At a glance — how these 6 alternatives compare
Our read on each project's adoption, maintenance activity and commercial-use risk, derived from GitHub signals and SPDX license terms rather than star count alone. Sorted by stars. How we score.
| Project | Adoption | Maintenance | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|---|
| ★ 73,006 · TypeScript | Flagship | Active | Low risk Embed in a proprietary product with no copyleft obligation. Split licence — this rates the core component; read the † text for the separately licensed parts |
| ★ 46,527 · TypeScript AGPL-3.0 | Flagship | Active | High risk Even a hosted/modified deployment can trigger source release |
| ★ 45,064 · Clojure AGPL-3.0 | Flagship | Active | High risk Even a hosted/modified deployment can trigger source release |
| ★ 40,721 · TypeScript | Flagship | Active | High risk Non-OSI terms restrict commercial or hosted use — read first |
| ★ 38,014 · TypeScript AGPL-3.0 | Flagship | Active | High risk Even a hosted/modified deployment can trigger source release |
| ★ 14,646 · TypeScript GPL-3.0 | Mainstream | Active | High risk Distributing a derived work obliges releasing its source |
† Licenses marked † were read from the repository's LICENSE file on 2026-09-05 (linked, pinned to the commit we read) because the GitHub API returned no SPDX id for them. Unmarked licenses are the GitHub API's SPDX classification.
The alternatives
There can be more than Notion and Miro. AFFiNE(pronounced [ə‘fain]) is a next-gen knowledge base that brings planning, sorting and creating all together. Privacy first, open-source, customizable and ready to use.
toeverything/AFFiNE Updated 2026-09-26 siyuan
An open-source, privacy-first, self-hosted knowledge workspace where humans and AI agents work together 开源、隐私优先、自托管的知识工作空间，让人与智能体在此协作
siyuan-note/siyuan Updated 2026-09-27 logseq
A privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration. Download link: http://github.com/logseq/logseq/releases. roadmap: https://logseq.io/p/NX4mc_ggEV
logseq/logseq Updated 2026-09-27 The fastest knowledge base for growing teams. Beautiful, realtime collaborative, feature packed, and markdown compatible.
outline/outline Updated 2026-09-27 Trilium
Build your personal knowledge base with Trilium Notes
TriliumNext/Trilium Updated 2026-09-27 notesnook
A fully open source & end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote.
streetwriters/notesnook Updated 2026-09-27 Editor's take
Yusuke Morinaga · last revisited · star counts quoted in the text (≈) are as of that date; the cards above are refreshed daily
Nobody has rebuilt Notion's one trick — a database row that is also a page. Pick by which half you'll give up.
There is a single feature that makes Notion Notion: a row in a database is also a full document, and the same data renders as a table, a board, a calendar, or a gallery. That database-document fusion is what no open-source project on this list has fully reproduced. So the realistic framing is not “which one is the Notion clone” — there isn’t one — it is “which half of Notion did you actually live in: the structured database, or the writing surface?” Answer that and the five projects below sort themselves quickly.
AFFiNE — the one openly aiming at the whole thing (and the one still maturing)
AFFiNE (≈72.2k★, TypeScript, MIT core) is the most ambitious match — block-based docs plus an infinite-canvas whiteboard, explicitly chasing the “Notion and Miro in one” target. It is the closest in intent. It is also the one where ambition outruns stability: it is the youngest of the serious contenders here in terms of feature-completion, and its licensing is layered: the GitHub API returns no SPDX id, and the LICENSE we read gives MIT for the core, MPL-2.0 for parts of the community-edition backend, and an AFFiNE EE licence for the enterprise backend parts — read it before commercial use. Pick AFFiNE if the all-in-one vision is what you want and you can tolerate rough edges; avoid it if you need boring reliability today.
The local-first, single-person camp: SiYuan, Logseq, Notesnook
If your Notion was really a personal knowledge base, three projects here are better at that than they are at team collaboration, and they share a philosophy Notion abandoned: your notes are local files you own.
- SiYuan (≈46.2k★, AGPL-3.0) and Logseq (≈44.8k★, Clojure, AGPL-3.0) are the block-based, privacy-first pair. SiYuan is the closer Notion-feel (page tree, block references); Logseq is outline-and-daily-note driven, beloved by the networked-thought crowd. Both AGPL — fine for personal/self-hosted use.
- Notesnook (≈14.5k★, GPL-3.0) is the one to pick if end-to-end encryption is your priority — it is built around encrypted notes first. Less of a database tool, more of a private Evernote.
The team-wiki camp: Outline
If your Notion was mostly a team wiki — shared docs, real-time collaboration, a clean editor that non-engineers use happily — Outline (≈40.5k★, TypeScript) is the most pleasant collaborative writing surface here, and it is actively developed (see the last-push date on its card). It deliberately does not try to be a database tool, so if you used Notion’s table/board views heavily, Outline will feel like it is missing the point. The GitHub API returns no SPDX id for it; the card shows the BUSL-1.1 we read in its LICENSE (converts to open over time, restricts hosting it as a competing service) — irrelevant for internal team use.
