taking service for quick notes and memos with a clean timeline interface. It targets individuals who want a fast personal microblog-style note tool. It is deployed via Docker as a single container.
- Fast Markdown memo timeline
- Tagging and filtering
- REST API
- Tiny single-binary footprint
Blinko vs Memos: key differences
Blinko is written in TypeScript, while Memos is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Blinko versus MIT for Memos. Memos is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Blinko. Memos is the more established project (first released 2022), while Blinko arrived in 2024. Memos has the considerably larger community, at 63,295 GitHub stars versus 11,035.
Why pick each one
Choose Blinko if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 11k GitHub stars
Choose Memos if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Quick capture workflow
- Simple deployment
Watch out for
- Not for long structured docs
- Limited organization features
Frequently asked questions
Is Blinko or Memos better?
Neither is universally better. Memos has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Blinko and Memos free and open-source?
Yes. Blinko is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Memos under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Blinko and Memos with Docker?
Blinko: yes. Memos: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Blinko or Memos?
Memos has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Blinko. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.