AFFiNE vs Obsidian
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 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 nb Notes 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 Obsidian with
choose an app… AppFlowy Memos Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Focalboard Notable Docmost BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Notesnook Gollum Zettlr Quartz VNote MarkText Workspace Self-hosted LiveSync Leantime Blinko Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Markor Sync QOwnNotes TagSpaces Papra Mindforger Web CherryTree Archivy Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next MindForger WizNote Zim QuillPad Beavers Notes Notesnook Sync Server OutWiker Tiddloid MyTetra WikidPad
Feature AFFiNE Obsidian Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT Proprietary Language TypeScript JavaScript Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 1,024 MB 256 MB Deployment docker binary GitHub stars ★ 71,312 ★ 20,632 First released 2022 2020 Replaces Notion, Miro Evernote, Notion, OneNote
Why pick each one
Choose AFFiNE if… Versatile workspace Local-first design Modern UI AFFiNE details Choose Obsidian if… Notes stay portable and local Highly extensible Obsidian details
Frequently asked questions Is AFFiNE or Obsidian better? Neither is universally better. AFFiNE has the larger community, while Obsidian is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are AFFiNE and Obsidian free and open-source? Yes. AFFiNE is licensed under MIT and Obsidian under Proprietary. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AFFiNE and Obsidian with Docker? AFFiNE: yes. Obsidian: check the project docs for container support.