AFFiNE
Workspace with fully merged docs, whiteboards and databases
An all-in-one workspace where you can write, draw, and plan just about anything. Enable dynamic note-taking, tasks, visualized mindmaps, and presentations.
Reviews for AFFiNE
Hear what real users highlight about this tool.
AFFiNE earns praise for its clean, open-source, offline-first approach, self-hosting, and flexible docs-to-whiteboard flow that aids ideation and planning. Reviewers like the responsive team, rapid updates, and cross-device sync, with several calling it a strong Notion/Miro alternative. Common wishes: better mobile readiness, richer search/find-replace, improved tagging/graph views, and more intuitive AI and export options. From the makers of Grimo, feedback highlights strong tech ambition and thoughtful design. Despite occasional lag and feature gaps, users report steady progress and growing confidence in its direction.
This AI-generated snapshot distills top reviewer sentiments.
Very good product, I love using it
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Perfect blend of functionality and design.
I've used Affine and it is a combination of many workspace productivity tools
For a long time, I was looking for an app to manage my notes. I used Logseq, Obsidian, Simple note, ... but I didn't feel attached to them. Obsidian is great, and it has so many useful plugins but I can't selfhost it and use it everywhere. When I first installed and used Affine, it came to my mind that this is the one I was looking for. I hosted it on my VPS, installed the app on my mobile and mac, it was incredible. The chrome web-clipper plugin is a game changer. I can quickly select whatever on the page and save it to my notes. There is a lot of room for improvement, specially from someone who came from Obsidian and tweaked every piece of it (even icons), but I like it and I'm waiting for plugins to make it better.
I use this webapp, notion and teambition to organize my daily life, the most attractive feature of this app for me is the clear and simple guide, easy-to-use function, and the working together function. This like a combination of all the tools I use before, but it makes all functions simple and easy to co-work, thank so much.
Affine is a clean offline first version of Notion. There is feature disparity at the moment, but with the pace of feature rollouts, this is quickly collapsing.
Love the self-hosted feature,.!! I can keep all my data secure on my own hardware, and Affine syncs flawlessly to all my devices.!! love this App.
特别好用,软件的底层思路很好,功能全面,全面但是还差细节补充。页面有时有些卡,有小bug。
Excited about the intuitive features, such as the instant doc-to-edgeless and edgeless-to-doc on the click of a button. Thusly allows spatial to linear doc views and vice versa, instantly. Like having a desk with all your materials and then instant clearing of desk, but incorporating what you want of what is on the desk to appear in the linear doc. Intuitive and frictionless. I just started using AFFiNE but am excited about it. I already know this is something that I will use even though I have barely gotten a handle on it. I am attracted by what has been presented, instead of overwhelmed. I feel the pull of it, as I have with other apps I supported early on, and only later came to fully appreciate and understand how to derive benefit and pleasure. AFFiNE, I already know, is one of those types of apps for me.
This app is very promising but extremely counterintuitive. If you've ever used Notion and Notion AI, you'll feel like someone has amputated your arm.
When you select text and use "Improve with AI," you'll likely get back content that's mostly unrelated to your text and in markdown format. Unlike Notion, which offers an intuitive flow for working with text—allowing you to write several paragraphs, select them, and immediately open an AI field to add instructions—Affine requires a more cumbersome process. In Affine, you need to select the text, switch to the right-side panel, and then return to the text, repeating this process as needed.
Affine does have some cool features that Notion lacks. For example, you can select an image within the text and ask AI to explain it. However, you can't select a screenshot from Google Analytics that you’ve put into the text and type in an empty AI field "explain the connection between relative conversion and seasonal factors." Instead, you need to select the image, click "Ask AI," then "Continue with AI," explain in the right-side panel what you need from the AI, and if you get the expected context (which usually you don't), you then need to click below your text block and select "insert below" in the right-side panel. If you use AI again, there's a high probability that you'll receive the text in markdown format.
None of these issues are apparent in the first free 10 uses of Affine AI. But you can't pay for Affine AI monthly; you need to pay for a whole year’s subscription. And when you start working, you realize you bought an AI assistant that doesn't actually assist.
The text in the app is too tiny and small, causing eye strain, and after 20 minutes of working, you'll want to sleep.
Generally speaking, nothing works as your brain expects it to. Affine is not a "second brain". It is a raw, unaligned, and pretty unsatisfying app.
You can try writing to the Affine community, and you'll get a polite answer that "there is no scheduling for AI because the team is busy with everything else."
What is the point of positioning the product as a replacement for Notion and Miro if Affine is no match for either of them separately?
I need Affine only for a particular project I lead. Whatever I need, I write in Notion and then paste it into Affine.
I have tried many Note taking apps but by so far Affine remains the best of them all. Offline first, clean UI and no vendor lock in. It doesn't try to over -complicate things. Here are some things I think need improving and adding:
- Exporting to PDF just takes a screenshot of the entire document. There should be an option to export to an actual text based PDF where you can select text..etc -There is currently no find and replace feature in the documents. I think the ability to find all occurences of a word or phrase and replacing is very essential in a document editor -The app practically forces you to have at least a favourite document, other wise there will be a huge jarring space in the favourites space that can only be reduced if you add a favourite
The conceptual framework and intrinsic design are exemplary; however, achieving a comprehensive solution is a distant goal. Many software products on the market, albeit with less elegance, can perform a multitude of complex functions, such as those offered by Obsidian and SiYuan.
Enhancement avenues, in descending order of priority:
- Multi-tab management akin to browser functionality
- Incorporate pagination
- Block-level referencing and backlink identification.
- Outlink and backlink interface.
- Elevate search capabilities with highlighting and search-and-replace features.
- Refine auto-folder with other attribute filtering and content search.
- Flashcard and review mechanisms like FSRS, potentially diverging from original intent.
- Publishing features, albeit possibly straying from initial vision.
I like the design and interface. It operates smoothly. I brainstormed how to create a podcast and it generated insightful tips!