AFFiNE

Last reviewed Aug 26, 2026 · 776 words

AFFiNE is the rare tool that genuinely replaces two subscriptions: Notion-style documents and databases plus a Miro-style infinite whiteboard, in one MIT-licensed app with 71,881 GitHub stars. The honest caveat comes with it: the product started in 2022, the company's attention goes to AFFiNE Cloud first, and self-hosting is the part still maturing. It works, and I run it, but you should go in expecting a three-container stack, a real 1 GB+ RAM footprint, and occasional upgrade friction — not the fire-and-forget single container that something like a plain notes app gives you.

The docs-plus-whiteboard combination is the actual selling point

Every page in AFFiNE has two modes. Page mode is a block-based editor in the Notion mold: slash commands, databases, embeds, markdown shortcuts. Edgeless mode drops the same content onto an infinite canvas where you can sketch, connect, and arrange blocks spatially. The two are views of one document, not separate artifacts, which is the thing no pairing of separate apps reproduces — your meeting notes and the architecture diagram they reference live in the same file. If you currently bounce between a wiki and Excalidraw, that round trip is what AFFiNE deletes.

Local-first changes what the server is for

AFFiNE is built on CRDTs, and clients keep a full local copy of your workspace. The server you self-host handles sync between devices, real-time collaboration, and multi-user workspaces — it is not the sole home of your data the way a classic web app's database is. Practically: the desktop app stays fully usable offline, edits merge when you reconnect, and a server outage is an inconvenience rather than a lockout. It also means the first sync of a large workspace moves real data, and that a "database backup" alone doesn't capture what a client has that never synced. Push changes before you migrate servers.

Budget three containers and a real gigabyte of RAM

The self-hosted deployment is Docker Compose with three services: the AFFiNE server, PostgreSQL, and Redis. The web UI serves on port 3010 by default, and first start runs database migrations, so give it a minute before assuming it's broken. The catalogue lists 1,024 MB minimum RAM and rates the difficulty Medium; both match my experience — with Postgres and Redis included you should plan for the stack idling around a gigabyte, which is 5–10x what lighter notes servers need. Put Postgres's volume in your backup rotation and dump it with pg_dump on a schedule; that plus the blob storage volume is your recoverable state.

Self-hosting is supported, not pampered

This is the con the catalogue flags, and it's fair. AFFiNE the company monetises its cloud, so cloud gets features first and the self-host images occasionally trail. Version upgrades have historically wanted release-note reading rather than blind docker compose pull — migrations happen at startup, and skipping several versions in one jump is where people get hurt. None of this is disqualifying; it's the profile of a young project moving fast. But if your priority is a notes server you patch twice a year and never think about, a more settled option from the notes category will fit better than AFFiNE does in 2026.

Against AppFlowy, the split is whiteboard vs. polish

The closest rival is AppFlowy, the other big open-source Notion alternative. AppFlowy is the leaner, more conventional take — better if you want Notion's grid-and-database core and nothing else. AFFiNE's edge is the edgeless canvas and the unified doc/whiteboard model; its price is the heavier stack described above. I've written up the head-to-head in AFFiNE vs AppFlowy. If your Notion usage never touched a whiteboard or a mind map, that's a strong hint AppFlowy is enough.

What I'd do

If diagrams, canvases, or visual planning are part of how you think, self-host AFFiNE now: compose file with Postgres and Redis, port 3010 behind your reverse proxy, nightly pg_dump plus a blob-volume backup, and a calendar reminder to upgrade one release at a time with the notes open. Keep the desktop app installed so local-first has somewhere to live. If you only need documents and databases, pick AppFlowy or something simpler from the notes category and check back on AFFiNE's self-hosting story in a year — the product is excellent and the trajectory is right, but the gap between its cloud and your server is real today, and 71,000 stars are betting it closes.