Focalboard vs Memos

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureFocalboardMemos
CategoryProject Management & TasksNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM512 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 26,376★ 62,093
First released20212022
ReplacesTrello, Asana, NotionNotion, Google Keep

Why pick each one

Choose Focalboard if…

  • Clean Trello-like UI
  • Lightweight
  • Mattermost integration
Focalboard details

Choose Memos if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Quick capture workflow
  • Simple deployment
Memos details

Frequently asked questions

Is Focalboard 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 Focalboard and Memos free and open-source?

Yes. Focalboard is licensed under MIT and Memos under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Focalboard and Memos with Docker?

Focalboard: yes. Memos: yes.

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