Which Open-Source Notion Alternatives Are Actually Being Developed? AppFlowy vs AFFiNE (2026)

At a glance

Pros & cons

52 weeks of commits, week by week (measured 2026-08-21)

Reading each project's public GitHub statistics endpoint on 2026-08-21, we tallied weekly commit counts over the same trailing 52 weeks for every row: SiYuan logged 7,632 commits in that span while AppFlowy logged just 9, with the others between them (Outline 2,013, AFFiNE 763, Docmost 441). The shape over time is as telling as the totals — Outline and SiYuan trended upward into the most recent 13-week window (Outline 325→432→537→719; SiYuan's latest quarter alone reaching 3,995), whereas AppFlowy's activity was near-dormant and Docmost's most recent quarter (73) fell back below its peak. For someone deciding whether to build on one of these tools, a steady or rising cadence with a recent commit suggests the code is still being actively maintained and is less likely to be abruptly abandoned, which matters most for security fixes and issue response. It establishes none of the things a user actually cares about, however: commit volume is not a measure of code quality, of meaningful progress rather than churn, of how many people run the software, or of whether any given project will still exist a year from now.

Weekly commit counts for the last 52 weeks, from each repository's own GitHub statistics endpoint, grouped into four 13-week windows. Every repository is measured over the same 52 weeks, so the columns are directly comparable. Commit counts include merges, dependency bumps and documentation edits, and a monorepo will always show more commits than a single-purpose repository — this measures how busy a repository is, not progress, quality, or how much of the work reaches users. Collected by this site on 2026-08-21 (2026-08-21T00:12:28Z) by calling the public APIs ourselves — 15 of 15 requests returned data. These are our own readings, not figures supplied by any vendor.

How to judge whether an open-source project is still being developed

Star counts tell you a project was once popular. They do not tell you whether anyone is still shipping code. To answer "is this actually being developed," a few public signals on the GitHub repository page carry more weight:

• Recent commit cadence. A single fresh commit is reassuring, but the trailing-year rhythm matters more. GitHub's activity view shows roughly how many commits landed over the last 52 weeks.
• Latest commit date. When was the most recent change merged into the default branch?
• Active development branch. Some projects do their live work on a branch such as canary or main; a moving branch is a healthy sign.
• Open pull requests versus merges. A large stack of open pull requests that is not being cleared can indicate maintenance has slowed.
• Roadmap and changelog. A published roadmap or changelog signals ongoing planning.

None of these is decisive on its own. Read them together, and check them yourself on the day you decide, because activity can change quickly.

AppFlowy: a large community with a slowing recent cadence

AppFlowy is one of the best-known projects in this space. Its GitHub repository showed 75.8k stars, 5.9k forks and 7,210 total commits as of 2026-08-21, and it is licensed under AGPL-3.0. It is built with Flutter and Rust, ships desktop builds for macOS, Windows and Linux, and lists native mobile apps on the App Store (iPhone) and the Play Store (Android). The repository also carries a ROADMAP.md file and links to a public roadmap.

The caution is in the recent rhythm. On the AppFlowy GitHub repository page on 2026-08-21, the trailing-52-week activity was light — on the order of nine commits over the last year — with the most recent commit dated 2026-08-11. At the same time the repository listed 103 open pull requests and 896 open issues. A big historical codebase plus a fresh commit is not the same as steady, continuous development, so AppFlowy's "active" status is better treated as "verify before you depend on it" than a flat yes.

AFFiNE: an active development branch and a heavier commit history

AFFiNE shows the stronger set of development signals. Its GitHub repository listed 71.7k stars, 5.2k forks and 11,465 total commits as of 2026-08-21, and it does its live work on a canary branch that showed ongoing commit activity. The repository includes its BlockSuite editor framework alongside a TypeScript codebase, and it also carries Rust tooling (Cargo.toml, Cargo.lock and a rust-toolchain file). On licensing, the repository lists both a LICENSE and a LICENSE-MIT file. Self-hosting is documented in the README, which describes deploying your own instance with Docker.

By the signals that matter for the "still being developed" question — a moving development branch, the larger commit history, and continuing recent commits — AFFiNE reads as actively developed. As of 2026-08-21 it listed 106 open pull requests and 605 open issues.

AppFlowy vs AFFiNE: development signals side by side

The comparison table sets the two repositories against each other on the signals a reader would use to answer the query. A few notes on how to read it: a higher star count reflects popularity rather than development, so those rows are left unscored; commit totals and recent cadence speak more directly to whether work is ongoing. Where the pages we read did not cover something for one product, that cell is marked "Not covered on the pages we read" and left unscored rather than counted against either side.

The pattern that emerges is consistent. AFFiNE leads on the activity-focused rows (total commits and recent cadence), while AppFlowy leads on published planning artifacts (a roadmap file) and lists native mobile apps that the AFFiNE pages we read did not cover.

What both projects share

Both are open-source and self-hostable, which is the reason people look at them as Notion alternatives in the first place. AppFlowy is distributed under AGPL-3.0 and documents self-hosting in its repository; AFFiNE lists a LICENSE and a LICENSE-MIT file and documents Docker-based self-hosting in its README. Both also mix a scripting/UI layer with Rust: AppFlowy pairs Flutter with Rust, while AFFiNE's repository includes Cargo and rust-toolchain files alongside its TypeScript and BlockSuite code. If your priority is owning your data on your own infrastructure, either project supports that path as documented on their repository pages on 2026-08-21.

FAQ

Is AppFlowy still being actively developed?

As of 2026-08-21, AppFlowy's GitHub repository showed a recent commit dated 2026-08-11, but its trailing-52-week cadence had slowed to roughly nine commits, with 103 open pull requests and 896 open issues. That points to a large, established project whose recent development has thinned rather than stopped, so it is worth checking the repository's current activity before you depend on it.

Is AFFiNE actively maintained?

By the public signals on its GitHub repository as of 2026-08-21, yes: it does live work on a canary branch that showed ongoing commits and has the larger commit history of the two (11,465 total commits). Development activity can change, so re-check the repository on the day you decide.

Can I self-host both AppFlowy and AFFiNE?

Both document a self-hosting path on their repository pages as of 2026-08-21. AppFlowy includes a self-hosting section in its repository, and AFFiNE's README describes deploying your own instance with Docker. Both are open-source: AppFlowy under AGPL-3.0, and AFFiNE lists a LICENSE and a LICENSE-MIT file.

Which should I choose if I want the one most likely to keep shipping updates?

On recent-development signals as of 2026-08-21, AFFiNE is the stronger bet because of its active canary branch and larger, continuing commit history. AppFlowy remains a viable option with a bigger community and a public roadmap, but confirm its current commit cadence on GitHub first.