AppFlowy vs Livebook
| Tagline | Open-source Notion alternative built on Flutter and Rust | Collaborative Elixir notebooks with live code execution, Mermaid diagrams, and TeX |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | Notion |
| GitHub stars | 73k | 5.8k |
| Language | Dart | Elixir |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| 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.
Livebook
- Exclusively supports Elixir; no Python, R, or Julia kernels unlike Jupyter
- Not a general-purpose note-taking tool — unsuitable as a Notion replacement for non-developers
- No persistent database-style pages, kanban boards, or project management views
- Community plugin ecosystem is smaller than Jupyter's
Bottom line
Choose Livebook 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.
Livebook
Collaborative Elixir notebooks with live code execution, Mermaid diagrams, and TeX