AFFiNE vs Docs
| Tagline | Privacy-first, local-first workspace combining docs, whiteboards, and databases | Scalable collaborative wiki and documentation platform by La Suite Numérique |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence, Obsidian | Notion, Confluence |
| GitHub stars | 70k | 17k |
| Language | TypeScript | K8S |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose | Kubernetes Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | yesterday |
| 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.
Docs
- Relatively young project; ecosystem of integrations (plugins, API clients) is still maturing.
- Database and storage setup requires external PostgreSQL and object-storage configuration.
- No native mobile app; browser-only.
- Feature parity with Notion (databases, kanban, formulas) is not yet reached.
Bottom line
Choose AFFiNE if you want the lower-effort setup; 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