AppFlowy vs BentoPDF
| Tagline | Open-source Notion alternative built on Flutter and Rust | Privacy-first client-side PDF toolkit — edit, merge, and process in the browser |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | Notion |
| GitHub stars | 73k | 14k |
| Language | Dart | Nodejs |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose | Docker 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.
AppFlowy
- Self-hosted AppFlowy Cloud setup is involved and less polished than the local desktop app.
- Fewer database view types and formula capabilities than Notion.
- Limited third-party integrations and public API.
- Real-time multiplayer collaboration is newer and less battle-tested.
BentoPDF
- Client-side WASM processing is slower than server-side tools for very large PDFs.
- No OCR or text extraction capabilities.
- No user accounts, history, or saved workflows between sessions.
- Feature set is narrower than server-side tools like Stirling-PDF for batch or automated use.
Bottom line
Choose BentoPDF if you want the lower-effort setup; choose AppFlowy for the larger community and ecosystem. AppFlowy has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
BentoPDF
Privacy-first client-side PDF toolkit — edit, merge, and process in the browser