Memos
Note-taking & Editors
Knowledge base that works with a SQLite db file.
Actively maintained
Real momentum
MIT
Database-less note-taking web app that utilises a flat folder of markdown files for storage.
flatnotes is an open-source note-taking & editors project, with 3.2k GitHub stars and a health score of 52/100. It committed 18 times in the last twelve months across 3 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: MIT. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.
| Status | Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days. |
|---|---|
| Last commit | 2026-08-02 |
| Days since last commit | 15 |
| Commits, last 3 months | 8 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 18 |
| Months with activity | 3 of 12 |
| Last release | 2025-10-20 |
| Archived | No |
| Licence | MIT |
| Category | Note-taking & Editors |
Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.
Permissive (MIT, Apache, BSD): you can fork it, close the source and sell it. Lowest legal friction for a commercial product.
This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.
flatnotes is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.
Winnable, but differentiation is not optional. Pick one underserved segment and be visibly better for it rather than competing feature-for-feature with a free tool.
Actively maintained. flatnotes recorded 18 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 3 of those months and 8 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-02. Last release: 2025-10-20. Committed within the last 45 days.
flatnotes is published under MIT. Permissive (MIT, Apache, BSD): you can fork it, close the source and sell it. Lowest legal friction for a commercial product.
20 open-source implementations, 14 of them actively maintained, led by Memos at 62k stars. Saturation score 49/100 — Contested. Several maintained alternatives exist, but no one owns the category.
Note-taking & Editors
Knowledge base that works with a SQLite db file.
Alternative to Evernote, Onenote, Roam Research, Note-taking/ Knowledge management, Note-taking / Personal Knowledge Management
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