AFFiNE
FreeDocs, whiteboard and tables as three views of the same data
An open-source knowledge workspace where a Notion-style block editor and a Miro-style infinite canvas are two views of the same content — the same paragraph can be laid out in a document and dragged onto the whiteboard as a card. Local-first, with data on your own disk, fully usable offline, and the MIT-licensed community edition is self-hostable.
Why we picked it
MIT-licensed (community edition), 72,300 stars.
There is no shortage of Notion alternatives; AFFiNE's difference is refusing to treat documents and whiteboards as two separate modules. The same content switches presentation: Page mode gives a hierarchical document, Edgeless mode gives an infinite canvas you can drag, connect and zoom. For drafting proposals, working out an architecture or writing and sketching at once, that beats copy-pasting between Notion and Miro.
Data is local-first. The desktop build works without signing in, files land on your own disk, and it keeps working with the network unplugged. Cloud or a self-hosted server only enters the picture when you want multi-device sync.
To be clear about:
- Self-hosting means running a server. The official image expects PostgreSQL and Redis; this is not an unzip-and-go deployment. If you only use one computer, local mode covers it and you never touch any of that.
- The enterprise edition is closed source. MIT covers the community edition; SSO, rebranding and similar enterprise features live in the proprietary Enterprise Edition. Individuals and small teams will not meet that wall.
- The block editor still trails Notion in polish, and complex tables, database views and bulk imports occasionally stutter. For a purely local, rock-steady personal knowledge base, SiYuan or Trilium fit better; for documents and whiteboard in one surface, this is the smoothest option available.