BookStack 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.
Not the right match-up?
Compare BookStack with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Docusaurus Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Focalboard Notable MkDocs Docmost Obsidian Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Answer Notesnook Gollum Zettlr Quartz VNote MarkText Workspace Self-hosted LiveSync Leantime Blinko Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor Read the Docs nb Notes Dendron MediaWiki DokuWiki MDwiki Raneto Documize Community Django Wiki ZenTao Otter Wiki XWiki LeafWiki Daux.io Realms Wiki
Compare Memos with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Mark Text Joplin Plane SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian Linkwarden Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr Quartz VNote Wallabag MarkText Workspace Planka Self-hosted LiveSync Shiori Leantime Linkding Blinko git-bug Kanboard Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Floccus Dillinger Kaneo Buku Athens Research org-roam Taskwarrior Markor Sync Livebook QOwnNotes SilverBullet TagSpaces DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote BatNoter Notea AppFlowy Cloud Jotty Atomic Server Knowledge RocketNotes QuillPad Beavers Notes Outline Desktop Writing Many Notes Notabase Notesnook Sync Server mdSilo Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature BookStack Memos Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT MIT Language PHP Go Setup difficulty Easy Easy Min. RAM 512 MB 64 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal docker, binary GitHub stars ★ 18,974 ★ 62,093 First released 2017 2022 Replaces Confluence, Notion Notion, Google Keep
Why pick each one
Choose BookStack if… Very easy to learn Clean organized structure Good permissions BookStack details Choose Memos if… Extremely lightweight Quick capture workflow Simple deployment Memos details
Frequently asked questions Is BookStack 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 BookStack and Memos free and open-source? Yes. BookStack is licensed under MIT and Memos under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BookStack and Memos with Docker? BookStack: yes. Memos: yes.