Notion is an excellent note-taking app, but that’s not all. It also excels in tasks and project management features, collaboration tools, and even AI integration. However, the problem with being an everything app is the steep learning curve that comes with it. That complexity is also one reason I moved away from Notion to Obsidian and haven’t looked back.
While Obsidian is great for my workflow, it doesn’t have the same database and project handling capability as Notion. This is the gap that AppFlowy is trying to fill: an open-source tool that delivers Notion’s core functionality without the steep learning curve or feature overload.
Feels like Notion
But without the learning curve
AppFlowy borrows Notion’s best ideas. You get the same block-based editing where everything including text, tables, and lists works as a movable piece. Pages nest inside each other to create a hierarchical organization. Databases support multiple views, like tables and Kanban boards. If you’ve used Notion before, AppFlowy’s interface feels familiar and that’s the point.
The nice thing about AppFlowy is that it skips a lot of the stuff that makes Notion intimidating at first. You don’t have to deal with tricky formulas or a giant list of database properties you don’t understand. It still gives you boards, calendars, and even timelines, but the options are way simpler. You’re not stuck picking from a bunch of templates before you can get going.
You can write notes, track your tasks, or set up a small database without needing to watch a tutorial first. Making a project tracker is quick, and setting up a little knowledge base doesn’t turn into a full-blown project of its own.
Much like Notion, AppFlowy also has AI integration that you can use to find answers, improve writing, understand concepts, or summarize the text, but it’s limited to 10 AI responses and 2 AI images in the free plan.
Complete offline access
Local-first approach
Notion runs primarily as a cloud service. Your notes live on their servers, which enables effortless syncing but also means you’re dependent on an internet connection and must trust Notion with your data. With the latest update, Notion has an offline mode, but you need to manually download each page for offline access, which is cumbersome.
AppFlowy is a local-first platform, which means all the data is saved on your device first, making it easier to access your notes, databases, and pages without needing the Internet.
If you’re coming from Obsidian, AppFlowy makes migration simple. Since it handles markdown files, you can import your existing notes directly without conversion or reformatting.
Solid collaboration features
Less mature than Notion’s, but it works
Notion built its reputation partly on team features. Multiple people can edit simultaneously, leave comments, assign tasks, and manage permissions down to individual pages. Large teams run entire projects through Notion’s collaborative workspace, tracking everything from sprint planning to documentation reviews.
AppFlowy, too, offers real-time collaboration. You can share pages or workspaces, see live edits, invite guest editors, and set pages to Can View or Can Edit. However, advanced features like detailed permissions, page analytics, or sophisticated commenting systems are yet to arrive.
For personal projects or small team coordination, AppFlowy’s collaboration works fine. However, anyone relying on Notion’s mature team features would find the experience limiting. This feels like an area where AppFlowy will improve over time, but currently, it can’t match Notion’s team features.
Open-source and self-hosted
Complete control over your data
Notion stores everything on its server. While the data is encrypted at rest and during transit, Notion doesn’t support end-to-end encryption.
AppFlowy’s open-source nature means researchers can examine the code, verify security claims, or modify the software to meet specific needs. More importantly, you can self-host the entire system, keeping your workspace on servers you control. Setting up self-hosting would require some know-how, but once configured, you control how your data is stored and processed.
This is appealing to privacy-conscious individuals and organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements. Your information never touches external servers unless you explicitly enable cloud syncing.
Generous free plan
More generous than Notion for individuals
You might not need a Notion Plus subscription, as the free tier gives you unlimited pages and blocks for personal use. You can invite up to 10 guests to collaborate, though each file upload maxes out at 5MB. That works for text documents and small images, but anything file-heavy will still nudge you towards the Plus plan.
AppFlowy also offers a free plan that works out better than Notion’s. It has unlimited workspaces and pages and 5GB of cumulative storage. While 5GB isn’t massive, you can work with large files without hitting a per-file limit. Collaboration is capped at two people on the free tier. However, unlike AppFlowy, Notion doesn’t offer self-hosting, which removes all these limits since you’re using your own server space.
An excellent Notion alternative without the bloat
AppFlowy is what happens when you take the core ideas of Notion and build an impressively intuitive UI on top of them. It won’t satisfy power users who need Notion’s advanced features, extensive integrations, or polished team collaboration. The ecosystem remains smaller, with fewer templates and community resources.
However, for individuals drowning in Notion’s complexity, AppFlowy is an excellent alternative. It offers all the core experience, such as flexible note-taking, simple databases, and basic collaboration, without the bloat.
