AFFiNE vs QST
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 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
Compare QST with
choose an app… AppFlowy Memos Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes
Feature AFFiNE QST Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT GPL-2.0 Language TypeScript Perl Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 1,024 MB 512 MB Deployment docker bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 71,312 — First released 2022 2020 Replaces Notion, Miro —
Why pick each one
Choose AFFiNE if… Versatile workspace Local-first design Modern UI AFFiNE details Choose QST if… Released under the GPL-2.0 license Written in Perl Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM QST details
Frequently asked questions Is AFFiNE or QST 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 QST free and open-source? Yes. AFFiNE is licensed under MIT and QST under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AFFiNE and QST with Docker? AFFiNE: yes. QST: check the project docs for container support.