Memos vs Notea
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Memos | Notea |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 63,295 | ★ 2,147 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Notion, Google Keep | Notion, Evernote |
What are Memos and Notea?
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
Notea
Notea is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking application with a Notion-like editor that stores all data on S3-compatible object storage. It runs serverlessly and requires no traditional database.
- Notion-like editor
- Stores data on S3
- No database required
- Markdown support
Memos vs Notea: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Notea's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Memos is actively maintained. Memos is written in Go, while Notea is built with TypeScript. Memos is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Notea. Memos has the considerably larger community, at 63,295 GitHub stars versus 2,147.
Why pick each one
Choose Memos if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Quick capture workflow
- Simple deployment
Watch out for
- Not for long structured docs
- Limited organization features
Choose Notea if…
- Simple storage model
- Clean editing experience
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Single-user focused
Frequently asked questions
Is Memos or Notea better?
Memos is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Notea if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Memos and Notea free and open-source?
Yes. Memos is licensed under MIT and Notea under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Memos and Notea with Docker?
Memos: yes. Notea: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Memos or Notea?
Memos has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Notea. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.