No single open-source app copies all of Notion, so the right pick depends on which part of Notion you use. For a team wiki with real-time editing, Docmost and Outline come closest. For a personal knowledge base, SiYuan is the strongest. If you want Notion-style databases and boards, AppFlowy and AFFiNE are the ones to try, but read the license notes below first.
What Notion actually does
Notion mixes a few products into one: a document editor with blocks, a wiki for teams, databases with table and board views, and lately AI features. Most self-hosted tools pick one or two of these jobs and do them well. Before you compare, ask yourself:
- Is this for you alone, or for a team editing at the same time?
- Do you live in databases and kanban boards, or mostly in pages?
- Do you need sign-in through your company's identity provider (SSO)?
- Does a fully open-source license matter to you, or is "free to self-host" enough?
That last question matters more than people expect. Several popular "open-source Notion alternatives" keep important parts under a commercial license.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Real-time collaboration | License | GitHub stars (Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Docmost | Team wiki and docs | Yes | AGPL-3.0, paid features under an enterprise license | about 22,000 |
| Outline | Polished team knowledge base | Yes | BUSL-1.1 (not open source until 2030) | about 41,000 |
| AppFlowy | Notion-style docs and databases | Yes | Apps AGPL-3.0, current server closed source | about 77,000 |
| AFFiNE | Docs plus whiteboard | Yes | Clients MIT, server under an enterprise license | not in our dataset |
| SiYuan | Personal knowledge base | No, personal tool | AGPL-3.0, some paid features | about 47,000 |
| BookStack | Structured documentation | No | MIT | hosted on Codeberg |
| Wiki.js | Classic wiki with Git sync | No | AGPL-3.0 | about 29,000 |
Docmost
Docmost is the closest thing to a self-hosted Notion for teams that mainly write. You get pages with live cursors and instant sync between users, spaces for teams or departments, role-based permissions, and built-in diagrams with Draw.io, Excalidraw and Mermaid.
The free Community Edition covers the core: real-time collaboration, spaces and full-text search. Docmost's pricing page puts SSO (SAML, OIDC, LDAP), multi-factor authentication, page-level permissions, AI features, API keys and a Confluence importer in the paid Business plan. For a small team that signs in with email and password, that is fine. For a company with SSO requirements, budget for the paid plan.
It is young (release v0.96.0 in October 2026) but very active. You can run it on your own server with Docker, or on a managed host such as blitz.cloud, where Docmost installs in one click.
Outline
Outline is a fast, good-looking knowledge base for teams, with real-time editing. For plain documentation it is one of the nicest editors in this list.
Two things to know. First, the license: Outline uses the Business Source License 1.1, and the license text itself says "The Business Source License ... is not an Open Source license." You may self-host it, but not offer it as a commercial document service to third parties. Each release later converts to Apache 2.0; for v1.11.0 the change date is 12 October 2030.
Second, Outline's own docs say self-hosting "requires dev-ops experience to successfully install and run in a production environment." Plan time for setting up its database, storage and sign-in.
AppFlowy
AppFlowy looks and works the most like Notion of everything here: documents, databases, AI features, and apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and the web.
The catch is on the server side. The AppFlowy desktop and mobile apps are open source under AGPL-3.0, but the old open-source AppFlowy-Cloud server repository is archived. Its README says self-hosted deployments now use a "closed-source fork of this open-source core combined with proprietary features." The free self-hosted tier gives you one user seat per instance, up to 3 guest editors and unlimited workspaces. More users need a paid plan.
That makes AppFlowy a fine choice for one person who wants the app on all devices with their own server, and a paid product for teams. The README also says AppFlowy is consolidating active code in private repositories and plans to merge the Flutter app code back into the public repository later. The public AppFlowy repository was last updated in June 2026.
AFFiNE
AFFiNE puts documents and a whiteboard on one canvas. Its README calls it local-first, with real-time sync and collaboration, and self-hosting is supported. The licensing is split like AppFlowy's: the client code is MIT, while the server code in the repository falls under the AFFiNE Enterprise Edition license. Read it before you deploy for a team.
SiYuan
SiYuan is a privacy-first personal knowledge management system. Its strengths are block-level references and two-way links, a Markdown WYSIWYG editor, database table views, flashcards with spaced repetition, PDF annotation and an API. It runs as a desktop app, on Android and iOS, or as a Docker container you open in the browser.
It is built for one person, not for a team editing together. The README says most features are free, even for commercial use, and some are only available to paid members. The pricing page lists which.
If you want an Obsidian-like tool that can run on a server, start here.
BookStack
BookStack organises everything into books, chapters and pages, which makes it very easy for non-technical people to find things. It has a WYSIWYG editor, an optional Markdown editor, diagrams.net drawings, a full role and permission system, and sign-in with OIDC, SAML2 or LDAP. MFA can be enforced per role.
All of that is MIT-licensed with no paid tier. It runs on PHP with MySQL, so it is light on resources. It has no Notion-style databases and no live co-editing, but for internal documentation it is one of the most dependable choices.
Wiki.js
Wiki.js is a classic wiki with Markdown, a visual editor and raw HTML. Its standout features are content sync and backup to Git (GitHub, GitLab and others) and a long list of sign-in options, from local accounts to LDAP, SAML and OpenID Connect. It works with PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server or SQLite.
Version 2.x is the stable release. Version 3.0 is still in beta, so install 2.x for production. On blitz.cloud, Wiki.js installs in one click.
Other tools worth a look
Joplin is a note-taking app with sync through your own Joplin Server. TriliumNext Notes is a hierarchical personal knowledge base. Neither is a Notion copy, but both are good homes for personal notes.
How to choose
- A team that wants Notion-like pages with live editing: Docmost, or Outline if the license is acceptable to you.
- Notion databases and boards for yourself: AppFlowy or AFFiNE, knowing the server is not fully open source.
- Your own second brain: SiYuan.
- Company documentation that has to be easy to navigate: BookStack.
- Docs that live next to your code in Git: Wiki.js.
Running one
You can run any of these on your own server with Docker Compose; each project's docs have an official setup. Put a reverse proxy with HTTPS in front and back up the database as well as uploaded files. Our self-hosting for beginners guide covers the basics.
If you would rather not manage a server, a managed host such as blitz.cloud runs Docmost and Wiki.js with one-click installs, HTTPS included, hosted in the EU. Its free plan needs no credit card, and apps sleep after 30 minutes without visitors.
FAQ
Is there a fully open-source Notion alternative?
Yes, if you accept fewer features. BookStack (MIT) and Wiki.js (AGPL-3.0) are fully open source with no paid tier. Docmost's core is AGPL-3.0 with some features in a paid plan. AppFlowy and AFFiNE have open-source apps but restrict the server, and Outline uses a source-available license.
Can I import my Notion workspace?
Notion can export a workspace as Markdown or HTML, and some of these tools can import that. Check the import docs of the tool you pick, and test with a small part of your workspace before you move everything.
Which one is closest to Notion?
For the look and the databases, AppFlowy. For team pages with live editing, Docmost.
Which one works offline?
SiYuan and AppFlowy run as desktop apps with local data. Web-based wikis like BookStack, Wiki.js, Docmost and Outline need a connection to the server.