replacing Notion
Open Source Notion Alternatives
All-in-one workspace for notes, docs, wikis, and databases — Notion pricing: $10-$18/user/month. Below: 8 free,
self-hostable open source projects that cover the same ground, ranked by real GitHub adoption.
There are 8 open source Notion alternatives tracked on this registry, against Notion pricing of $10-$18/user/month. The most-adopted is AppFlowy with 76,797 GitHub stars under AGPL-3.0, written in Dart. Together the set has 360,056 stars across 4 languages and 2 licences. All 8 are free to self-host with no licence fee, and 8 of 8 received a commit in the last 90 days. 8 head-to-head Notion comparisons are available.
Notion raised its prices again in 2024. The free plan limits workspaces to 1,000 blocks per member. Vendor lock-in is the deeper problem — your data lives in a proprietary format inside Notion's servers, and export is lossy. Teams that budgeted for Notion three years ago now pay significantly more for the same features.
Our top 3 Notion alternatives
AppFlowy is an open-source collaborative workspace platform that combines note-taking, project management, wikis, and AI features into a single interface. It runs as a desktop and mobile application and supports self-hosting, built with Flutter for the frontend and Rust for the backend. AppFlowy lives in the productivity and knowledge management ecosystem, positioned explicitly as a Notion alternative.
AGPL-3.0 · Dart · Notion vs AppFlowy →
AFFiNE is an open-source, privacy-first workspace that merges documentation, whiteboarding, and databases into one hyper-fused platform. It lives in the productivity and knowledge-management ecosystem, positioned as a direct alternative to Notion and Miro. Built with local-first principles, it ensures users retain full control of their data while supporting real-time collaboration across web and desktop clients.
NOASSERTION · TypeScript · Notion vs Affine →
Memos is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking tool designed for rapid capture of short-form content like daily logs, links, code snippets, and microblog-style entries. It lives in the Go ecosystem and uses a Markdown-native, timeline-based interface. Unlike traditional note apps that enforce folders or rigid templates, Memos prioritizes speed and simplicity: users write in Markdown, attach media, and save without selecting titles or locations.
MIT · Go · Notion vs Memos →
AppFlowy ★ 77K
AI workspace for docs, projects, and wikis you control
rank001 licenseAGPL-3.0 written inDart
Affine ★ 73K
Docs, whiteboards, and databases in one privacy-first workspace
rank002 licenseNOASSERTION written inTypeScript
Memos ★ 63K
Self-hosted timeline for quick notes, logs, and snippets
rank003 licenseMIT written inGo
SiYuan ★ 46K
Privacy-first knowledge management with block-level linking
rank004 licenseAGPL-3.0 written inTypeScript
Logseq ★ 45K
Privacy-first knowledge base that connects your notes
rank005 licenseAGPL-3.0 written inClojure
Outline ★ 41K
Fast, collaborative wiki for teams who need organized docs
rank006 licenseNOASSERTION written inTypeScript
AnyType ★ 8.8K
Private workspace for notes, tasks, and databases
rank007 licenseNOASSERTION written inTypeScript
Standard Notes ★ 6.6K
Secure, encrypted notes for your digital life
rank008 licenseAGPL-3.0 written inTypeScript
last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked
Frequently asked questions
What is the best open source alternative to Notion?
AppFlowy is the most-starred open source alternative to Notion in this registry, with 76,797 GitHub stars. 8 alternatives are compared here in total.
Are there free alternatives to Notion?
Yes. Every project listed on this page is open source and free to self-host — there is no licence fee. Some projects also sell a managed hosted version, but the self-hosted path costs nothing.
What should I look at when replacing Notion?
Compare licence terms, community size (stars), primary language and release activity. A fast-moving project with a compatible licence and an active maintainer base matters more than raw star count when you are committing to a migration.