Gotenberg vs Memos
| Tagline | Developer API to convert HTML, Markdown, Word, and Excel files into PDFs | Lightweight, self-hosted note-taking and memo hub |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| Replaces | Notion | Evernote, Notion |
| GitHub stars | 12k | 61k |
| Language | Docker | Go |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes | Docker Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 2 days ago | 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.
Gotenberg
- Conversion-only API; no storage, user interface, or document management.
- Complex CSS layouts and JavaScript-heavy pages may render inconsistently with headless Chromium.
- LibreOffice fidelity for intricate Word/Excel formatting can differ from native Office rendering.
- No built-in rate limiting or authentication — must be secured at the reverse proxy level.
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. Gotenberg has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Gotenberg
Developer API to convert HTML, Markdown, Word, and Excel files into PDFs