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Screenshot of AFFiNE website

// screenshot of affine.pro ↗

PRODUCTIVITY & BUSINESS · PRO TIER

AFFiNEpro

AFFiNE is an open-source, unified workspace that merges document editing, whiteboarding, and databases into a single, real-time collaborative platform. Often described as "Notion + Miro + Airtable in one tool", it's actively developed by ToEverything and is the most ambitious self-hosted Notion alternative in pre-1.0 stable status.

Install via WHMCS → Visit affine.pro ↗
📝 Productivity & Business Min 2048 MB RAM Port 3010 (http) Tier pro
// What it is

A closer look.

AFFiNE is an open-source, unified workspace that merges document editing, whiteboarding, and databases into a single, real-time collaborative platform. Often described as "Notion + Miro + Airtable in one tool", it's actively developed by ToEverything and is the most ambitious self-hosted Notion alternative in pre-1.0 stable status.

Unlike Notion, AFFiNE keeps your data on your infrastructure — pages, whiteboards, attachments live in the Postgres + Redis stack you deploy. No upstream telemetry, no per-seat SaaS billing, no cloud dependency.

// Use cases

What it's for.

Concrete scenarios where teams pick AFFiNE over the SaaS alternative.

◆

Personal knowledge bases

multi-format notes that mix free-form text, structured databases, and visual whiteboards in the same page

◈

Team docs & wikis

real-time multiplayer editing with conflict-free merges, similar to Notion's collaborative model

◇

Product / design boards

Miro-style infinite canvas for diagrams, user flows, sprint planning

▣

Embedded databases

inline tables that link to docs, perfect for OKR tracking, content calendars, project portfolios

▦

Privacy-first organizations

companies in regulated industries (legal, healthcare, finance) that can't push data to US SaaS clouds

// Who it's for

Built for these teams.

If your team profile matches one of these, AFFiNE is a strong fit out of the box.

Profile A

Indie teams & OSS maintainers

small groups who want one tool for docs, planning, and whiteboards without paying per seat

Profile B

Privacy-conscious agencies

legal, healthcare, finance, consulting firms blocked from US-hosted Notion/Miro by data residency rules

Profile C

Schools & education orgs

learning workspaces under GDPR/FERPA where student data can't leave the institution's infrastructure

Profile D

Engineering departments at scale

teams of 20-200 needing collaborative docs without the Confluence pricing tax

Profile E

Side-project founders

bootstrappers wanting workspace tooling without recurring per-user cost as the team grows

// Differentiators

Why teams pick AFFiNE.

When evaluating self-hosted options for this category, here are the dimensions on which AFFiNE consistently lands above the alternatives.

  • ✓Open source — (MIT) — full audit + fork rights
  • ✓Local-first sync — works offline, syncs when reconnected
  • ✓AI built-in — (optional) — workspace-level LLM assistant with BYOK (your OpenAI/Anthropic key)
  • ✓Mature editor — block-based, slash commands, embeds (Figma, GitHub, YouTube)
  • ✓Modern stack — Node.js + GraphQL + Yjs CRDT for collaboration
  • ✓Same product for self-host and cloud — no feature gating between OSS and SaaS
// Integrations

Connects to.

The stack you'll plug AFFiNE into — services, protocols, and adjacent apps in the BluixApps catalog.

◇
Postgres 17 + Redis 7
primary persistence + sync state (shipped together in our stack)
◈
Yjs CRDT
real-time multiplayer engine, automatic conflict resolution
◆
BYOK LLMs
OpenAI, Anthropic, custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints (incl. Ollama on same VPS)
▣
External embeds
Figma, GitHub, YouTube, Twitter, Loom render inline in docs
▦
S3-compatible object storage
attachments offload to MinIO, Backblaze B2, R2, AWS S3
▩
WebDAV / SFTP backup access
supplements BluixApps backup hook for off-VPS archival
▼
OAuth identity
Google, GitHub providers for team sign-in (LDAP via reverse proxy)
// Adoption & deployment

Notable users & community

  • 50k+ GitHub stars, top-10 trending self-host project on awesome-selfhosted
  • Active Discord + GitHub Discussions community with daily contributor activity
  • Used by indie teams, OSS maintainers, privacy-conscious agencies, schools running their own learning workspace
  • Public roadmap on GitHub; weekly release cadence in 2025-2026
  • Backed by ToEverything (HK-based) with EU+APAC contributor base

What we ship

  • Docker compose stack: AFFiNE app + Postgres 17 + Redis 7 + migration helper
  • Idempotent install (re-running won't break existing data)
  • :stable image pinned at install time (pre-1.0 means breaking changes possible — we track upstream + push catalog updates when needed)
  • Pre-configured admin user — you change the password on first login
  • SSL via Let's Encrypt on Enterprise tier
  • Backup hook integrates with BluixApps auto-backup before each update
// Tips & operations

Run it properly.

Operational guidance from running this in production — what to do before you scale, what to lock down, what surprises people.

// PERFORMANCE
Pin a specific image tag
pre-1.0 means upstream breaking changes happen; we ship :stable but our pinned tag is what survives upgrades
// SECURITY
Schedule weekly Postgres dumps
independent of BluixApps backup hook — gives you a second-line restore point at zero cost
// OPERATIONS
Reverse-proxy with HTTP/2 + gzip
large whiteboards benefit substantially from on-the-wire compression
// RELIABILITY
Disable the AI assistant
if you're not paying for OpenAI/Anthropic credentials — drops attack surface and removes a dead UI button
// DEPLOYMENT
Bound invite link TTLs
when sharing externally — default is forever; many privacy regimes want a concrete expiry
// SCALING
Limit attachment size at proxy level
AFFiNE doesn't cap by default; nginx client_max_body_size 100M is a sane starting point
2048
// min ram (MB)
10
// min disk (GB)
3010
// access port
http
// protocol
pro
// bluixapps tier
ghcr.io/toeverything/affine:stable · redis:7-alpine · postgres:17-alpine
// docker image

Project resources

Official siteaffine.pro ↗
GitHubgithub.com ↗
Documentationdocs.affine.pro ↗
Communitycommunity.affine.pro ↗
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