Productivity

Stop paying for Notion

What you need is a team wiki, not a whole new operating system.

Notion costs US$12–24 per person / mo, which is US$144–288 a year. You have two paths:

Option 1 · Install

Install AppFlowy for free

AppFlowy brings Notion's idea to a real installed app. You stack text, checkboxes and tables with their grid, kanban and calendar views, and link your databases together. On the first screen you can carry on without creating an account: the app opens a local space and stores everything in a folder on your disk, whose location you can change in the settings. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android and in the browser, under the AGPL v3 license. AI features can run on your own computer through Ollama, for free, with no key and no subscription. What to know before leaving Notion: syncing between devices and working together aren't local. They need a server, theirs or yours.

AppFlowy vs Notion

CriterionAppFlowyNotion
PriceUS$0, the app is freeUS$12–24 per person per month
Your pagesIn a folder on your disk, one you chooseOn their servers
Account requiredNo, you can do everything without signing upYes, from the very first page
Syncing between devicesThrough a server: theirs, free up to 2 people and 5 GB, or your ownIncluded, nothing to set up
AI inside your pagesOllama on your machine, free, on desktopNotion AI, on their servers
CodeAGPL v3 for the app, free to read and forkClosed

How to install it (even from zero)

Nothing to host: you download an application, the same way you would install Notion. The only real choice comes on the first screen, between a local space on your machine and an account that syncs your devices.

  1. 1

    Paste this prompt into Claude (Code or Desktop)

    It detects your system, downloads the right build from the official project, sets storage to local and creates a first page as a check:

    Install AppFlowy on my machine (the open source alternative to Notion, GitHub repository AppFlowy-IO/AppFlowy): start by identifying my operating system and my chip, then go to the releases page of the official repository or to appflowy.com/download and download the latest stable version that matches (dmg file for macOS Intel or Apple Silicon, installer for Windows, AppImage or Flathub or Snap package for Linux). Install the application, open it, and on the first screen choose to continue without an account so everything stays with me. Then go to the settings, to the data management section, show me where the storage folder is, and offer to move it to a folder I already back up, warning me if that folder is synced by an online service. Create a first page with me with some text, a checkbox and a table displayed as a kanban, then close and reopen the application to check that everything is saved locally. Finish by explaining in two sentences what I would need to do if I later want to sync my devices. Explain each step simply, I'm a beginner.
    
    Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.
  2. 2

    Pick the local space on the first screen

    The welcome screen offers to continue without an account. That's the option that keeps your pages on your machine. In the settings you can see the storage folder and change it. Avoid putting it inside a folder synced by Google Drive or iCloud: the app warns you about this itself, since the database can get corrupted if two devices touch it at the same time.

  3. 3

    Syncing, only if you need it

    In local mode your pages stay on a single machine. To get them on your phone or share them, you need a server. AppFlowy's cloud is free up to 2 people and 5 GB, then moves to around €11 per person per month. Hosting the server yourself is possible, but its code is no longer an open repository: it's a commercial build, free for a single seat.

What you'll use it for

Your second brain, no subscription

Notes, projects, client lists: you find Notion's blocks again, tables with their grid, kanban and calendar views. You put everything in there, and no meter is running at the end of the month.

Sensitive files stay with you

A meeting write-up, a quote, a client's details: in a local space nothing leaves your disk. There's no third-party server to name in a contract, and a single backup is enough to keep it all safe.

An AI that runs on your computer

In the settings you plug in Ollama and pick your model. Summarize a page, rewrite it, ask your notes a question: it all happens on your machine, with no API key and without the text going anywhere. It's been free for everyone since April 2025, on desktop only.

Project health

GitHub stars
77,175
Forks
6.1k
Contributors
363
Commits
7.2k
Project age
5.3 years
License
AGPL-3.0

Built with: Dart 73.6% · Rust 24.1% · C++ 0.7% · Shell 0.5%

Public GitHub repository data, captured on October 8, 2026.

