AFFiNE vs nb Notes
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?
Compare AFFiNE with
choose an app… Excalidraw AppFlowy Memos Mark Text Joplin Plane Cryptee Sheets SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian Linkwarden BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr Quartz VNote Wallabag MarkText Workspace Planka Self-hosted LiveSync Shiori Leantime Linkding Blinko git-bug Kanboard Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor Floccus Dillinger Kaneo Buku Athens Research org-roam Taskwarrior Markor Sync Livebook QOwnNotes SilverBullet TagSpaces DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote WBO BatNoter Notea AppFlowy Cloud Jotty Atomic Server Knowledge RocketNotes QuillPad Beavers Notes Outline Desktop Writing Many Notes Notabase Notesnook Sync Server mdSilo Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes Drawio Desktop Server DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Excalidraw Whiteboard Office Digimindmap memEx QST
Compare nb Notes with
choose an app… AppFlowy Memos Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Notable Docmost Obsidian BookStack Foam Notesnook Zettlr VNote Self-hosted LiveSync Blinko Laverna Anytype Reor Markor Sync QOwnNotes TagSpaces Papra Mindforger Web CherryTree Archivy Flatnotes Dnote
Feature AFFiNE nb Notes Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT AGPL-3.0 Language TypeScript Shell Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 1,024 MB 32 MB Deployment docker bare-metal, binary GitHub stars ★ 71,312 ★ 8,343 First released 2022 2019 Replaces Notion, Miro Evernote, Notion
Why pick each one
Choose AFFiNE if… Versatile workspace Local-first design Modern UI AFFiNE details Choose nb Notes if… Powerful for terminal users Versioned with Git nb Notes details
Frequently asked questions Is AFFiNE or nb Notes better? Neither is universally better. AFFiNE has the larger community, while nb Notes is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are AFFiNE and nb Notes free and open-source? Yes. AFFiNE is licensed under MIT and nb Notes under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AFFiNE and nb Notes with Docker? AFFiNE: yes. nb Notes: check the project docs for container support.