SHSelfHostIndex

AFFiNE vs org-roam

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 OR org-roam Plain-text personal knowledge management for Emacs
FeatureAFFiNEorg-roam
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptEmacs Lisp
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB128 MB
Deploymentdockersource
GitHub stars★ 71,312★ 6,007
First released20222020
ReplacesNotion, MiroRoam Research, Obsidian

Why pick each one

Choose AFFiNE if…

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

Choose org-roam if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 6k GitHub stars
  • Written in Emacs Lisp
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
org-roam details

Frequently asked questions

Is AFFiNE or org-roam 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 org-roam free and open-source?

Yes. AFFiNE is licensed under MIT and org-roam under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run AFFiNE and org-roam with Docker?

AFFiNE: yes. org-roam: check the project docs for container support.

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