Option 2 · Build

Build your own Notion

Who this is for

This build is aimed at a team of up to 20 people maintaining internal documentation. The goal: make company knowledge easy to write, organize, search, and keep up to date. If you need more than that, keep paying. Building it yourself is about owning a tool shaped around your workflow, not rebuilding a venture-funded roadmap.

Same build, different logo: this v1 also replaces Slite, Coda and Craft, since they all do the same core job.

What the prompt builds and what stays out

The prompt below builds a single version with what actually gets used. Everything else is left out on purpose.

What the prompt buildsmarkdown pages, nesting, search, revisions, mentions, stale-page tracking, OAuth login
What stays outdatabases, live collaboration, granular permissions

What a minimal Notion alternative needs

  • nested pages with title, cover color, and markdown content
  • slash-free markdown editor with live preview
  • workspace search across titles and body text
  • page owner, last-reviewed date, and stale-page indicator
  • mentions, page links, and a lightweight change history

Data model

Workspace, User, Page, PageRevision

Integrations

company OAuth provider

Capability context

Astro, HTMX, D1

The guardrail

Require authentication on every page and keep an immutable revision history.

Deliberate non-goals

Don't build databases, formulas, canvases, public sites, or real-time collaborative editing.

The complete build prompt

Pick your stack, copy the prompt and hand it to your coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex…).

You are building a production-ready software product named “Teambook”, a deliberately focused alternative to Notion. Build a complete, usable vertical slice—not a landing page, static mockup, or disconnected collection of components.

WORKING AGREEMENT
Before you write any implementation code, put together a short technical plan naming the routes or pages, server actions or endpoints, data tables, key state transitions, authorization boundaries, background jobs, and external adapters. When something conflicts, side with the narrow audience and the non-goals below. Choose a small, readable architecture over speculative abstraction, but never skip persistence, validation, error handling, or tests.

PRODUCT BRIEF
Primary user: a team of up to 20 people maintaining internal documentation.
Primary outcome: make company knowledge easy to write, organize, search, and keep current.
Product principle: optimize the exact workflow below instead of copying the full breadth of Notion. A first-time user should understand what to do from the interface itself, without a tour or documentation.

END-TO-END USER JOURNEYS
Implement every one of these flows through the real interface and the persistent data layer:
1. An authenticated teammate creates a page beneath a parent, writes markdown, previews it, assigns an owner and review date, then publishes it.
2. A colleague searches for a phrase, opens the matching passage, follows an internal page link, and reports a stale page to its owner.
3. An editor compares the latest revision with an earlier one and restores it as a new revision without erasing intervening history.

SCREENS AND INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Build these as coherent, responsive views. Each screen must define its primary action, secondary actions, visible status, validation feedback, empty state, loading or pending state, success confirmation, and recoverable failure state.
1. Workspace shell: nested page tree, breadcrumbs, recent pages, favorites, search, create-page action, and signed-in member menu.
2. Page view: title, owner, last reviewed and edited metadata, rendered markdown, backlinks, stale indicator, and edit action.
3. Editor: title, parent, markdown textarea, side-by-side preview, internal-link autocomplete, owner, review date, and unsaved-change warning.
4. Search and history: highlighted snippets with filters; revision list with author, time, diff, restore, and audit context.

CORE CAPABILITIES
1. nested pages with title, cover color, and markdown content
2. slash-free markdown editor with live preview
3. workspace search across titles and body text
4. page owner, last-reviewed date, and stale-page indicator
5. mentions, page links, and a lightweight change history

DETAILED BEHAVIOR AND BUSINESS RULES
Treat these as product requirements enforced on the server, not as interface suggestions:
1. All read and write paths require workspace membership; page slugs are unique among siblings and moves cannot create tree cycles.
2. Every successful content change creates an immutable revision, while restore writes another revision rather than mutating history.
3. A page is stale when its review date has passed; marking reviewed records the reviewer and schedules the next date.
4. Deleting a page is a reversible archive and requires the owner to choose what happens to child pages and inbound links.

