Zettlr 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 Zettlr with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Focalboard Notable Docmost Obsidian BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Notesnook Gollum Quartz VNote MarkText Workspace Self-hosted LiveSync Leantime Blinko Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Athens Research org-roam SilverBullet zk NoteDiscovery Outline Desktop Many Notes Notabase mdSilo Tangent Notes
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 BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted 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 Zettlr Memos Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License GPL-3.0 MIT Language TypeScript Go Setup difficulty Easy Easy Min. RAM 256 MB 64 MB Deployment bare-metal, binary docker, binary GitHub stars ★ 13,354 ★ 62,093 First released 2017 2022 Replaces Notion, Obsidian Notion, Google Keep
Why pick each one
Choose Zettlr if… Strong academic features Plain Markdown files Zettlr details Choose Memos if… Extremely lightweight Quick capture workflow Simple deployment Memos details
Frequently asked questions Is Zettlr 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 Zettlr and Memos free and open-source? Yes. Zettlr is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Memos under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Zettlr and Memos with Docker? Zettlr: check the project docs for container support. Memos: yes.