Verdict: a good fit if your notes already live in plain Markdown files and you want an AI assistant to search and reason over them without switching to a proprietary app. Self-hosted and local use is genuinely free and open source; the cloud plans ($15 to $30 per seat) are for teams that want sync and sharing without running a server.
Other good fits
A team that wants shared, synced notes without giving up the plain-text, git-friendly format.
+ Pros
Read pros
Basic Memory turns a folder of Markdown notes into something an AI assistant can search properly: full-text search, semantic search (search by meaning, not just keywords) and a knowledge graph that follows the links between notes. It runs as an MCP server, so any MCP-capable assistant can query your notes directly instead of you pasting them in by hand.
Pick it when…
Your notes are already Markdown files, or you're happy to keep them that way, and you want an AI tool to search and reason over them.
You want your knowledge base to work with any MCP-capable assistant, not be locked into one app's chat window.
You want local-first notes with the option to add cloud sync later, not switch tools to get it.
− Cons
A good search result is not the same as a correct one; a semantic match can pull in a note that's related but not actually the answer, so check the source note, not just the summary. There's no visual canvas or whiteboard here, purely text and the graph between texts.
Pick something else when…
You want a visual canvas alongside your notes.AFFiNE combines documents with an edgeless whiteboard.
You want the notes stored with full version history and shared through a repository your team already uses. Plain Markdown in Git, hosted on Gitea, does that without a subscription.
Avoid if
You need cloud sync today and can't pay a per-seat fee; the free tier is local-only, with no built-in sync.
Workflow
Keep or create notes as plain Markdown files → let Basic Memory index them for full-text, semantic and graph search → connect an MCP-capable assistant to the server → ask a question that spans several notes → check the assistant's answer against the actual notes before you rely on it.
Full local knowledge base, AGPL-3.0 open source, no cloud sync
Team (cloud)
$15/seat/month (volume pricing from 10+ seats)
Shared workspaces, cloud sync, full-text search, a 7-day trial
Business (cloud)
$30/seat/month
Everything in Team plus SSO/SAML, audit logs and HIPAA-compliant hosting
Agent infrastructure
Custom, credit-based
Usage for running agent fleets against your knowledge base
Local use needs only a machine to run it on; the ongoing work is keeping your Markdown notes organised, since the tool's value depends entirely on what you put into it. Cloud plans add sync and collaboration for a per-seat fee.
Restrictions
The free, open-source (AGPL-3.0) edition is local-only, with no built-in cloud sync; sync and shared workspaces require a paid cloud plan. Agent-fleet features use separate, credit-based billing on top of a seat plan.
First project
Documentation-based suggestion — not run here.
Point Basic Memory at a folder with ten short Markdown notes from a past project (or ten made-up ones), then ask an MCP-connected assistant: "What did we decide about [a topic covered in two or three of the notes], and which notes say so?"
Done when the assistant names the right notes and you've confirmed each one actually contains what it's credited with.
Links & evidence
Documentation-based · not hands-on · Sep 23, 2026
Rests on Basic Memory's own pricing and product pages, read on 2026-09-23. No Basic Memory server was installed or queried for this review.
Basic Memory pricing · Sep 23, 2026 — Local free/AGPL-3.0, Team $15/seat/month, Business $30/seat/month, custom agent-infrastructure credits.
Basic Memory homepage · Sep 23, 2026 — Markdown knowledge base with full-text, semantic and graph search, MCP server.
AFFiNE pricing · Sep 23, 2026 — Comparison alternative that adds a visual whiteboard alongside written notes.
Further review notes & alternatives
Alternatives and trade-offs
AFFiNE wins when you want a visual whiteboard as well as written notes.
Git plus Gitea wins when full version history and self-hosted sharing matter more than built-in semantic search.
A local model workspace like AnythingLLM wins when you want document chat with citations rather than a Markdown-native knowledge graph.
Query Markdown notes through full-text, semantic, and graph indexing.
Choose it when a local knowledge base should work with AI tools.
Its database-like queries preserve a Markdown-centered working format.
free-tier · cloud · self-host
markdown knowledge base
knowledge graph
mcp server
local first
semantic search
draft-docs
open-source
View sourced imageNote preview from the official Basic Memory Cloud documentation. This is the hosted application's interface, not an interface bundled with the local MCP server.
Owner-approved use of public official interface screenshots, as recorded in public-visuals-batch-1.json, 13 September 2026. Copyright retained by Basic Machines and Basic Memory contributors; attribution retained. Editorial product illustration; no open licence asserted. Converted on 15 October 2026 to a WebP (quality 80) for faster page loads; the original image remains in the media library.