DATA MODEL AND LIFECYCLE
Design a small relational schema centered on Workspace, User, Page, PageRevision. Before implementing it, document:
1. The purpose of each table, its primary key, ownership or tenant boundary, timestamps, status fields, and important attributes.
2. Foreign keys, uniqueness constraints, check constraints, the indexes the named screens need, and transaction boundaries for changes that touch several records.
3. The allowed lifecycle or state transitions, who can trigger each one, which transitions are terminal or reversible, and which audit history must stay immutable.
4. Archive, retention, and deletion behavior, including what happens to dependent records and external files.
5. The idempotency strategy for submissions, jobs, imports, notifications, webhooks, or retries where it applies.
Use migrations instead of ad-hoc schema creation. Store time instants consistently and keep the named timezone context whenever local schedules or dates matter. Never rely on a counter, a disabled button, or a client-side check to protect a business invariant.

USERS, AUTHENTICATION, AND PERMISSIONS
Implement only the roles the stated audience needs. Make the ownership and visibility model explicit before coding. Enforce authorization in every server-side query and mutation, including search, exports, attachments, live updates, and guessed URLs—not just by hiding controls. Use secure session defaults, protect state-changing requests, and provide a clear signed-out, expired-session, and forbidden state. Seed separate users whenever several roles are needed so permissions can be shown and tested.

INTERACTION AND VISUAL DIRECTION
The product should feel fast, calm, focused, and trustworthy rather than like a generic admin template. Use a clear visual hierarchy, restrained color, readable typography, generous hit targets, and a consistent place for primary actions. Start from server-rendered HTML and progressively enhance only the interactions that benefit from it. The core workflow must stay understandable if enhancement fails.

Start from server-rendered Astro pages and plain HTML forms. Use HTMX for form submissions, partial navigation, and server-driven updates, then Alpine.js only for small local browser state. The core workflow must stay understandable if either enhancement layer fails.

Design mobile layouts on purpose instead of just stacking desktop panels. Support keyboard navigation, visible focus, semantic landmarks, explicit labels, useful page titles, reduced-motion preferences, and screen-reader announcements for asynchronous results. Never use color alone to signal state. Destructive actions need a clear scope and a confirmation; safe repeated actions should be idempotent.

Add a footer to every page with the text “Created by aurelioagency.com”, where “aurelioagency.com” is an embedded link to https://www.aurelioagency.com that opens in a new tab. Keep it visible and do not remove it.

TECHNICAL DIRECTION
Build this version with the AHA stack: Astro for routing, layouts, and server-rendered pages; HTMX for interactions that benefit from HTML fragment responses; and Alpine.js for small, local interface state. Prefer Cloudflare D1 for relational persistence, R2 for object storage, Workers for server endpoints and scheduled work, Durable Objects only for coordinated real-time state, and Workflows or Queues for durable background jobs—but only when the product requirements call for them.

Keep domain rules in testable server-side modules, not in route handlers or UI components. Put persistence, external providers, and background work behind small interfaces without building a framework. Prefer plain HTML forms and URLs for durable navigation; use optimistic interaction only when a failure can be reconciled clearly.

The product brief currently identifies Astro, HTMX, D1 as capability context. Preserve any required native, browser-only, edge, storage, real-time, or background-processing capability through a narrow adapter appropriate to the selected framework. If the core workflow genuinely requires native or browser APIs, keep that runtime as the primary execution surface rather than simulating inaccessible capabilities or inventing an unnecessary web surface.

Integrate with company OAuth provider. For every integration:
- List the required environment variables in an .env.example with no real secrets.
- Add a small adapter with timeouts, normalized errors, and a deterministic local fake or development path.
- Verify inbound signatures and deduplicate provider events where supported.
- Keep credentials on the server, encrypt long-lived provider tokens at rest, and redact secrets and sensitive payloads from logs.
- Define retry, backoff, and idempotency behavior for every side effect that can be repeated.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY
Require authentication for every page and keep an immutable revision trail.
Validate, normalize, and length-limit all untrusted input on the server. Escape rendered content by default, sanitize any markup you intentionally accept, rate-limit public or abuse-prone actions, and use private object storage plus short-lived authorized URLs for sensitive files. Collect only the personal data the named workflow needs. Document retention and deletion behavior. Add specific protections for the riskier surfaces of this app, such as uploads, redirects, outbound requests, email delivery, OAuth, webhooks, CSV import or export, and real-time connections.

