AFFiNE vs CryptPad
| Tagline | Privacy-first, local-first workspace combining docs, whiteboards, and databases | Encrypted, real-time collaborative office suite you can self-host |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence, Obsidian | Notion, Confluence, Evernote |
| GitHub stars | 70k | 5.9k |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose | Docker Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 5 days ago | 28 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
AFFiNE
- Self-hosted real-time sync (AFFiNE Cloud) has historically lagged the desktop/local experience and can be fiddly to configure.
- Smaller third-party integration and plugin ecosystem than Notion.
- Mobile apps are less mature than the desktop client.
- Some advanced AI and collaboration features are gated to the paid cloud tier.
CryptPad
- Real-time performance degrades noticeably with large documents or many simultaneous editors
- No native mobile apps; browser-only experience on phones is suboptimal
- Admin management UI is rudimentary compared to Confluence or Google Workspace admin consoles
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose AFFiNE for the larger community and ecosystem. AFFiNE has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
AFFiNE
Privacy-first, local-first workspace combining docs, whiteboards, and databases