Memos
by Memos · Self-hosted Markdown timeline for quick notes and snippets
BenchRank score
Screenshots of Memos
Homepage
Overview
Memos is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking app that keeps notes as a timeline rather than a folder tree. Every memo is written and stored as plain Markdown with tags, search, visibility controls and API access, and you run it yourself with a single Docker command. It stores data in SQLite by default, with MySQL and PostgreSQL supported for larger deployments.
- Best for
- Self-hosters and developers who want fast Markdown note capture on infrastructure they control.
- Pricing
- Free: the software costs $0 under the MIT licence, with no subscriptions, seat fees or usage fees; your only costs are the server, domain and backups you choose.
- Runs on
- Self-hosted
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- MIT licensed and $0: no seat, note or API usage fees
- One Docker command to deploy on a VPS, NAS or Raspberry Pi
- Notes written and stored as plain Markdown, so they stay portable
- SQLite by default, with MySQL and PostgreSQL for larger deployments
Trade-offs
- You supply and pay for the server, domain and backups yourself
- No hosted service — self-hosting is the only way to run it
- Deliberately small: a timeline, not a workspace or second brain
- Community support via GitHub and Discord; no commercial plan exists
How Memos markets itself
A structured read of the promise, proof and page design on Memos’s captured homepage.
Homepage capture
“Capture first. Keep it yours.”
- Angle: Open source / ownership
- Hero: Product screenshot
Pricing
Published plans and prices from Memos’s own pricing page.
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
MCP support
Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.
API quality
Public API surface: machine-readable spec, official SDKs, documented auth, errors, rate limits and versioning.
Documentation
Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.
Agent friendliness
How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.
Pricing transparency
Whether real prices are published, self-serve signup exists, and usage costs are knowable without a sales call.
Changelog
A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.
Marketing site structure
Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.
Page speed
How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.
Operational trust
Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
Openness
Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.
Maintenance
Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.
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Where this comes from
The Memos pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.
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Is this your product?
Claim Memos to manage its profile. Claiming lets you suggest edits to the descriptive fields — it never changes scores or rankings.