Blinko vs Memos
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Blinko
AI-assisted card notes, self-hosted or on Blinko Cloud
Free plan · from $5.99/mo
Where they differ
- Blinko starts at $5.99 per month, billed monthly (Blinko Cloud Pro). Memos is free.
- Only Blinko lists macOS, Windows, Linux and Android apps.
- Only Memos lists a browser extension.
- Blinko also covers AI search.
- Memos also covers linked notes and web clipper.
In commonFree planWebOpen sourceSelf-hostablePublic APINotesMarkdown
At a glance
| Blinko | Memos | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $5.99 per month, billed monthly (Blinko Cloud Pro) | Free |
| Free plan | Blinko Cloud Free: 100 MB of managed storage, a personal blog, nested tags, folders and full-text search, with AI through your own API key. The self-hosted open-source edition is also free. | Free and open source under the MIT license, with no paid plans, seat fees or premium features. The only cost is whatever server, domain or backup storage you choose to run it on. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Blinko | The Memos project |
| Price read from | blinko.space | usememos.com |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Blinko
- Capturing short thoughts quickly and sorting them out later
- AI search over your own notes using your own API key
- Self-hosters who want their notes on their own server
- Publishing selected notes as a personal blog
Memos
- Self-hosters who want quick notes on a server they control
- Short, frequent notes and logs rather than long structured documents
- Developers who want to script note capture through an API
Worth knowing
Blinko
- Blinko Cloud Free includes 100 MB of managed storage; Pro has 10 GB and Pro Plus 25 GB. Cloud plans are billed monthly.
- Custom domains, premium blog themes, the CLI, the developer API and secure sharing are listed under the paid Cloud plans.
- There is no iOS app yet (marked Coming soon), Android is an APK download and the desktop apps are described as preview builds.
- AI features need your own API key or a local model, and self-hosting leaves updates, backups and security to you.
Memos
- The project runs no hosted service, so you need to operate and back up a server yourself or use an instance someone else runs.
- No native mobile or desktop apps are listed; phones and computers use the web app, which can be installed as a PWA.
- Import is marked as work in progress and accepts only a Memos export ZIP; imports from other note apps are not supported.
- Memos are not arranged in folders or notebooks, and a Space does not let several people edit the same memo.
Key features
Blinko
- Blinks and Notes
- A Blink is a quick capture for short-lived thoughts and is archived automatically after a period. A Note is permanent, with rich formatting, and a Blink can be turned into one.
- AI search and chat over your notes
- Retrieval-augmented search answers natural-language questions from your own notes, and a chat lets you ask what you recorded and follow up on a topic.
- AI writing with your own provider
- Selected text can be expanded or polished, and AI can tag notes or process new ones automatically. Providers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter and local Ollama models.
- Personal blog and share links
- On Blinko Cloud a note can be published to a personal blog. Share links can carry an expiry time and a password, and shared notes are read-only.
- Self-hosting with Docker
- The open-source edition runs in Docker with a PostgreSQL database, so notes stay on your own server. S3 storage, webhooks, SSO and scheduled backups can be configured.
- Apps and plugins
- Desktop apps add a quick-note window and a text-selection toolbar, the Android app accepts content shared from other apps, and a plugin marketplace adds extras.
Memos
- Timeline of Markdown memos
- Memos are written in Markdown with code highlighting, tables, task lists, math and diagrams, and need no title or folder before saving.
- Search, tags, calendar and map
- Find a memo by its text, nested #tags, the day it was written or the place attached to it. Views save a filter expression for reuse.
- Per-memo visibility and Spaces
- Each memo is private, open to signed-in users, public or limited to a Space. Spaces gather members and memos in one feed but do not grant shared editing.
- Self-hosted in one container
- Runs with Docker, Kubernetes or a binary for Linux, macOS or Windows, and keeps data in SQLite, MySQL or PostgreSQL on infrastructure you control.
- API, webhooks and MCP server
- REST and gRPC APIs cover the product's features, signed webhooks fire when memos change, and a built-in MCP endpoint lets AI assistants search and write memos.
- Web Clipper and Telegram capture
- A browser extension for Chromium-based browsers and Firefox saves pages, selections and images as Markdown, and a Telegram bot forwards messages into Memos.
Plans
Blinko
Open Source (self-hosted)$0
The open-source edition on your own server. Storage is limited only by your infrastructure, and you manage updates, backups, security and AI providers.
Blinko Cloud Free$0
Hosted Blinko with 100 MB of managed storage, a personal blog, bring-your-own-key AI, nested tags, folders and full-text search.
Blinko Cloud Pro$5.99
per month, billed monthly
10 GB of managed storage, premium blog themes, a custom domain, no Blinko branding, the Blinko CLI, developer API and secure sharing.
Blinko Cloud Pro Plus$10.99
per month, billed monthly
25 GB of managed storage with everything in Pro, for larger note and attachment libraries.
Memos
Memos software$0
Every feature, including sharing, Spaces, the API and all three database backends. Hosting is arranged and paid for separately.