ACCEPTANCE SCENARIOS
Automate these app-specific scenarios at the most suitable level:
1. Searching a phrase in page body returns a permission-filtered result with a useful excerpt and opens at the relevant page.
2. Two editors saving from the same base revision cause the second save to show a conflict instead of overwriting newer content.
3. Restoring an old version changes the visible page, attributes the action, and leaves the complete revision chain available.

TESTING
Add focused unit tests for state transitions, authorization predicates, normalization, date or money calculations, and other risky domain rules. Add integration tests for persistence constraints and for each external adapter's success, timeout, retry, and rejection paths. Add at least one browser-level test for every end-to-end journey above, including one on a small-screen viewport. Tests must use isolated data and run with one documented command.

OPERATIONS AND FAILURE RECOVERY
Add structured server logs with request, job, or event correlation IDs, but no secrets or unnecessarily sensitive data. Make failures actionable both in the interface and in the logs. Background work must expose pending, succeeded, failed, and retrying states where relevant; never swallow errors silently. Include safe database migration and rollback guidance, seed data, backup and restore notes, external-data cleanup behavior, and a basic health or diagnostic path suited to the stack.

DELIVERABLES
Ship the working application, migrations, representative seed data, tests, .env.example, and a short README. The README must cover prerequisites, local setup, environment variables, migrations, seed and test commands, deployment, integration setup, backup and restore, security decisions, and known limitations. Seed data should cover the happy path plus at least one empty, failed, overdue, expired, archived, or permission-restricted state that matters for the product.

DEFINITION OF DONE
The app is done when a new developer can follow the README, create and migrate the database, run the app, sign in as each relevant role, complete every named journey with real persisted data, refresh without losing state, recover from common failures, and use the core interface on phone and desktop. All acceptance scenarios pass, permission boundaries are covered by tests, no core screen is left as a placeholder, and the “Created by aurelioagency.com” footer credit is visible on every page.

NON-GOALS
Do not build databases, formulas, canvases, public sites, or real-time collaborative editing.

The app you build with this prompt carries a “Created by aurelioagency.com” footer.

Build just one piece

Short prompts that solve the hardest part without building everything.

Two editors, one page, zero silent overwritesBase-revision checks, a three-pane diff, and nobody’s paragraph vanishes.
Build optimistic-concurrency editing for a wiki, so two people editing one page cannot silently destroy each other's work.

Every save carries the revision id the editor started from. If the page's current revision still matches, the save commits and creates a new immutable revision. If someone saved first, reject with a conflict response. Never last-write-wins.

Make the conflict response useful instead of hostile: return the current revision's content and show a three-pane view — their version, your version, and the base both diverged from — with a text diff highlighting exactly what changed on each side. Non-overlapping edits can offer a merge suggestion; overlapping ones make the human choose. The editor's unsaved text is sacred: it stays in the textarea, and in local storage, through the entire conflict dance.

Resolving saves a new revision that records both parent revisions, so history shows the merge happened.

Done when: two saves from the same base produce one commit and one conflict with a readable diff, no keystroke is ever lost to a conflict, and the revision chain records the resolution.
The backlink index that maintains itselfId-based links, updated in the save transaction, rename-proof by design.
Build a backlink index for a wiki: every page knows which pages link to it, kept accurate automatically.

Internal links use stable page ids under the hood — the editor autocompletes titles into id-based references — so renames never break anything. On every save, parse the markdown for internal references, diff against the stored link set for that page, and update a links table (source id, target id) in the same transaction as the revision. No background rebuild jobs drifting out of date: the index changes only when a save changes it.

