SHSelfHostIndex

AFFiNE vs Notea

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
AF AFFiNE Workspace for docs, whiteboards and databases VS NO Notea Self-hosted note-taking app stored on S3
FeatureAFFiNENotea
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB256 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, source
GitHub stars★ 71,312★ 2,146
First released20222021
ReplacesNotion, MiroNotion, Evernote

Why pick each one

Choose AFFiNE if…

  • Versatile workspace
  • Local-first design
  • Modern UI
AFFiNE details

Choose Notea if…

  • Simple storage model
  • Clean editing experience
Notea details

Frequently asked questions

Is AFFiNE or Notea better?

Neither is universally better. AFFiNE has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are AFFiNE and Notea free and open-source?

Yes. AFFiNE is licensed under MIT and Notea under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run AFFiNE and Notea with Docker?

AFFiNE: yes. Notea: yes.

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