AFFiNE is the 67.6k-star open-source alternative to Notion and Miro that merges docs, whiteboards and databases into one local-first workspace. Self-hostable, privacy-focused, free — with a $6.75/mo Pro tier and a $499.99 Believer lifetime option.
AFFiNE is a privacy-first, local-first, open-source workspace that merges docs, whiteboards and databases into a single edgeless canvas — a direct alternative to Notion and Miro, now at v0.26.3 with 67,600+ GitHub stars. We rate it 80/100 — the most polished open-source "one app for everything" we have used in 2026, though the self-hosted edition still pulls a few features back behind the managed cloud.
AFFiNE (pronounced a-fine) is an all-in-one knowledge workspace built by Singapore-based Toeverything Pte. Ltd., founded in 2020 by CEO Jiachen He together with chief architect Wang Yifeng (long-time contributor to Slate and Yjs) and co-founders Yipei Wei, Yinan Long and Chi Zhang. The public repo first opened in mid-2022 and the project hit Product Hunt on with 1,069 upvotes and 233 comments.
The pitch is that Notion, Miro, Airtable and Trello each own one surface — pages, canvas, tables or boards — and switching between them breaks your train of thought. AFFiNE merges all four into one edgeless canvas built on BlockSuite, the company's CRDT-based editor engine. Every block — rich text, database, embed, shape, frame — lives on the same canvas, and the latest release (v0.26.3, shipped ) pushes the AI copilot deeper into the product.
Sentiment across Product Hunt, r/selfhosted and the GitHub issue tracker is positive but honest. Reviewers consistently praise the unified docs-plus-canvas experience, the local-first posture, and how fast Toeverything ships — the repo averages multiple releases a month. Product Hunt commenters call it "the open-source Notion+Miro we've been waiting for".
The recurring complaints are real. Multiple GitHub issues (e.g. #8763 and #7097) flag that the self-hosted instance still labels itself "AFFiNE Cloud" in the UI, that sync between the self-hosted server and the desktop client can fail silently, and that some AI and cloud-storage features are gated to Toeverything's managed cloud. Mobile apps are usable but lag behind the desktop, and exports lose block-level features that Markdown cannot represent.
AFFiNE has a permanent free tier plus an inexpensive Pro plan and a one-time lifetime option. Self-hosting is free.
| Plan | Price | Key Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Free (FOSS) | $0 forever | Core editor, local-first, self-host, 10 GB cloud storage, up to 3 collaborators per workspace |
| Pro | $6.75/month (annual) | 100 GB cloud storage, up to 10 members, 30-day version history, 100 MB file uploads, full AI credits |
| Team | $10/seat/month | Unlimited members, centralised admin, advanced permissions, SSO |
| Believer (lifetime) | $499.99 one-time | Pro features forever, no recurring fee |
| Self-host | $0 (infra only) | Full source, Docker Compose, $10–$40/mo of infrastructure |
Best for: Indie builders, small engineering or research teams, and privacy-sensitive users who want Notion-style docs plus a Miro-style canvas in one app — and who prefer owning their data or self-hosting. The $499.99 lifetime deal is genuinely compelling if you know you want to stay.
Not ideal for: Large enterprises that need mature SSO, fine-grained permissions and audit logs, or teams whose workflows rely on Notion's massive third-party template and integration ecosystem. Power-users looking for a "folder of Markdown files on disk" should still pick Obsidian.
Pros:
Cons:
The closest alternatives are Obsidian (Markdown-first, huge plug-in ecosystem, no native whiteboard), Notion (richer templates and integrations, closed-source, no true canvas), and AppFlowy (another open-source Notion alternative with a cleaner self-host story but weaker canvas). For pure whiteboarding, tldraw and Excalidraw remain best-in-class, but they are not knowledge bases.
In 2026 AFFiNE is the most ambitious open-source productivity tool we've reviewed — a genuine attempt to collapse docs, canvas and databases into one coherent workspace, not just three tabs pretending to be one. The self-hosted friction stops us from giving it a higher number, but the free tier is extremely usable, the $6.75/month Pro plan is fair, and the $499.99 Believer lifetime option is the kind of pricing you rarely see from a VC-funded startup. If you've been stuck paying Notion and Miro every month, AFFiNE is the first open alternative that doesn't feel like a compromise. Rating: 80/100.
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