My productivity systems have long been productivity problems. I used Notion for just about everything, and while my Notion subscription was paying for itself, it wasn't quite enough. Miro entered the picture whenever I needed to think visually, and Obsidian stepped in for personal notes and interconnected search. Each app worked well, but I had to deal with three separate worlds.

It was too much hassle for a workflow that relies on speed. So I replaced all three apps with AFFiNE — an infinite canvas in a local-first workspace that can run in the browser, as a desktop app, or on your own server.

It can be as simple, or as complex as you want it to be.

AFFiNE's Page mode immediately feels familiar if you've used Notion. Documents consist of movable blocks, and the editor supports formatted text, Markdown-style input, images, code blocks, embeds, and databases. I could create an article draft, add research underneath it, and turn a group of information into a table or Kanban-style view.

For everyday writing and project tracking, this covered most of what I actually used Notion for. Collections and page properties helped me organize documents without manually reconstructing a complicated folder hierarchy. AFFiNE can also import Notion exports, HTML, and Markdown, but complex Notion databases will require some manual cleanup after migration.

The biggest change, however, is where the data lives. AFFiNE uses local workspaces that remain on your device and work offline. Syncing is optional through AFFiNE Cloud or a self-hosted server.

Source link