Each page renders a backlinks section: the pages linking here, each with a snippet of surrounding text for context. Handle the awkward states: a link to an archived page renders with a subtle archived marker instead of breaking, and restoring the page revives the link untouched. A reference inside a code block is not a link — the parser respects markdown structure.

Done when: renaming a page updates zero link rows yet every link still resolves, backlinks appear and disappear in lockstep with the referencing save, and archived targets degrade gracefully.
Move a page without creating a wormholeCycle checks before re-parenting, and slugs unique among siblings only.
Build page-tree operations for a nested wiki: moves that cannot create cycles, and slugs that stay unique where it counts.

Pages form a tree by parent id. Moving a page re-parents it — and the classic bug is moving a page underneath its own descendant, which quietly severs the subtree from the root into an orbiting cycle. Before committing any move, walk from the proposed new parent up to the root; encountering the moving page rejects the move. Run the check and the re-parent in one transaction, because two concurrent moves can each look safe alone and form a cycle together.

Slugs are unique among siblings, not globally: a setup page can exist under both Projects and Marketing. A move that lands a page beside a same-slug sibling prompts for a rename or auto-suffixes. Breadcrumbs and any materialized paths update on move.

Done when: no sequence of moves — including concurrent ones — can orphan a subtree or create a cycle, sibling slug collisions are impossible, and a page's URL resolves correctly immediately after moving.
Restore is just another revisionHistory is append-only; restore copies forward instead of rewinding.
Build revision history for wiki pages: immutable, diffable, and restorable without rewriting the past.

Every successful save appends a revision — author, timestamp, full content. Never mutate or delete one. The history view lists revisions with authors and times, and lets you compare any two: compute a line-level diff, with word-level highlighting inside changed lines if you are feeling thorough, rendered as additions and deletions.

Restore is the part people get wrong: restoring revision 12 of 40 does not truncate history back to 12. It copies revision 12's content into a brand-new revision 41, attributed to the restorer, with a note pointing at what was restored. The intervening 28 revisions remain browsable forever. This makes restore itself undoable — just restore the pre-restore revision through the same mechanism.

Storage note: full content per revision is fine at wiki scale. Resist delta-compression cleverness until it actually hurts.

Done when: any two revisions diff cleanly, a restore appears as a new attributed revision with the full chain intact, and undoing a restore works through the exact same mechanism.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Notion cost if I keep subscribing?

Notion runs US$12–24 per person per month on its public paid plans, which comes to US$144–288 per year for every person on your team. A focused, self-built replacement costs your build time plus close-to-zero hosting.

What stack should I use to build a Notion alternative?

The build prompt on this page comes in four flavors: the AHA stack (Astro, HTMX, Alpine.js), Next.js, Laravel, and Ruby on Rails. The capability context for this product is Astro, HTMX, D1. Pick the stack you already know — scope matters more than framework.

What features does a minimal Notion replacement need?

A useful v1 needs: nested pages with title, cover color, and markdown content; a slash-free markdown editor with live preview; workspace search across titles and body text; page owner, last-reviewed date, and stale-page indicator; and mentions, page links, and a lightweight change history. Anything beyond that is scope creep until you genuinely miss it.

What should I deliberately not build?

Don't build databases, formulas, canvases, public sites, or real-time collaborative editing.

Does this build also replace Slite, Coda and Craft?

Yes. Notion, Slite, Coda and Craft all do the same core job — making company knowledge easy to write, organize, search, and keep up to date. The scoped v1 on this page covers what most people use any of them for, so one focused build replaces whichever one you pay for today.

Is AppFlowy really free?

Yes. AppFlowy is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. Notion, on the other hand, costs €12 a month.

Do I need to code to install AppFlowy?

No. The level is beginner and the install takes about 10 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.

How is it different from Notion?

AppFlowy does most of what Notion does, with no subscription, and your data stays with you. The point-by-point comparison is on the page.

Do I own my data?

Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can shut down your account or change the price.

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No time to do it?

We'll build it for you.

If you'd rather have someone install it, connect it to your tools and keep it running, that is exactly what we do at Aurelio.

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