Teable
Teable is hardening into an administered platform: permissions as code, deeper audit trails, AI quotas.
Comparison · Collab
SiYuan vs Memos
A side-by-side editorial comparison of SiYuan and Memos — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:note-taking
SiYuan vs Memos: at a glance
What is SiYuan?
A relentless release grind hardening databases and cross-platform editing, no single pivot in sight
SiYuan is deep in its 3.7.x cycle, shipping alpha, beta, and stable builds within days of each other. The work concentrates on two fronts: maturing its inline database feature (relation backlinks, column alignment, deep links, item templates) and grinding down cross-platform rough edges across iOS, iPad, Android, and HarmonyOS. This is a local-first notes tool being polished, not redirected.
What is Memos?
Memos is turning a personal note store into an agent-addressable, private-by-default service
The release candidates in this window carry unusually heavy changes for a self-hosted note app: an embedded MCP endpoint exposing memo CRUD, comments, attachments and tags to AI clients; live updates over server-sent events; revocable share links; and a browser Web Clipper for saving pages and selections as Markdown. A parallel candidate makes instances without an explicit instance URL run in private mode and rewrites filters onto CEL timestamps.
SiYuan vs Memos: editorial side-by-side
SiYuan
6.3COLLAB
A relentless release grind hardening databases and cross-platform editing, no single pivot in sight
◆ Current state
SiYuan is deep in its 3.7.x cycle, shipping alpha, beta, and stable builds within days of each other. The work concentrates on two fronts: maturing its inline database feature (relation backlinks, column alignment, deep links, item templates) and grinding down cross-platform rough edges across iOS, iPad, Android, and HarmonyOS. This is a local-first notes tool being polished, not redirected.
◆ Where it's heading
The database layer is becoming SiYuan's center of gravity — each release adds another Notion-style capability (templates, deep links, backlinks in the attribute panel) rather than editor primitives. In parallel, mobile and HarmonyOS parity keeps eating release notes, suggesting the team is chasing feature symmetry across an unusually wide platform spread. Expect the database to keep accreting relational features until it rivals a light structured-data workspace.
◆ Prediction
The next stable (v3.7.4) will likely consolidate the current alpha database and export fixes without a headline feature; a larger database or AI-editing push is the more probable place a genuine direction change would surface.
Memos
7.5COLLAB
Memos is turning a personal note store into an agent-addressable, private-by-default service
◆ Current state
The release candidates in this window carry unusually heavy changes for a self-hosted note app: an embedded MCP endpoint exposing memo CRUD, comments, attachments and tags to AI clients; live updates over server-sent events; revocable share links; and a browser Web Clipper for saving pages and selections as Markdown. A parallel candidate makes instances without an explicit instance URL run in private mode and rewrites filters onto CEL timestamps.
◆ Where it's heading
Two directions are converging. One is machine access — MCP moved from a stateful server with prompts and resources to a stateless, tools-only endpoint generated from the OpenAPI schema, which is a deliberate narrowing toward something agents can call reliably. The other is defaults that assume the instance is private until an admin says otherwise. Together they reposition Memos from a personal web app to a small API-shaped service with a human UI on top.
◆ Prediction
Expect the MCP surface to stabilise against the OpenAPI schema as the source of truth and the private-by-default posture to carry into a general release, with clients that relied on prompts, resources or unprefixed tool names needing to migrate.
Alternatives to SiYuan 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 SiYuan or Memos.
Avoma
Avoma's meeting data is now reachable over MCP, buried in a monthly roundup between SEO posts.
GitHub
GitHub is turning supply-chain defense into enforcement while Copilot grows its governance layer.
Trilium Notes
The TriliumNext fork spent its early betas making the app trustworthy to install
Wiki.js
Wiki.js 2.x is in security-maintenance mode, and the feed has been quiet since May
Pydio Cells
Cells v5 rebuilt content and metadata, and the two releases since have gone straight into sync repair
See all SiYuan alternatives → · See all Memos alternatives →
Recent activity from SiYuan and Memos
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoMemosEmbedded MCP endpoint, live SSE updates, and revocable share links ⚡
- 3d agoSiYuanRelation-selector row opening tweaked (v3.7.4-alpha.2)
- 5d agoSiYuanv3.7.4-alpha.1: export fixes, formula clipping, HarmonyOS batch insert
- 9d agoSiYuanv3.7.3 stable: database alignment, relation backlinks, deep links
- 9d agoMemosMemos Web Clipper and a redesigned memo detail rail
- 10d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.3: block dragging, search ranking, onboarding
- 10d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.2: pre-release iteration
- 11d agoSiYuanv3.7.3-beta.1: onboarding, editable top-level docs, update flow
- 15d agoMemosPrivate by default, CEL time filters, and a stateless MCP endpoint ⚡
- 3mo agoMemosMentions, voice recording, and Live Photo attachments
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SiYuan and Memos?
Both compete on the same themes — note-taking — within Collab. Memos is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 6.3), with 2 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 SiYuan better than Memos?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Memos is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 6.3), with 2 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 SiYuan?
Top SiYuan alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "SiYuan alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/siyuan 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.