AFFiNE alternatives
Short answer
We track 10 self-hosted alternatives to AFFiNE: AnythingLLM, Open Notebook, kotaemon, RAGFlow, PrivateGPT, FastGPT, MaxKB, DocsGPT, PipesHub and Onyx (formerly Danswer).
AnythingLLM (same category): cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €35.99/mo), fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Open Notebook (same category): cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €35.99/mo) and fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core).
kotaemon (same category): fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Last updated · how we rank · sources
AFFiNE alternatives compared
| # | App | Advantages over AFFiNE | Est. server cost | Official hardware | License | Stars | Last commit | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | AFFiNE (this app) | Active | from €35.99/mo | recommended 4 vCPU · 2 GB RAM (no separate minimum published) | MIT (Community Edition) with Enterprise Edition license for server code | 74.0k | Oct 27, 2026 | — |
| 1 | AnythingLLM Same category | cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €35.99/mo); fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core); simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack) | from €19.99/mo | minimum 2 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 5 GB disk | MIT | 67.7k | Oct 27, 2026 | AFFiNE vs AnythingLLM |
| 2 | Open Notebook Same category | cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €35.99/mo); fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core) Trade-off: AFFiNE has larger community (74.0k vs 40.8k GitHub stars) | from €19.99/mo | minimum 4 GB RAM | MIT | 40.8k | Oct 5, 2026 | AFFiNE vs Open Notebook |
| 3 | kotaemon Same category | fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core); simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack) Trade-off: AFFiNE has larger community (74.0k vs 25.8k GitHub stars) | not estimated (no official RAM figure) | not published | Apache-2.0 | 25.8k | May 30, 2026 | AFFiNE vs kotaemon |
| 4 | RAGFlow Same category | fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core) Trade-off: AFFiNE has cheaper to host (from €35.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); lighter official recommended (2 GB vs 16 GB RAM) | from €69.99/mo | recommended 4 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 50 GB disk (no separate minimum published) | Apache-2.0 | 93.0k | Oct 29, 2026 | AFFiNE vs RAGFlow |
| 5 | PrivateGPT Same category | fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core) | not estimated (no official RAM figure) | not published | Apache-2.0 | 57.6k | Oct 26, 2026 | AFFiNE vs PrivateGPT |
| 6 | FastGPT Same category | cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €35.99/mo) Trade-off: AFFiNE has fewer license conditions (Open core vs Custom / conditional); larger community (74.0k vs 29.9k GitHub stars) | from €19.99/mo | minimum 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM (recommended 2 vCPU · 8 GB RAM) | FastGPT Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with conditions) | 29.9k | Oct 29, 2026 | AFFiNE vs FastGPT |
| 7 | MaxKB Same category | simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack) Trade-off: AFFiNE has fewer license conditions (Open core vs Copyleft (GPL)); larger community (74.0k vs 23.1k GitHub stars) | from €35.99/mo | minimum 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 100 GB disk | GPL-3.0 | 23.1k | Oct 28, 2026 | AFFiNE vs MaxKB |
| 8 | DocsGPT Same category | fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core) Trade-off: AFFiNE has larger community (74.0k vs 18.3k GitHub stars) | not estimated (no official RAM figure) | not published | MIT | 18.3k | Oct 28, 2026 | AFFiNE vs DocsGPT |
| 9 | PipesHub Same category | fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core) Trade-off: AFFiNE has larger community (74.0k vs 3.9k GitHub stars) | from €35.99/mo | minimum 8 GB RAM (recommended 16 GB RAM) | Apache-2.0 | 3.9k | Oct 29, 2026 | AFFiNE vs PipesHub |
| 10 | Onyx (formerly Danswer) Same category | None in our data (differs in features) Trade-off: AFFiNE has cheaper to host (from €35.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); larger community (74.0k vs 33.1k GitHub stars) | from €69.99/mo | minimum 4 vCPU · 10 GB RAM · 32 GB disk (recommended 8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 500 GB disk) | MIT (Community Edition) + Onyx Enterprise License (ee directories) | 33.1k | Oct 29, 2026 | AFFiNE vs Onyx (formerly Danswer) |
Ranked by the number of objective advantages each alternative has over the app (cheaper estimated server cost, lighter official RAM figure, no GPU needed, fewer license conditions, better maintenance status, at least 1.5× the GitHub stars, simpler deploy). Ties: same-category apps first, then more GitHub stars. License order used: Permissive (MIT/Apache) → Open core → Copyleft (GPL) or Custom conditions → Network copyleft (AGPL) → Source-available. Archived projects are not listed as alternatives.
