draw.io vs Memos
| Tagline | Powerful open-source diagramming tool for flowcharts, UML, ER, and network diagrams | Lightweight, self-hosted note-taking and memo hub |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| Replaces | Confluence, Notion | Evernote, Notion |
| GitHub stars | 6.2k | 61k |
| Language | Javascript | Go |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Docker Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | yesterday | 3 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
draw.io
- No real-time multi-cursor collaboration in the self-hosted version (available only on draw.io cloud)
- Version history and branching are not built-in; rely on external storage integration
- Limited commenting and review workflow compared to Lucidchart or Miro
- No presentation mode or interactive slideshow features
Memos
- Designed for short notes/memos, not long structured documents or wikis.
- No nested page hierarchy, databases, or board views.
- No real-time collaboration.
- Limited rich formatting compared to block editors.
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Memos for the larger community and ecosystem. draw.io has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
draw.io
Powerful open-source diagramming tool for flowcharts, UML, ER, and network diagrams