AFFiNE vs Trilium 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 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 QST
Compare Trilium Notes with
choose an app… AppFlowy Memos Mark Text Joplin Plane SiYuan Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline 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 Papra DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry Archivy Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote 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 DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature AFFiNE Trilium Notes Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT AGPL-3.0 Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 1,024 MB 256 MB Deployment docker docker, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 71,312 ★ 37,298 First released 2022 2017 Replaces Notion, Miro Evernote, Notion
Why pick each one
Choose AFFiNE if… Versatile workspace Local-first design Modern UI AFFiNE details Choose Trilium Notes if… Powerful for big knowledge bases Flexible structure Scriptable Trilium Notes details
Frequently asked questions Is AFFiNE or Trilium Notes better? Neither is universally better. AFFiNE has the larger community, while Trilium Notes is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are AFFiNE and Trilium Notes free and open-source? Yes. AFFiNE is licensed under MIT and Trilium Notes under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AFFiNE and Trilium Notes with Docker? AFFiNE: yes. Trilium Notes: yes.