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Comparison · Collab
AFFiNE vs Memos
A side-by-side editorial comparison of AFFiNE and Memos — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:self-hosted
AFFiNE vs Memos: at a glance
What is AFFiNE?
AFFiNE's canaries stay on upkeep: a Swift Collections bump follows CVE and migration fixes.
AFFiNE ships a canary build almost daily, and nearly all of October has been dependency and infrastructure work. The newest, canary 915, bumps Apple's Swift Collections package to 1.7.4 for the native apps. Before it came a happy-dom code-execution CVE patch, payment-record repairs during a data migration, and non-root, read-only containers with multi-architecture Windows builds.
What is Memos?
Memos adds collaborative Spaces without handing administrators the keys to everyone's notes.
Memos is a self-hosted memo archive that has spent three release candidates rebuilding its foundations rather than its surface. 0.27 embedded an MCP server in the instance, 0.30 flipped undeclared instances to private mode and regenerated that MCP surface from the OpenAPI schema, and 0.31.0-rc.1 now introduces first-class Spaces with ADMIN and USER memberships. The ownership model was rewritten alongside it: instance administrators are no longer implicit collaborators on other people's memos.
AFFiNE vs Memos: editorial side-by-side
AFFiNE
5.0COLLAB
AFFiNE's canaries stay on upkeep: a Swift Collections bump follows CVE and migration fixes.
◆ Current state
AFFiNE ships a canary build almost daily, and nearly all of October has been dependency and infrastructure work. The newest, canary 915, bumps Apple's Swift Collections package to 1.7.4 for the native apps. Before it came a happy-dom code-execution CVE patch, payment-record repairs during a data migration, and non-root, read-only containers with multi-architecture Windows builds.
◆ Where it's heading
The feed reads like a team hardening the backend and toolchain ahead of a larger cutover: a payment-identity migration, stricter deployment defaults and steady Renovate bumps across web, server and native code. Feature work isn't visible in canaries this month; the last user-facing fix was October 12's blob-upload quota correction.
◆ Prediction
Expect the data migration to finish in the next canaries, followed by a stable release that bundles it; the entries don't show which user-facing feature is next.
Memos
3.8COLLAB
Memos adds collaborative Spaces without handing administrators the keys to everyone's notes.
◆ Current state
Memos is a self-hosted memo archive that has spent three release candidates rebuilding its foundations rather than its surface. 0.27 embedded an MCP server in the instance, 0.30 flipped undeclared instances to private mode and regenerated that MCP surface from the OpenAPI schema, and 0.31.0-rc.1 now introduces first-class Spaces with ADMIN and USER memberships. The ownership model was rewritten alongside it: instance administrators are no longer implicit collaborators on other people's memos.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction runs from one person's notebook toward shared, agent-addressable infrastructure, and the order matters — access control and a stable API surface landed before multi-user sharing did. Each candidate has carried its breaking changes rather than deferring them: Shortcuts became Saved Views across the API, MCP tools and web routes, reactions lost content_id, S3 attachments stopped returning presigned URLs, and the Explore and per-user RSS feeds now return 404. Memos is willing to spend client compatibility to keep the data model coherent.
◆ Prediction
Expect 0.31 to reach a stable release with migration guidance for the Saved Views rename, and for Space scoping to extend next to the surfaces the notes say stay global — Archived, Inbox, profiles and Settings.
Alternatives to AFFiNE and Memos
Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either AFFiNE or Memos.
KACE
KACE extends its PHP2SHELL fix to the SDA deployment appliance, six days after disclosure.
GitHub
GitHub adds GPT-6.1 Terra to Copilot and makes assisted permissions GA across CLI, app and VS Code.
Mattermost
Mattermost v12 puts user-scoped permissions, private models and audit trails on every agent action.
Teable
Teable's Structured Query v2 now reports across multi-hop relations, with a strict mode against SQL.
Readwise
Readwise splits its bundle into Reader-only and Highlights-only plans and renames its first app.
See all AFFiNE alternatives → · See all Memos alternatives →
Recent activity from AFFiNE and Memos
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoAFFiNECanary 909: Windows static-link build fix
- 2d agoAFFiNECanary 915: Swift Collections bumped to 1.7.4
- 3d agoAFFiNECanary 907: happy-dom v21 patches code-execution CVE
- 5d agoAFFiNECanary 908: payment-record and upload fixes for data migration
- 6d agoAFFiNECanary 909: hardened containers, multi-arch Windows builds
- 16d agoAFFiNEAFFiNE fixes blob uploads after storage quota changes
- 1mo agoMemosCollaborative Spaces, author-owned memos, and Saved Views ⚡
- 3mo agoMemosEmbedded MCP endpoint, live SSE updates, and revocable share links ⚡
- 3mo agoMemosMemos Web Clipper and a redesigned memo detail rail
- 3mo agoMemosPrivate by default, CEL time filters, and a stateless MCP endpoint ⚡
- 6mo agoMemosMentions, voice recording, and Live Photo attachments
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between AFFiNE and Memos?
Both compete on the same themes — self-hosted — within Collab. AFFiNE is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 3.8), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is AFFiNE better than Memos?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. AFFiNE is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 3.8), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to AFFiNE?
Top AFFiNE alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "AFFiNE alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/affine for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Memos?
Top Memos alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Memos alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/memos for the full list with editorial commentary on each.