What each alternative is
- AnythingLLM (Knowledge base & RAG): All-in-one private chat with your documents, agents and an embeddable widget.
- Open Notebook (Knowledge base & RAG): Private, self-hosted alternative to Google NotebookLM with your choice of AI models.
- kotaemon (Knowledge base & RAG): Open-source RAG web app for chatting with your documents, with citations and GraphRAG.
- RAGFlow (Knowledge base & RAG): RAG engine with deep document parsing (OCR, layout and tables) and cited answers.
- PrivateGPT (Knowledge base & RAG): API-first private document Q&A that sits on top of your own LLM server.
- FastGPT (Knowledge base & RAG): Knowledge-base Q&A and visual AI workflow platform.
- MaxKB (Knowledge base & RAG): Enterprise knowledge-base and agent platform with RAG and workflows.
- DocsGPT (Knowledge base & RAG): Open-source platform for AI agents and assistants that answer from your documents with sources.
- PipesHub (Knowledge base & RAG): Self-hosted workplace search and AI answers across 50+ connected apps, filtered by each user's permissions.
- Onyx (formerly Danswer) (Knowledge base & RAG): AI chat and enterprise search connected to 50+ workplace apps.
AFFiNE alternatives: FAQ
What is the best self-hosted alternative to AFFiNE?
By our objective ranking: 1. AnythingLLM (cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €35.99/mo); fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core); simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack)) 2. Open Notebook (cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €35.99/mo); fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core)) 3. kotaemon (fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core); simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack)). "Best" depends on the features you need; the ranking only counts cost, hardware, license, maintenance, community size and deploy complexity.
Is there a cheaper alternative to AFFiNE?
Yes, by estimated server cost: AnythingLLM (from €19.99/mo), Open Notebook (from €19.99/mo), FastGPT (from €19.99/mo). AFFiNE: from €35.99/mo.
Which AFFiNE alternative has the most permissive license?
AnythingLLM: MIT (Permissive); Open Notebook: MIT (Permissive); kotaemon: Apache-2.0 (Permissive); RAGFlow: Apache-2.0 (Permissive); PrivateGPT: Apache-2.0 (Permissive); DocsGPT: MIT (Permissive); PipesHub: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). AFFiNE is MIT (Community Edition) with Enterprise Edition license for server code (Open core). Not legal advice.
Related
Sources
- AFFiNE GitHub repository: github.com/toeverything/AFFiNE
- AFFiNE documentation: docs.affine.pro/self-host-affine
- AFFiNE license: github.com/toeverything/AFFiNE/blob/canary/LICENSE
- AFFiNE hardware requirements: docs.affine.pro/self-host-affine/install/requirements
- AFFiNE deploy instructions: docs.affine.pro/self-host-affine/install/docker-compose-recommended
- AnythingLLM GitHub repository: github.com/Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm
- Open Notebook GitHub repository: github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook
- kotaemon GitHub repository: github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon
- RAGFlow GitHub repository: github.com/infiniflow/ragflow
- PrivateGPT GitHub repository: github.com/zylon-ai/private-gpt
- FastGPT GitHub repository: github.com/labring/FastGPT
- MaxKB GitHub repository: github.com/1Panel-dev/MaxKB
- DocsGPT GitHub repository: github.com/arc53/DocsGPT
- PipesHub GitHub repository: github.com/pipeshub-ai/pipeshub-ai
- Onyx (formerly Danswer) GitHub repository: github.com/onyx-dot-app/onyx
- Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-10-25): www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance
- GitHub stars and commits: GitHub REST API, refreshed daily