--- title: I moved my entire Notion workspace to a free tool... description: A personal account of switching from Notion to AFFiNE, an open-source, local-first, self-hostable workspace tool. Key advantages of AFFiNE include true offline... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-moved-my-entire-notion-workspace-to-a-free-tool-running-on-my-own-machine-and-never-looked-back-urzogpdxw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I moved my entire Notion workspace to a free tool running on my own machine and never looked back | daily.dev og:description: A personal account of switching from Notion to AFFiNE, an open-source, local-first, self-hostable workspace tool. Key advantages of AFFiNE include true offline... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-moved-my-entire-notion-workspace-to-a-free-tool-running-on-my-own-machine-and-never-looked-back-urzogpdxw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/uRzOGPDxW.png og:image:alt: I moved my entire Notion workspace to a free tool running on my own machine and never looked back og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I moved my entire Notion workspace to a free tool running on my own machine and never looked back **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A personal account of switching from Notion to AFFiNE, an open-source, local-first, self-hostable workspace tool. Key advantages of AFFiNE include true offline functionality, clean Markdown export, a built-in visual canvas (Edgeless), and self-hosting for multi-device sync via Docker. Drawbacks include a rough mobile experience, no public page sharing, a smaller template ecosystem, and lighter database features compared to Notion. A built-in Notion importer eases migration, though nested folder hierarchies don't fully transfer. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Can I import my existing Notion workspace into AFFiNE? Yes, AFFiNE has a built-in Notion importer. Export the Notion workspace to HTML with subpages included, then import that folder directly into AFFiNE. Pages and most databases come across, but the nested folder hierarchy doesn't fully carry over, so some manual re-sorting is needed afterward. _daily.dev surfaces migration guides like this for anyone weighing a move off Notion._ ### What are the main downsides of using AFFiNE instead of Notion? AFFiNE's mobile apps are rough, especially on Android where bugs cause text to delete itself, autocorrect to double words, and the cursor to jump mid-sentence. It also lacks Notion's one-toggle public page sharing, has a much smaller template ecosystem, and its databases lack rollups and multi-level relations. _Developers comparing note-taking tools track trade-offs like these before switching on daily.dev._ ### How does AFFiNE handle offline access compared to Notion? AFFiNE runs locally by default, so there is no separate offline mode to enable, and full editing including creating databases works without internet. Notion's offline mode is limited, allowing edits only to already-open pages, blocking new database creation, and restricting mobile to text-only edits. _daily.dev helps developers evaluating local-first tools stay on top of offline-workflow differences._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [My favorite Notion alternative isn't Obsidian, it's something I can actually self-host](https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-notion-alternative-isn-t-obsidian-it-s-something-i-can-actually-self-host-mngolnjjj) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I stopped using Notion, Obsidian, and Google Keep after finding this underrated alternative](https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-using-notion-obsidian-and-google-keep-after-finding-this-underrated-alternative-nhnfu9zyg) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [4 self-hosted Notion alternatives that you can easily run with Docker](https://daily.dev/posts/4-self-hosted-notion-alternatives-that-you-can-easily-run-with-docker-pwsvvk6fs) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I replaced my Obsidian setup with this all-in-one open-source workspace](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-my-obsidian-setup-with-this-all-in-one-open-source-workspace-qim8v66bf) · XDA Developers · 6 upvotes · 1 comments - [How to Self-Host AFFiNE on Windows with WSL and Docker](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-self-host-affine-on-windows-with-wsl-and-docker-hzfthckie) · freeCodeCamp · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting), [#notion](https://daily.dev/tags/notion), [#local-first](https://daily.dev/tags/local-first) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-moved-my-entire-notion-workspace-to-a-free-tool-running-on-my-own-machine-and-never-looked-back-urzogpdxw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I moved my entire Notion workspace to a free tool running on my own machine and never looked back","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-moved-my-entire-notion-workspace-to-a-free-tool-running-on-my-own-machine-and-never-looked-back-urzogpdxw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-moved-my-entire-notion-workspace-to-a-free-tool-running-on-my-own-machine-and-never-looked-back-urzogpdxw"},"datePublished":"2026-07-11T11:34:25.100Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:25:01.738Z","description":"A personal account of switching from Notion to AFFiNE, an open-source, local-first, self-hostable workspace tool. 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