Memos vs Zettlr
| Tagline | Lightweight, self-hosted note-taking and memo hub | Markdown editor built for academics with Zettelkasten and citation support |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| Replaces | Evernote, Notion | Notion, Obsidian |
| GitHub stars | 61k | 11k |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 1/5 Effortless |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 6 days ago | 1 month 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.
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.
Zettlr
- No mobile app; desktop-only experience limits on-the-go access
- No real-time collaboration or multi-user sync; single-user only
- Cloud sync relies entirely on third-party tools (Dropbox, Syncthing, etc.)
Bottom line
Choose Zettlr if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Memos for the larger community and ecosystem. Memos has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.