AFFiNE vs Memos
AFFiNE and Memos are both note-taking software. AFFiNE is open source under a license set out in its repository, with 74k GitHub stars. Memos is open source under MIT, with 64k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick AFFiNE when
- You want an open alternative to Notion that also does visual whiteboarding and can run offline.
- Pick Memos when
- You want a quick place to jot thoughts and links on your own server.
Side by side
A workspace combining Notion-style documents and Miro-style whiteboards on the same content, local-first with sync and self-hosting.
A self-hosted note app that shows short Markdown notes in a timeline, like a private microblog, with tags and sharing.
Still pre-1.0, the license is not a standard open-source one, and self-hosted sync lags the cloud version.
Designed for short notes, not long documents or structured knowledge bases.
Usable
Production-ready
Desktop app, self-hosted server, cloud service and mobile app
Self-hosted server
TypeScript, Rust, Electron and Swift
Go, TypeScript, React, SQLite and PostgreSQL
Open source, license unclear on GitHub
Open source, MIT (permissive)
GitHub could not read the license. Check it in the repository before reusing any code.
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
74k GitHub stars
64k GitHub stars
Established: started 4 years ago, latest release v0.27.4.
Established: started 4 years ago, latest release 26.11.0.
Other comparisons
More note-taking apps
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.