How I would actually choose
Solo, want your notes as files you own: SiYuan (Notion-ish) or Logseq (outliner). Encryption-first: Notesnook. A team that mostly writes and collaborates: Outline. Chasing the full docs-plus-canvas vision and willing to live on the frontier: AFFiNE. What no one should expect from any of them is Notion’s database-as-pages fusion or Notion AI — those are the two things you are genuinely leaving behind.
Comparison notes
Notion fans out into several open-source tools depending on which part of it you use. AFFiNE (MIT core, with MPL-2.0 and EE-licensed parts — see the card) feels most Notion-like overall, pairing block-based editing with a whiteboard; SiYuan and Logseq cover block-based note-taking with self-hosting and local files; and Outline serves the team-wiki use case with a Notion-style editor and collaborative editing. The piece nothing reproduces cleanly is Notion's fusion of database and document, where a database row is itself a page — AFFiNE shares the ambition but trails on stability and feature completeness. Notion AI's inline writing assistant likewise has no open-source equivalent.
Migration tips
- Export Notion content as Markdown + CSV (Settings → Export → Export all workspace content) — databases export as CSV, pages as Markdown
- Test the target tool's Markdown importer on a small sample export first and check how nested pages and database CSVs come across before running the full migration
- Database relations (linked pages between databases) do not export cleanly — document them and recreate manually
- Recreate Notion's rollup and formula properties in your target tool's equivalent — they will not import automatically
- Migrate team members in cohorts and run both Notion and the new tool in parallel for at least 2 weeks to catch workflow gaps
Which alternative should you pick?
Replacing Notion isn't a single call — it's a trade between license terms, team size, and how much early-stage roughness you can absorb. The 6 projects above split along those lines:
- You want the project with the most GitHub stars in this list → AFFiNE. 73,006★ — the most of the 6 projects here. Stars measure attention, not quality or maintenance; check the last-push date and the Editor's take before reading more into it.
- You want a copyleft project whose modifications must be shared back → siyuan. AGPL-3.0 licensed — distributing a modified version (and, under AGPL, offering it over a network) obliges releasing the source, which is what some teams explicitly want.
- You want the project with the most recent push activity → Trilium. Last push 2026-09-27 — the freshest activity in this list.
License & commercial-use notes
When replacing Notion, the license usually decides more than the feature list — whether you can modify it, ship it inside a product, or host it as a service. The 6 projects here fall into:
- Permissive (AFFiNE) — MIT / Apache / BSD / ISC — modify and embed inside a commercial product with no copyleft obligation. The safest bucket for shipping in a proprietary codebase.
- Strong copyleft (notesnook) — GPL / EPL — distributing a derived work obliges you to release its source under the same terms. Fine for internal use; plan carefully before proprietary distribution.
- Network copyleft (siyuan, logseq, Trilium) — AGPL / SSPL — the copyleft trigger extends to offering the software over a network, so a hosted deployment of a modified version can oblige you to publish your changes. Read the exact terms before building a paid hosted product on these.
- Source-available (restricted) (outline) — BUSL / Elastic / Polyform / Commons Clause — the source is public but commercial or hosted use is restricted by non-OSI terms. Read the license before any production or commercial use; these are not freely reusable the way an OSI-approved license is.
Split licences: AFFiNE (MIT (core) + MPL-2.0 (CE backend parts) + AFFiNE EE License (enterprise backend parts)). This project is grouped above by the core licence; the separately licensed directories (enterprise or EE parts) are not covered by that bucket — check which files you actually ship.
License fields come from the GitHub API's SPDX classification and can lag a relicense. Where the API returned no SPDX id, the license marked † was read from the repository's LICENSE file on 2026-09-05; the † links to the exact file and commit we read. The repository linked on each card is authoritative — confirm its LICENSE file before any license-sensitive deployment.
Maintenance health of these 6 projects
Of the 6 projects listed, 6 shipped at least one commit in the last 12 months. See how we rank for the full criteria and our self-hosting cost reality check, which apply across every comparison on this site.
Frequently asked questions
How do these 6 alternatives compare on maintenance health?
6 of 6 have shipped a commit in the last 12 months. At least one project here has 5,000+ GitHub stars. Always check the last-pushed date in the cards above and read the latest closed issues — those two signals are the fastest public check we know of.
How this page was compiled
- Repository facts (stars, license, language, last push) come straight from the GitHub public API and are linked on each card as the primary source. Where the API returned no SPDX id, the licence marked † was read from the repository's
LICENSEfile (linked, pinned to the commit we read, with the date checked). - Editorial analysis (the intro, comparison notes and migration tips) is Claude-drafted from Notion's use case and the alternatives' repository metadata — in Claude Code sessions or scheduled routines run under the operator's account. Samples are spot-checked against the upstream repositories; entries are not individually reviewed unless they carry a signature. See what Claude drafts and what the operator writes.
- Editor's take is signed by Yusuke Morinaga. It was drafted in a Claude Code session the operator ran, then read and confirmed by Yusuke Morinaga before publication, and carries the date it was last revised. It is written from each project's README, LICENSE, release history and issue tracker — not from running the project in production; where that distinction matters, the take says so.
- Maintenance signal: 6 of 6 projects shipped a commit in the last 12 months as of the latest rebuild (most recent activity: ).
- Last editorial review: by Yusuke Morinaga.
- Spotted an error? Email [email protected] with the page URL (subject prefix
[correction]) — we ship corrections within 14 days.